An inexperienced England team under the captaincy of Ben Stokes handed Pakistan suffered a huge defeat at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Thursday (8 July) by 9 wickets.
This was after the first-choice England team had crushed Sri Lanka in 5 out 6 white-ball matches. But that team had to go into isolation after 3 players and 4 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 and ECB had to come up with a completely new 18-member team to face Pakistan.
Former Pakistan cricketer Kamran Akmal was extremely disappointed with the current national team’s performance after England won the first ODI comfortably by 9 wickets, and he slammed them for the same.
“I don't understand which way our performance is heading. It should get better by the day but Pakistan had a fully confident team who had played PSL, beaten South Africa. Wins and losses are part and parcel but character needs to be shown now. Neither our cricket nor our selection process is right,” Akmal said in his latest YouTube video.
After being asked to bat first by hosts, Pakistan were two wickets down in the first three balls before Saqib Mahmood ran through the Pakistan top-order along with Lewis Gregory, who too struck from the other end.
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Thus, because of this poor performance, the wicket-keeper batsman said that it didn’t feel as if Sri Lanka has left England.
“The way Pakistan played cricket, it didn't feel as if Sri Lanka had left England. It felt as if England was playing against Sri Lanka itself. England did something that Pakistan should have done, bowling the opposition out for 141. Ben Stokes' captaincy was outstanding,” he said.
“They had so many new players but to bowl out an in-form Pakistan batting line for 141 was creditable. If we had scored 250 then we could have put pressure on their batting line-up. We had a better bowling attack than them. Gregory took the new ball for England, that tells you a story,” he added.
The second ODI between the two teams is scheduled to be played at Lord’s on Saturday (10 July) in front of a full capacity crowd.
