Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson (R) with Shaheen Afridi during a training session. (PTI photo) Former Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shehzad has launched a blistering attack on the team management after Pakistan’s 2-1 ODI series defeat against Bangladesh, warning that Pakistan cricket is declining to an alarming level.Following Pakistan’s 11-run loss in the third and final ODI in Dhaka, Shehzad criticized captain Shaheen Shah Afridi and head coach Mike Hesson, accusing the management of making excuses instead of addressing deeper issues in the team.
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Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!“After a miserable T20 World Cup campaign, you didn’t make any changes. You brought in youngsters out of nowhere. Now you’ve lost the series and are making excuses about having youngsters in the playing eleven,” Shehzad said on his YouTube channel. “If you don’t accept your mistakes, you’ll never move forward in life.”Pakistan were without senior batsmen Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman during the series, with conflicting explanations offered by the team management. While Afridi and Hesson said the pair were rested, chief selector Aaqib Javed claimed the pair suffered injuries during the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.Shehzad also questioned Pakistan’s tactical decisions, particularly Afridi’s call to bat first in the series decider.“When you won the toss, why did you decide to bowl? It was a good pitch. You should have batted and put runs on the board and then bowled under the lights,” he said. “When your older players are behaving like this, what do you expect from the youngsters?”Bangladesh clinched the series thanks to a superb performance by Tanzid Hasan who smashed a run-a-ball 107 to guide the hosts to 290 for five at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Pakistan’s chase was led by a fighting 106 from Salman Ali Agha, but the visitors were eventually bowled out for 279, with Taskin Ahmed claiming four wickets.The defeat follows Pakistan’s disappointing exit from the World Cup T20 Super 8 stage – their fourth successive ICC event without reaching the semi-finals.Shehzad dismissed the management’s attempts to play down the setbacks. “You say you beat Australia and South Africa, but they never played their teams to their full strength. If you wanted to fix Pakistan cricket, you would have done it by now.”In his harshest criticism, Shehzad warned that Pakistan’s standing in international cricket was declining dramatically.“You become an affiliate team,” he said. “People now treat Pakistan like Zimbabwe. And then you say we are out of the World Cup because of a run. Shame on you.”
