Would have picked Yousuf over Shahid Afridi in 1999, claims Aamer Sohail 

Pakistan had a dream run in the 1999 World Cup, held in England, making it all the way to the final where they suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia at Lord’s. The team was littered with talent all across the board with the likes of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saeed Anwar wielding the willow and Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar wreaking havoc with the ball. They also had a hard-hitting youngster in the form of Shahid Afridi who had shown some promise in the three years with the national team. 

“Unfortunately, you opted for Shahid Afridi, he had ability on flat low-bouncing tracks where he would take on the bowlers and bring the opposition under pressure. But in demanding conditions, that is a big gamble. He was neither able to bowl nor able to bat. If I was the captain instead of Wasim Akram, I would have preferred Mohammad Yousuf.”

“So, according to me there were two reasons for your loss at the World Cup. One was that your team combination was not correct at all and the other that you opted to bat after winning the toss when you knew that it had been pelting down in London,” he added.

“From my cricketing experience and my observation, I can say that we played the entire World Cup like a local team. We had one line-up in a match and a different line-up in the next match with changing batting orders.”

Sohail revealed that Salim Malik had a word with the captain ahead of the game and the latter had assured him that Pakistan would bowl if they won the toss. 

“Before the World Cup final, there were reports that it had rained a lot in London. As it is, there is a slope at Lord’s due to which the ball does something all the time,” Sohail said. “Salim Malik told me that he had requested Wasim Akram not to bat first after winning the toss else we would be in great difficulty. We should not have exposed our batsmen on a difficult pitch against a confident Australian bowling line-up,” Sohail revealed.