Former Pakistani cricketer and captain Azhar Ali made a bold claim about Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad, who last played for Pakistan in a T20I series against Sri Lanka in 2019.
The Lankans were on a tour of Pakistan and won the T20I series 3-0 at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
Shehzad scored 4 and 13 in the first and second T20I of the series whereas Akmal failed to score even a single run in the two games as he got out on two back-to-back golden ducks. The pair was benched in the third T20I and have not represented Pakistan since.
However, the two had the skillset to do wonders for their team but they were always surrounded with controversies and fitness issues. The cloud of disciplinary issues and sanctions always hung above Shehzad and Akmal and more often than not, they were dropped due to this issue.
Azhar claimed that Shehzad and Akmal were more talented than any of the players in the team and their problem was that they could not flourish in international cricket.
“Umar Akmal and Ahmad Shehzad were more talented than the rest of us. They just could not flourish in international cricket like they should have,” Ali stated on a local channel.
He also blamed the management for not handling Akmal and Shehzad like they should have claiming that if the two had other issues then they should have been helped out accordingly.
“A bit of the responsibility and blame lies on the management. Did they utilise methods through which Akmal and Shehzad could have gotten better? And if they believed that the two players had other issues then they should have been counselled,” the former captain concluded.
- Azhar Ali
