Former Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal came down heavily on the national team led by Babar Azam after their humiliating 3-0 ODI series loss to England led by Ben Stokes. He was furious that Pakistan’s full-strength team lost to a second-string England side that had 9 uncapped players in the squad when it was named.
Pakistan was bowled out for 141 in the first ODI and lost it by 9 wickets. In the second ODI, Pakistan couldn’t chase 248 runs and lost by 52 runs. But the worst was reserved for the third and final match.
After batting first, Pakistan posted 331 for 9 following Babar’s career-best 158 off 139 deliveries. In reply, batsman James Vince notched up his maiden ODI hundred and guided his team to victory with 12 balls to spare.
Saeed Ajmal expressed his disappointment over Pakistan’s defeat in his latest YouTube video. He slammed the team’s bowling unit and also highlighted the failure of the middle-order.
“Babar Azam has scored 14 hundreds in 81 innings. What should I say now? Even after playing a brilliant inning, he had to return to the pavilion frustrated (after Pakistan's loss). It used to happen to me as well. I took five-wicket hauls but the team used to lose. I can only see two or three top players,” Ajmal said in his YouTube video.
“Even in bowling, apart from two or three bowlers, I don't see any of them (of quality). How will we survive like this? Our middle order is still a flop. If the top order performs then only, we can put a commendable score. Whenever the top order fails our teams completely collapse. England and India have two teams now, our one is struggling to survive,” he added.
Ajmal was also critical of Pakistan’s selection policy highlighting that the team is giving more importance to the skill set of a player rather than his fitness.
“We have been crying for three years that we need to play youngsters and we need to improve on our fitness levels. What did you achieve? Now we have once again come back to- leave fitness level, we need talent now. Now you have brought in Sharjeel Khan, Azam Khan. Now you have started saying we want to see skills in players'. Fitness is important but doesn't have such poor policies where players lack fitness and skills,” Ajmal said.
Pakistan will now face a full-strength England side led by Eoin Morgan in a series of 3 T20I matches.
