Karachi: Former Pakistan captain Salim Malik has accused left-hand batter Imad Wasim of deliberately wasting balls in Men in Green's nervy six-run loss against arch-rivals India in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 in New York on Sunday.
Chasing an underwhelming 120-run target, Pakistani batters consumed 59 dot balls -- that's one ball short of 10 overs to be restricted to 113 for 7 at Nassau County International Stadium in New York.
Wasim, who has made a comeback from retirement to feature in the T20 World Cup, took 23 balls to score his 15 runs in the losing cause. He played four dot balls against left-arm spinner Axar Patel's second over which increased the pressure on other batters as the run-rate suddenly touched the sky-high.
"You look at his (Wasim) innings and it appears as if he was wasting balls not scoring runs and making things difficult in the run-chase," Malik said on 24 News channel.
Another former captain Shahid Afridi believes that something is wrong in the Pakistan dressing room and some players have issues with skipper Babar Azam. "A captain brings everyone together, either he spoils the team environment or he builds the team. Let this World Cup finish, and I will speak openly," said Afridi.
Afridi's daughter is married to left-arm pacer Shaheen, who was removed as T20 captain just before the World Cup after just one series in New Zealand. "I have such a relationship with Shaheen (Afridi) that if I talk about him, people will say I am favouring my son-in-law," he added.
After a couple of consecutive losses, first against minnows USA and then India, Babar Azam-led side needs to win their remaining games against Canada and Ireland with a huge margin of runs and hope for the USA to lose to India and Ireland. Even in that scenario both the teams will end on four points each and it will come down to the net run rate.
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