Asia Cup 2022: "Who plays the knock of a run-a-ball 45 in a T20 game?" - Shoaib Akhtar slams Mohammad Rizwan for his innings in the final
Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar was highly disappointed with the way Mohammad Rizwan approached his innings in the Asia Cup 2022 final against Sri Lanka.
The 30-year-old scored 55 runs, but took 49 balls for it and that slowed things down considerably for Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday (September 11). Rizwan's inability to accelerate became a big problem as other explosive batters like Fakhar Zaman and Iftikhar Ahmed couldn't impose themselves on the opposition.
Zaman was dismissed for a golden duck while Ahmed took 31 balls to score just 32 as Pakistan's overdependence on their openers was exposed once again. Asif Ali (0) and Shadab Khan (8) also failed to make decent contributions lower down the order as Pakistan lost their final eight wickets for just 54 runs.
In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what Shoaib Akhtar had to say about Pakistan's inconsistent middle-order:
"Pakistan have played really bad cricket, absolutely horrible. They need to look at Fakhar, Iftikhar and the rest of their middle-order. Rizwan doesn't score at a quick rate. Who plays the knock of a run-a-ball 45 in a T20 game? You can't have such a mix-and-match team."
Shoaib Akhtar on Pakistan's poor fielding
Another striking difference between the two sides in the final was their fielding. While Sri Lanka were absolutely sensational on the field, Pakistan dropped too many important catches.
Huge miss for Pakistan, dropped an important catch in 2021 T20 WC semi as well. https://t.co/zKOmp44g9d
Bhanuka Rajapaksa, the Player of the Match, was dropped twice and that proved to be extremely costly for the Men in Green. Rajapaksa went on to score an unbeaten 71 from 45 balls to guide Sri Lanka to an eventual winning total of 170.
Fielding is of paramount importance, especially in the shortest format, and that was perhaps why Shoaib Akhtar was so furious with the Pakistan team's efforts. On this, he stated:
"Sri Lanka's fielding was excellent. Their calling was clear during high catches. But we continue to collide. Don't know how many more collisions are left. Fakhar is colliding, Shadab [Khan] is colliding with Asif [Ali]. Pakistan have just overhyped themselves."
There suddenly seem to be several question marks in the Pakistan camp after the manner of their defeat in the Asia Cup final. The team's fielding needs plenty of work ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup, while they also need to resolve their middle-order issues.