Pakistan started their World Cup 2023 campaign with back-to-back wins over Netherlands and Sri Lanka. However, Babar Azam’s men lost the plot and went down against India and Australia in the next two games to find themselves out of top four on the points table.
Pakistan’s next World Cup clash is scheduled against Afghanistan in Chennai on Monday (October 23). In recent times, the Men in Green have found it tough versus Afghanistan and their matches have gone down to the wire.
Ahead of the fixture, former pacer Shoaib Akhtar has acknowledged that it won’t be an easy game for Pakistan.
Akhtar also believes Babar and company won’t be up against Afghanistan only but also the crowd and the groundsmen.
"It's not just #PAKvsAFG. It's Pak vs the crowd. It's Pak vs the groundsmen. Tough match for us. Afghanistan is a tough team, they're not any minnow or rollover," Akhtar wrote on X while also sharing a video.
In the clip, Shoaib Akhtar warned the Pakistan side not to take Afghanistan lightly.
"It's a crucial match, big match. You know tempers flare in this match. By all means, Afghanistan are not minnows. This won't be a run-over. This is not the sort of team where 'upsets' will be called. This is a team which is at par with Pakistan. They have all the spinners, and they will trouble the Pakistan team. Pakistan cannot afford to lose to Afghanistan, in fact they can't afford to lose to anyone," Akhtar said.
Fondly known as the Rawalpindi Express, Akhtar opined that the Chepauk track will favour Afghanistan's spinners and the crowd support would be with them as well.
"Things that go in Afghanistan's favour, I am telling you are crowd support, ground support, pitches are good (which favour them). I think the spinning track, which will be there, will favour spinners no matter if you bowl during the day or under the lights," he remarked.
Earlier in the tournament, Afghanistan had defeated the defending champions England by 69 runs in Delhi. However, they have lost their other three games and currently languish at the bottom of the points table.
