'Would Have Sacked Captain': Shoaib Akhtar On Babar Azam's Decision To Bowl First Vs England

Pakistan captain Babar Azam decided to bowl first on a "flat wicket" at Headingley, Leeds. His decision to bowl first on a batting friendly track was one of the big reason behind Pakistan's defeat.

(Photo by ARIF ALI, AFP via Getty Images) / Facebook

England cricket team defeated Pakistan by 45 runs in the Eng vs Pak 2nd T20I match of the three-match T20I series. With this win, the English team leveled the series 1-1. Batting first, England got all out after scoring 200 runs.  In reply, Pakistan scored only 155 runs for the loss of 9 wickets.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss on a "flat wicket" at Headingley, Leeds and decided to bowl first. His decision to bowl first on a batting friendly track was one of the big reason behind Pakistan's defeat. Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was also very surprised by Babar's decision after which he slammed him and the team management fiercely on social media.

England defeated Pakistan by 43 runs in this match. After being invited to bat first, England scored a mammoth 200 runs in 19.5 overs before getting all out.

“Such a poor decision by captain & the management by bowling 1st on a great batting pitch it’s beyond me just speechless,” the caption of Akhtar’s bowling said. In the video, he said, “Everyone knows that the wicket is flat, I don’t know why you would bowl first on this track,” Akhtar said. 

Vaughan shared him opinion as well on Twitter which was similar to Akhtar. He wrote, “Lovely afternoon at Headingley .. England too strong but no idea why Pakistan bowled first .. Anyway it sets up the last game.”

Jos Buttler captained England in this match in absence of regular skipper Eoin Morgan. 

Butler, Moeen and Livingstone scored the most runs for England. Apart from these three, no batsman could even reach the score of 20 runs.  Harris Rauf took two wickets for Pakistan, but also gave away 48 runs. In reply, Pakistan could only manage 155/9 in 20 overs. For England, Saqib Mahmood took three, while Moeen Ali took two wickets.