‘It shows he was…’ – Wasim Akram’s strong reply on Shakib Al Hasan’s ‘not here to win World Cup’ statement

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh skipper, came up with unusual comments ahead of the crucial encounter against India on November 2, Wednesday. Saying that he and his team were not in Australia to win the ongoing 20-20 World Cup 2022, Shakib said that a win against India would be an upset of the tournament. 

Notably, the ongoing showpiece event has witnessed too many upsets already and the first match between Sri Lanka and Namibia is still one of the most-talked-about matches of the tournament. Shakib’s comments, however, drew criticism from all ends as they felt that it might put his team in a bad light. 

“I think it will be a full house because India gets good support wherever they play. I think it will be a good game. India are the favourites heading into the match. They have come here to win the World Cup, we are not here to win the World Cup. You can understand the situation, if we win against India, it will be an upset and we will try our best to upset India,” Shakib was quoted as saying in a press conference. 

I was taken aback by his comments: Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram, the former Pakistani cricketer, said that he was surprised by the comments from the Bangla Tigers captain and added that Bangladesh are not confident enough of winning the match against India when they have a chance to make it to the semis.

“I was taken aback by his comments. As a skipper, when you have a chance of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals, and that too against a strong team like India, you make certain statements that are subtle or confident,” Akram said on A Sports. 

“This shows that even before the game, Shakib, in the back of his mind, knows that they are not winning the game. But when you head into a big game, as a skipper, you’ve got to be positive. You should have the mindset that we can win this,” said the former Pakistan cricketer further.