Fans and former cricket players had strong feelings after Pakistan's sad Champions Trophy 2025 departure.
When the team lost badly to fierce rivals India last Sunday, Wasim Akram, the renowned former captain and bowling great, went on a tirade against Mohammad Rizwan's team, calling for a total rebuild.
In order to get ready for the T20 World Cup the following year, Akram had said that Pakistan needed to let go of its underperforming players and bring in some young players.
“Enough is enough. We are losing in white-ball with these players from some couple of years. The time is to take a bold step. What is the bold step? As Waqar Younis was saying, bring young players, fearless cricketers, bring them in white ball cricket. Even if you have to make 5-6 big changes, do that, lose for the next six months, and support those players. Start making the 2026 T20 World Cup team from now,” Akram had said on Pakistan's TV show, Dressing Room.
But Shahid Afridi, another former captain, didn't like this tirade. Afridi criticized Akram's comment about removing some of Pakistan's stars completely, even if he admitted that it's common to "get carried away" following losses like the one against India.
“I was listening to Wasim bhai that day. Yes, we all got carried away by emotions (after loss to India). He said that 6-7 players need to be dropped from the side. Wasim bhai, I just have one question for you. Do you have 6-7 players on the bench who can replace them? Do you have the players of those standards in domestic cricket? Have we groomed them in the academies?,” Afridi said on Samaa TV.
“We may drop the players, but who will we bring? Even if we do that, people will start crying about it again. They (PCB) will say that we are preparing for the World Cup. And once it sends, the surgery will begin again,” he added.
Pakistan's Champions Trophy campaign ended without a victory at home, while their final match against Bangladesh was a washout. Rizwan's men will return to action on March 16 when they take on New Zealand in an away T20I series.
