‘If you give him Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib… he will still lose’: Rashid Latif blasts Pakistan captain Salman Agha after T20 World Cup exit

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has blamed the team management for not using the bowlers at the right time and with the right tactics. He also criticised captain Salman Ali Agha, stating that even if he had bowlers like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Muttiah Muralitharan, and Shane Warne at his disposal, he would still lose the match.

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“Our problem has been batting. Today all our specialist bowlers played and still gave away more than 200 runs. If you give players like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Muttiah Muralitharan, and Shane Warne to this captain, he will still lose the match. What bowlers didn’t you have? You had the likes of Abrar Ahmed, Usman Tariq, and Shadab Khan. Shadab Khan came to bowl in the 15th over. You had Mohammad Nawaz and Naseem Shah also playing. Only one was dropped, and that was Saim Ayub. The blame goes to the captain—his game awareness. You bowled four overs of a pacer at the start. You should have kept Naseem Shah’s overs as backup. Abrar should have bowled earlier. He gave you a wicket in the fifth over. I can understand that the batsmen couldn’t score at the end, but you conceded more than 200 runs. The bowling let you down and put you out of the competition,” Latif said on the show Haarna Mana Hai. 

Needing to win the match by a big margin or with a better net run rate, Pakistan made three changes to the team that played against England in their previous encounter. Babar Azam was dropped, with Khawaja Nafay coming into the team in his place. Fakhar Zaman opened the batting alongside Sahibzada Farhan, and the openers put together a 176-run partnership in 15.5 overs before the team posted a total of 212 for 8 in 20 overs. Pakistan lost their last eight wickets for just 36 runs, and Latif also questioned the tactics of the batting unit after Zaman’s dismissal.

“The team went for the win on the right terms. That’s why they changed the whole batting order and the players. Because this was your only chance to advance to the semi-finals. A player who was dropped for three matches and then played at number five for two matches (Fakhar Zaman) played an innings at a strike rate of almost 200, scoring 84 runs off 42 balls. Sahibzada Farhan has been in fine form throughout and has scored the highest number of runs in T20Is this season. Batting wasn’t an issue because these two batted brilliantly. But after that, the team management changed the batting order once again. You say, ‘Nafey, you go; Shadab, you go and bat.’ These coaches are the reason for the defeats,” added Latif.

Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha admitted that dew was a factor in the match and that his team’s middle order has been a problem for a few years. “It was as always challenging after losing the toss because of dew. It could have been a different story had we won the toss. Dew was a factor. We couldn’t execute our plans. Usman (Tariq) had an off-day—it can happen. We couldn’t bat well throughout the tournament. If Farhan had more support, it would have been better. The middle order has been a problem for a few years now; we’ll have to look at that. We couldn’t finish the way we wanted to. We batted well for 18 overs, but the opposition did well in the other two. Even 160 would have been difficult to defend,” Agha said after the loss.