Shadab Khan Shahid Afridi for Pakistan. Image Credits: X
Pakistan cricket is once again in the midst of some friction between the legends and current players in the middle of a big tournament. Shadab Khan recently hit back at the criticism from the likes of Mohammad Yousuf and Shahid Afridi, among others and called out their World Cup outings against India.
In the follow-up of the shocking statement on legends, Shahid Afridi has once again come out and condemned Shadab. He has asked Shadab to focus on the tournament and do well in the Super 8 stage if he wishes to shut the mouths of Pakistani legends.
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Afridi demands big-match performances from Shadab
The intense to and fro of words between Pakistan legends and Shadab Khan started after their clash against India at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, where they were thrashed by 61 runs. Yousuf asked for the expulsion of multiple big names from the T20I squad, which included the all-rounder in it.
Upon being asked about his reaction to it, the player did not take it well and hit back at the former stars. He reminded everyone that they beat India in the T20 World Cup 2021, unlike the multiple failures of the stars from yesteryears.
"Shadab Khan has correctly said it, we never won [against India at the World Cups], and they have won. They received a lot of respect, but they couldn't uphold it. Despite winning in 2021, they could not handle their internal issues as individuals and as a team. Shadab should know that when he wasn't performing, we were the ones backing him," Shahid Afridi said.
"We believed in him as the backbone of our team — his overs were deemed important, and he could bat as well. Even when we played cricket, many former cricketers spoke ill about us, but we listened and performed against big teams, not the smaller ones, to answer them," Shahid Afridi added.
He further noted that the ex-cricketers backed Shadab Khan despite not playing any first-class cricket before getting into the national team, while congratulating him for the outing against Namibia. Shahid Afridi asked Shadab to shut the critics with his performances against the bigger nations.
How has Shadab Khan performed vs India?
Shadab Khan broke onto the scene in 2017, when he first faced India in the final of the Champions Trophy. He dismissed the important middle-order duo of Yuvraj Singh and Kedar Jadhav to help Pakistan win by 180 runs.
He has faced India in 8 ODIs, scoring 121 runs at an average of 24.20 and picking 5 wickets at an economy rate of 6.70. In the T20Is, he has played 6 matches and scored only 33 runs against the opposition and scalped only 3 wickets, going for 6.47 runs per over.
Going by Shahid Afridi's statement, these performances have been concerning, especially for a player who is considered a crucial piece of Pakistan's white-ball puzzle.
Pakistan's underwhelming returns vs India since 2021
Since the famous win in 2021, Pakistan has faced India in 12 matches and have embarrassingly won only once. They have lost 10 games across ODIs and T20Is, and one Asia Cup clash resulted in a no result due to rain.
As things stand ahead of the Super 8 of the ongoing T20 World Cup, they are on a streak of 9 losses in a row since their last win in 2022.
In the ongoing tournament, Shadab only managed 0/17 (1) and 14 (15) against the arch-rivals, India. On the contrary, he picked 3/19 and scored 36* (22) vs Namibia and got 2/26 and 30 (12) against USA. The T20 World Cup figures show that Shahid Afridi is well within his rights to question the big game impact of these players.
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