Shoaib Akhtar calls captain Salman Agha 'weakest link', blasts Pakistan team after 2nd Asia Cup loss to India

Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar came down heavily on skipper Salman Ali Agha after the Men in Green went down against India for the second time in the ongoing Asia Cup. Agha, who took over as full-time T20I captain earlier this year with Mike Hesson being appointed as the new white-ball coach, has had a decent run in terms of the team's results but hasn't been able to pull his weight through performances. In the ongoing Asia Cup, Agha has scored 40 runs in four matches at an average of 13.33.

After a couple of batting failures against India and the UAE, the Pakistan batters were able to put a sizeable score of 171 on the board, but India chased it down without breaking a sweat, led by the 105-run opening partnership between Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill.

“I really don’t understand what the management is thinking. Wrong decisions are being made repeatedly. The middle order isn’t planned properly, and the powerplay isn’t being utilized effectively," Akhtar said on 'Game On Hai. "Bowlers are also not being



used wisely. There was no coordination, the lines and lengths were poor—starting with a bad bouncer, and then things just kept getting worse," he added.

Akhtar questioned skipper Salman Agha's spot while mentioning that he is in the side as an all-rounder but his performances have been far from even average, while also criticising him for poor decision-making as a captain. "Salman ko khud nahi pata wo kya kaptaani kar raha hai (Salman himself doesn’t know what he is doing). He is the weakest link. Does he even deserve the spot he is playing at? What does he do?

"He could be a good boy but what does he produce? Does he perform like Tilal Varma or Hardik Pandya? On top of that, he makes wrong decisions that further put the team in trouble," Akhtar further said. 

Agha has returned scores of 0, 3, 20 and 17* in four matches so far and even though the likes of Fakhar Zaman and Sahibzada Farhan have scored fifties on different occasions, the Pakistan team is yet to fire collectively with the bat.