Shaheen Afridi was part of the Pakistan squad that recently played in the T20 World Cup. The team was eliminated from the league stage after suffering defeats to India and the United States.
USA’s win against Pakistan was one of the big surprises of this tournament. The 2009 T20 World Cup champions have had two very mediocre ICC events of late. They failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup and did not even make it to the T20 World Cup Super 8s.
Shaheen Afridi, after returning to Pakistan after the World Cup, addressed the local media and answered questions regarding Mohsin Naqvi’s statement about the team requiring “major surgery” after their elimination from the World Cup.
Naqvi had stated that the team needed a “major surgery”, a comment Shaheen found amusing. Addressing reporters on Monday, Shaheen joked, “Koi Beemar Hogaya (Who is the one who operated? Is anyone sick?)”, which led to laughter among those present.
Shaheen Afridi takes a jibe at PCB boss Mohsin Naqvi
We’re all sick, Shaheen, we all need heart surgery.image.twitter.com/OuwqVrw0wP
—Zahra🇵🇰 (@itsZahra2_0) July 1, 2024
“I thought the team needed minor surgery to start winning matches but now it looks like we will have to resort to major surgery. It is very disappointing the way we lost against USA and now this loss against India. We now have to start looking for players beyond those who are in the squad at the moment,” the PCB chief said in June, as the World Cup was underway.
“Everyone is wondering why the team is not performing. The World Cup is still going on, but obviously we will sit down and analyse everything,” he added.
Pakistan was led in this T20 World Cup by Babar Azam. The newly appointed PCB Chief appointed Babar as the new captain of Pakistan across all formats as the captaincy was snatched away from Shaheen. Pakistan lost to New Zealand away from home under Shaheen’s captaincy. Shaheen had captained the team in a series, where they lost 4-1 against New Zealand, before being removed from the post. This made the PCB Chairman turn to Babar to regain the captaincy.
However, things did not go their way as under Babar Azam, Pakistan did not have a good T20 World Cup. They lost to England before the World Cup and also lost a match against Ireland in a bilateral T20I series. After losses to USA and India, a win against Ireland was not enough for Pakistan to advance in the tournament.
Pakistan cricket fraternity and former cricketers are still debating over the PCB’s decision to retain Babar Azam as captain. According to reports, there has been a rift between Babar and Shaheen since the change in captaincy. Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim, who came out of retirement to play in the tournament, also failed to make any impact.
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