Would have admitted my fault had I been in Misbah's place, claims Shoaib Akhtar

Would have admitted my fault had I been in Misbah's place, claims Shoaib Akhtar

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Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar criticized Misbah-ul-Haq for not owning up Pakistan's performances on their recent tour of UK. Earlier, Misbah-ul-Haq had stated that he had taken charge of Pakistan when they were already on a losing streak in T20 internationals, which irked Akhtar.

There was a point in time when Pakistan were the top-ranked T20I side for a long stretch. In fact, even when Misbah-ul-Haq took over the reins as Pakistan's head coach and chief selector in 2019, there were at the numero-uno position but things have changed now, and they have slipped to the fourth position in the shortest format. They recently drew the T20I series in England 1-1 after losing the Test series 0-1.

Two days back, Misbah-ul-Haq had talked glowingly about Pakistan's performance in England and how happy he was with the positives that came out from their tour which comprised three Tests and T20Is each. But it seems that his comments have rubbed the former Pakistan pacer, Shoaib Akhtar the wrong way as he came out attacking Misbah in typical Akhtar-esque manner. 

“Honest and strong people don’t complain but take decisions. If I had been in his place, I would have said that it is my fault, I will set it right. That is the straight point. He should have said that what had happened earlier or not happened is left behind, and now that I am at the job, I will improve things,” Akhtar told Geo TV as quoted by PTI.

Misbah had also remarked that he had taken over a declining T20I team which had inconsistent, non-delivering players like Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali. Akhtar asserted that if he was in Misbah's place, things would have been dealt with differently. 

“Playing around here and there is probably Misbah but this is not me. I am not like that. Whatever has happened, now that you are there, you need to say with confidence that you are there now, you will see how to set things right,” the Rawalpindi Express said.

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