The buzz around Pakistan's humiliating defeat against USA in their T20 World Cup opener is not going to end anytime soon. From former players to cricket experts, Babar Azam and co are receiving criticism from all over the world. Taking the match into the Super Over, Pakistan gave away 18 runs after veteran pacer Mohammad Amir leaked seven runs from wide. Later, pacer Saurabh Netravalkar successfully defended the target as USA claimed their first-ever win against Pakistan. Seeing this horrific start to their T20 World Cup campaign, former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal lashed out at Babar and co.
During an interaction with ARY News, Akmal got teary-eyed while speaking about Pakistan's dismal show and stated that the team is not changing it's mentality.
"Chahe pehle number ki team aa haye, chahe 15th ya 17th number ki team aajaye, humari mentality change nahi ho rahi. Humlog smajh hi nahi paa rahe. Main lucky hu jin player ke saath main khela hu. Kis passion se woh khelte the. Kisi team ko karib nahi lagne dete the. Ladte the. Lekin aaj yeh bhi naubat aa gayi. Yeh team pichle 6-7 saal se har 3 mahine hume khushkhabri de rahi hai. (The mentality of this Pakistan team has not changed no matter who the opposition is. I was lucky to have played with players who used to have passion and gave a fight right till the end. This team gives us a good news every 3 months for the last 6-7 years.)," he said.
The 2009-T20 World Cup champion further stated that the internal politics in domestic cricket has caused the downfall of Team Pakistan's quality.
"Domestic mein apni siyasat chal rahe hai. Apne pasand ke ladke la rahe hai. Aapne department cricket regional cricket bandh kar ke Pakistan cricket ka beda gark kar di. India number 1 kyu hai, 36 team thi , 43 kar din. Unhone teamein badhai taaki quality humare paas aa jaye. Yaha pe saal mein 8 match karwate hai. who bhi saari team nahi khelte. (They are carrying their own agenda in domestic cricket by bringing the players of their preference. They have stopped regional and departmental cricket and almost destroyed Pakistan cricket. Why is India no. 1 right now. They have increased their teams from 36 to 43 to get more quality players. Here they play only matches and that too the full teams do not play.)," he added.
Pakistan will now be squaring off against the arch-rivals India for their next Group A match of the T20 World Cup 2024 on Sunday in New York.