ICC World Cup 2019 | Pakistan need to play bravely against West Indies, says Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram has stated that Pakistan, who are going through a rough patch, need to play bravely against the Windies in order to win today’s match at Trent Bridge. Both the sides had played only one warm-up match coming into the World Cup as the other ones were washed out due to rain.
The Windies are playing with their full strength squad in this edition of the World Cup and even rung a warning bell in their warm-up match against New Zealand by scoring 421 runs. Pakistan will take on the Windies in their campaign opener today and Wasim Akram reckoned that at least one batsman needs to play like Joe Root who scored 51 off 59 balls, played in Thursday’s match.
"West Indies is a very dangerous side. I want Pakistan to play bravely, with a big heart and play on front foot," Akram told Geo.tv. "See how Root played today after losing first wicket early. You don’t need to slog but you must play proper cricketing shots. We need someone to bat like him,” he said, reported Geo TV.
The sixth-ranked side have already announced their 12-man squad for today’s match in which Shoaib Malik, Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Hasnain have failed to make a cut. The 1992 World Cup winner felt that the side has gone ahead with the right men.
"The 12 announced for the match against West Indies looks good. Pakistan is rightly going with five bowlers as we were strolling with bowling options recently. The ground looks very high scoring with par score of 370 and Pakistan must score this much runs," asserted the 52-year-old.
"Fakhar is an attacking player. He has been there for long and now people know how to bowl him. It is now up to Fakhar how to counter opposition’s strategy on him as bowlers are not going to give him room. Opening pair has to fire."
Asif Ali has a strike rate of 131 in the 12 ODI innings he has played so far and Akram hoped that he will find a place in the final XI. The former pacer went on to say that Asif needs to play despite the presence of the skipper Sarfaraz Khan in the middle order.
"Pakistan needs a power hitter and Asif Ali is that one. I will have him in my XI. Saffy is not a power hitter, he can add quick runs but we need a power hitter and there’s no doubt that Asif deserves a place,” the southpaw added.
Pakistan are going through a rough phase as they now have a losing streak of ten matches heading into the ten-nation tournament. They were even beaten by Afghanistan in the warm-up game but Akram suggested that the team should forget the past.
"Done is done, we were beaten, but that’s past. We had an inexperienced squad against hope the extravaganza of World Cup would motivate the players. All the teams are tough, Pakistan don’t look too strong. They’ll really have to work hard to be in the semi-finals,” he signed off.
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