Saqlain Mushtaq, legendary Pakistani spinner, has jumped in defense of his son-in-law and Pakistani all-rounder Shadab Khan. This is after the cricketer received severe criticism ever since Pakistan was knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2026.
Although Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka in an exciting Super 8 match on Saturday, the Salman Ali Agha-led team was unable to increase its Net Run Rate (NRR) and was eliminated in the semi-finals.
Shadab was heavily criticized by both fans and experts for his poor play. Shadab scored 118 runs in seven matches, and with the ball, he took just five wickets for Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2026.
Saqlain Mushtaq came to his defense and slammed the Pakistan team head coach, Mike Hesson, for being too hard on Shadab and expecting too much with both the bat and the ball.
He also stated that Hesson didn’t properly utilize Shadab, while naming New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner and India vice-captain Axar Patel.
"What is the performance of Mitchell Santner? If I am getting it right, you are saying that... How many wickets has Axar Patel taken? What I am saying is that I think Mike Hesson demanded too much from him in both batting and bowling and did not use him properly," he said on Tapmad.
Mushtaq claimed that during his tenure as head coach, he was informed that Shadab was proficient with both bat and ball but needed to be used appropriately. The renowned spinner claimed that Hesson's management of the all-rounder contained "technical errors."
"His utilization... He wants both batting and bowling. And when I was head coach, the information given to me by the selection committee was that he is equally good in both batting and bowling. But your utilization should be right. If his utilization was right, the value of the things could have been better. Like, today, Naseem was given the third over, which was wrong. Similarly, Shadab Khan was given the third over. That was also wrong. There were technical errors,” he added.
Pakistan scored 212/8 runs while put into bat first, thanks to Sahibzada Farhan’s 100 and Fakhar Zaman’s fifty. They had to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 runs if they wanted to qualify for the semis, but Sri Lanka, thanks to Pavan Ratnayake and captain Dasun Shanaka, almost chased down the total, scoring 207/6.
