Former Pakistan cricketer Kamran Akmal was extremely disappointed with how the Babar Azam-led side was beaten comprehensively by India during their Asia Cup 2023 Super 4 clash and said that if they do not change their approach, the team may find it difficult to beat even Netherlands in the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2023. Pakistan were completely outplayed by India with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul scoring centuries and Kuldeep Yadav produced a brilliant display of spin bowling to hand them a 228-run loss.
“If you want a good performance in the World Cup, if you want to play in the Asia Cup final, and if you have this approach, you will struggle to even beat the Netherlands. What is the management doing? Who told you to bowl first? At least tell players to stay on the crease. Your run rate has suffered badly. You chased 190-odd runs in 40-odd overs against Bangladesh,” Akmal said on his official YouTube channel.
Akmal was also not pleased by the shot selection of a number of batters and he criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board for not asking questions of them.
"Send messages. The way Shadab, Iftikhar, and Salman got out. You had to tell them to play the full overs, take the score to at least 260-280. They know that PCB won't ask them tough questions. There's no game plan, no approach. Everyone has gone for holidays. I'm sorry to say, you've performed like school boys against a top team,” he added during the interaction while analysing Pakistan's performance.
Pakistan will have to beat Sri Lanka in their first Super 4 game to reach the Asia Cup 2023 final. In the case where the match gets abandoned due to rain, the Lankans will go through to the final, courtesy of their better Net Run Rate in comparison to Pakistan.