Akhtar believes India's biggest problem is that they lack finishers like Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni
Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar believes that the 1998 Pakistan team that toured India were pretty confident to run through the Indian batting line-up due to the lack of match-winners in the In team.
In a conversation with PTI, Akhtar claimed that the Pakistan team always believed that they could take on the Indian batting line-up and rattle them in their den in the 1998 tour of India.
According to him, the team dynamics of India changed significantly with the arrival of Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni in the side. Both played the role of a finisher brilliantly and won games single-handedly for India. However, he thinks the Indian team is again lacking a finisher after the retirement of Singh and the confusion surrounding Dhoni's future.
“When we toured India in 1998, we always thought we would run through India after getting the top order. There was no match winner until Yuvraj came in, followed by Dhoni... Then you started seeing change in results. Right now, the problem is lack of finishers."
Akhtar clarified that a team like India needed to win big ICC events to stamp their authority as a great team. He added that winning only bilateral series won't help the current team achieve greatness.
“Of course, they should win ICC events and they have to. This team, when the top four score, they win more often than not. But if they don’t, then it is an issue. Another thing I noticed is that you need a match-winner like Yuvraj (Singh) or Dhoni in the middle-order."
Akhtar recently suggested a three-match bilateral series between India and Pakistan to gather funds for COVID-19 affected people in both the countries. Kapil Dev, however, shot down his idea stating that India didn't need more funds and that organising a match would only put the cricketers' lives in danger.