AUS vs PAK | Wasim Akram disappointed with Pakistan's poor fielding
Wasim Akram has slammed Pakistan's poor fielding and lack of intent on the field as Australia piled on the misery on the visitors on yet another long fielding day in Adelaide. The Pakistan bowlers were inconsistent in their line and length and they were backed up by some very average fielding.
It was 'deja vu' again for the Pakistan team as like Brisbane, they were subjected to another long couple of days in the field in Adelaide and the chief destroyers were again David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne who scored daddy hundreds. Pakistan bowling was very average but the fielding was so poor that Wasim Akram could not control his anger and had to express his disappointment about the intent of Pakistan fielders and their desire to save the runs or back up for another fielder.Â
"Shaheen Shah was in la la land at fine leg. Yasir Shah and Shan Masood were probably yawning. That's the problem with Pakistan cricket. They should be on the ball," Akram told TOI.
Pakistan had got off to a great start when Shaheen Afridi removed Joe Burns cheaply but then it was all one-way traffic as Labuschagne and Warner feasted on the poor bowling and fielding from the visitors. Akram pointed out the lack of intent in the fielding side especially when the batsmen were new to the crease.
"Nobody was backing up and you as a fielder, it doesn't matter how inexperienced you are, you set yourself, new batsman in, they just came out, I'll probably start five-ten yards inside the boundary line not on the boundary," Akram stated.
Records tumbled at Adelaide as Australia declared on a mammoth score of 589-3 and Warner remained unbeaten on 335, going past the record of Sir Don Bradman and making the second-highest Test score by an Australian behind Matthew Hayden's 380.
Pakistan had shown some fight in the second innings at Brisbane with the bat but with the pink ball under the lights, they could not handle Mitchell Starc as they faltered to 96-6 at the end of day's play with only Babar Azam showing some kind of resilience.