IND v AUS 2020: 'Thank you India for making our record look better' - Shoaib Akhtar slams Indian batting after an almighty collapse at Adelaide
Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar used some spicy words to describe India's poor batting performance in the second innings at Adelaide. The Men in Blue had a handy lead of 53 runs going into the second innings and looked to be in the driver's seat as far as the Test match was concerned. However, they got bundled out for just 36 runs, dishing out their worst batting performance ever in Test history.
Shoaib Akhtar himself was a part of the Pakistan team that had suffered from a couple of such batting collapses. But he sarcastically thanked Team India for pulling off an even more embarrassing performance with the bat.
Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were too hot to handle for the Indian batsmen with their impeccable line and length. A target of 90 runs was never going to bother the Aussies, and they won the game comfortably by eight wickets.
"Today, team India surrendered and Australia showed what they are capable of. We have also been all-out on low scores, but India went even lower than us. We were once all-out on 53 and the other time on 59. So India's 36 has made our record better. Well done India, thank you very much that you helped us at least somewhere," Shoaib Akhtar said in a video on his YouTube channel.
India will now have to deal with this criticism: Shoaib Akhtar
Team India, with the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Hanuma Vihari forming the backbone of the middle-order, are considered as one of the strongest batting line-ups in Test cricket at the moment. Thus, Shoaib Akhtar was surprised to see such a strong batting order just fall apart within a session of play.
Shoaib Akhtar thinks there need to be a lot of questions asked of the Indian team after such a horrible performance. According to him, Team India have to deal with whatever stern words come their way after this thumping loss.
"It is very embarrassing to see the mighty, the best batting line-up in the world to come crashing down in front of Aussie fast bowling. I was baffled by the way India batted today. India will now have to deal with this criticism," Shoaib Akhtar stated.
The Men in Blue will be without the services of Virat Kohli for the remainder of the Test series, as he will head back to India to await the birth of his first child. India will also miss Mohammed Shami, who has been ruled out of the series after he was injured by a short-ball from Pat Cummins.
India will somehow need to pick themselves up from this humiliating defeat. They will need to find that inspiration within themselves to try and keep their hopes alive of retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.