Pakistan cricket was jolted to the core on Monday (October 23) as the Men in Green suffered an embarrassing eight-wicket defeat at the hands of Afghanistan in Chennai.

This loss has hampered Pakistan's chances for a semi-final qualification. With two wins in five games, they are currently at the fifth spot and might have to rely on other teams to make it to the final four.

In the wake of this defeat, Babar Azam and his men are facing the flak from the fans and experts alike.

Speaking on A Sports, former cricketer Shoaib Malik came down heavily on the approach of Pakistani batters, especially opener Imam-ul-Haq.

The southpaw has registered scores of 15, 12, 36, 70 and 17 in five innings so far. While the opening batters of other teams are playing with a strike rate of 100+, Imam has batted with a strike rate of 92.59 and he is yet to hit a six in the ongoing World Cup.

When the anchor of the show asked Malik to comment on Imam's performances, the ex-skipper recalled his tweet from last year, where he took a jibe at ‘friendships’ in Pakistan setup.

“When he was scoring runs consistently with same strike rate, no sixes, maybe two fours. We were okay as a nation. Why were we ok that time? Why did it not bother us? If you remember, I was the one who tweeted. Now, everyone remembers that. I tweeted, ‘when will we come out of friendships and favours? God helps those who are honest’," said Malik.

“I talked about everything in our system (in the tweet). If I were diplomatic, I wouldn't shoot myself on the foot when the World Cup squad (T20 World Cup 2022) was about to get announced. It was about the whole infrastructure. And I'm sticking to my tweet,” he added.

Pakistan’s next World Cup match is scheduled against South Africa in Chennai on October 27.