India vs Pakistan, World Cup 2023: Pak legends slams feet movement of Babar Azam & Co

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Pakistan cricket team faced the ire of the legendary cricketers of their country after a dismal batting show against India in a World Cup 2023 pool match in Ahmedabad on Saturday (October 14). The Babar Azam-led side was all out for 191 runs while their last eight wickets fell for 36 runs.

Speaking at a local channel during the India vs Pakistan, former Pakistan cricketers, including Wasim Akram, Shoaib Malik, Moeen Khan and Misbah-Ul-Haq were not impressed with the way their national team players approached the Indian bowling.

Former chief coach and selector Misbah-Ul-Haq felt Pakistan batters didn't put a prize on their wicket and didn't capitalise on the good start the likes of Abdullah Shafique (36), Imam-Ul-Haq (20), Babar Azam (50) and Mohammad Rizwan (49).

"You can't lose your wickets after scoring 20-30 runs," said Misbah-Ul-Haq while talking on A Sports. "You can't expect that you will score that many runs and the batsmen later will make up for you. If you are building a 50-run stand, you have to take it to a 100-run stand if you want to put yourself in a commanding position. Your two batters were set with 150 runs on board and 300 could have been scored easily but we kept on throwing away our wickets."

Pak great Wasim Akram, who took more than 900 international wickets, felt their batting was full of poor shot selection, pointing out how Abdullah Shafique lost his wicket to Mohammed Siraj.

"Silly shot by Abdullah Shafique to lose his wicket after getting set. The ball hit the middle (of his pad) and while he was trying to play to the mid-wicket. Pakistan's innings were full of such mistakes," said Akram.

41-year-old Shoaib Malik, who wasn't selected for the World Cup, felt that Pak batters didn't strategies well in the 31-40 over spell when Pakistan lost five wickets while scoring less than 40 runs.

"Pakistan batters didn't change their batting approach in the 31-40 over spell when the ball is old and keeps low. Playing square of the wicket is a risk a that time so you move towards playing in the V but conditions were not accessed and lost five wickets in that spell," Malik said.

Malik further added that Pakistan batters didn't use their feet enough during the game and kept playing from the crease. Former captain and wicket-keeper Moin Khan agreed with Malik and added that Pakistan batters were too generous to the spinner by not using their feet to attack them enough.

"They didn't play counter-attacking cricket. Babar Azam and Rizwan didn't attack the spinners enough. Both of them lost their wickets in a phase when there was a requirement to up the run rate. Once they were gone, wickets kept on falling," said Moin Khan.