Wasim Akram gave a brutal assessment of Bangladesh’s failures in the 2022 T20 World cup as they were beaten by Pakistan in the virtual quarter-final. The Shakib Al Hasan-led side found themselves a golden chance of reaching the semi-finals with a win over the 2009 champions in a closely fought game.
Earlier in the tournament, they found themselves in a brilliant position against Team India. After the rain break, they needed just 86 runs with 9 overs remaining and having all 10 wickets in hand. However, they could not hold their nerves as their batting collapsed to hand India a 5-run win at the Adelaide Oval.
Akram stated that if he was coach or captain of the Bangladesh cricket team, he would make them all see psychologists. Akram also questioned the game sense of the Shakib-led side and how they could have rotated the strike against the opposition’s strike bowlers.
Bangladesh have to blame themselves. They should. If I was a captain of the Bangladesh team or the coach of Bangladesh team, I will make sure these guys will see psychologists. Because at one stage, Shanto was on 54 and things were going well then.
“They were 73 for 2 and I thought they’ll get to 160. But then Shanto stepped out and played a weird shot off Iftikhar and was bowled. If you had kept on taking singles, the score would have reached 155 comfortably,” Akram said on A Sports’ show ‘The Pavilion.’
“In an international level, when you see a certain bowler was coming to bowl and you know that the opposition captain has brought him to take wickets, that’s where you don’t play a shot. You try to rotate the strike in that particular over but the Bangladesh players made up their minds to hit him and hit Shaheen only,” he added.
Bangladesh started their campaign with a win over Netherlands before suffering a 104-run defeat to South Africa. They won a nail-biting tie against Zimbabwe before their defeats at hands of India and Pakistan. Ultimately, they finished 5th in the Super 12 stage behind Netherlands who secured fourth spot.
