Bangladesh's star opener Tamim Iqbal has a message for former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi after Babar Azam’s side got eliminated from the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Pakistan lost to the United States (USA) and India in their first two matches of the T20 World Cup in Florida and New York respectively despite having both matches in their hands. The back-to-back losses put Babar Azam’s side in trouble and their path to the Super 8 became complicated.
Pakistan needed the USA to defeat Ireland on June 14 but the match was called off due to excessive rain in Lauderhill, Florida and Pakistan’s journey in the T20 World Cup ended right there.
Taking to his X, formerly Twitter, account, Tamim expressed his sadness to see Pakistan getting out of the T20 World Cup before wishing that next time they would have players like Shahid Afridi to guide them the next time.
“Feel sad to see Pakistan get eliminated from T20 WC. Hope they come well next time and have seniors like @SAfridiOfficial to show the way,” Iqbal wrote on X.
Earlier, Shahid Afridi also reacted after Pakistan were out of the World Cup urging the PCB to give respect to performers of domestic cricket and stating that the players who couldn’t perform in the T20 World Cup should be told to go and play in domestic cricket.
“You need to give respect to your domestic players, they play all year and give great performances like Salman Agha, Saud Shakeel, Sahibzada Farhan, pacer Mohammad Ali and many others, these players play all year domestic cricket and if we ignore their performances and bring a player on the performances of three matches, then we are doing injustice,” Afridi said.
“The players from this team be it Azam Khan, or Saim Ayub, they should be told to play domestic cricket for two straight years and maintain their fitness. The selection committee should ensure that if you want to play for Pakistan, then you have to do such and such thing.”
- Shahid Afridi
