As the cricketing universe turns up the heat on the Pakistan cricket team, skipper Babar Azam has been facing severe criticism. But, other players haven’t been immune either, with the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Rauf, etc. also coming in the line of fire. Amid this state of turmoil in the Pakistan team, Shoaib Malik has taken a sharp swipe at Imam, reiterating one of his old tweets where he had questioned ‘friendships and favours’ in the Pakistan team.
In a chat on A-Sports, Malik doubled down on Imam, questioning his lack of boundary count.
“When he was scoring runs consistently with same strike rate, no sixes, maybe two fours. We were okay as a nation. Why were we ok that time? Why did it not bother us? If you remember, I was the one who tweeted. Now, everyone remembers that. I tweeted, ‘when will we come out of friendships and favours? God helps those who are honest’,” asked Malik.
Shoaib Malik on Imam UlHaq – “Why were we happy when Imam was scoring fifties with no boundaries a few months back? Why were we enjoying his performances at that time? I was the first one who tweeted a year ago that friendships must end in Pakistan Cricket Team.”#PAKvsAFG pic.twitter.com/mIwSK0UZo8
— Usman Awan (@mutzoologist) October 24, 2023
“I talked about everything in our system (in the tweet). If I were diplomatic, I wouldn’t shoot myself on the foot when the World Cup squad (T20 World Cup 2022) was about to get announced. It was about the whole infrastructure. And I’m sticking to my tweet,” he added.
– When will we come out from friendship, liking & disliking culture.
Allah always helps the honest…— Shoaib Malik(@realshoaibmalik) September 11, 2022
With defeats against India, Australia and Afghanistan, Pakistan’s World Cup semi-final hopes are hanging in balance. Babar Azam’s men don’t just need to win all of their remaining matches but also hope to see some of the other results fall in their favour.
As the World Cup campaign concludes, the future of a number of Pakistani cricketers could be up for discussion with the selectors and the board.
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