‘Brainless And Clueless Management’: Shoaib Akhtar Fumes After Pakistan’s Big Loss To India In CT 2025
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Shoaib Akhtar criticized Pakistan’s cricket management as ‘brainless and clueless’ after their six-wicket defeat to India in the 2025 Champions Trophy, blaming poor team selection.
Shoaib Akhtar speaking on Pakistan’s defeat. (X/@shoaib100mph)
Shoaib Akhtar called the Pakistan men’s cricket management ‘brainless and clueless’ after the team’s heavy, six-wicket defeat to India in Dubai on Sunday in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
He criticized their team selection of an all-rounder-heavy side and said the team management chased ‘intent’ when they couldn’t even match the skillset of their Indian counterparts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill, adding that it wasn’t the players’ fault that the management didn’t know what to do.
Pakistan could only score a sub-par 241 in the first innings which India chased down with more than seven overs to spare, led by Kohli’s unbeaten century. India’s win ensured that the Men in Green’s chances of qualifying for the semi-final of their home tournament were quite slim.
“I am not disappointed at all because I knew what would happen,” Akhtar said in a candid video on his X account. “You can’t select five bowlers, the whole world is playing six bowlers… you go with two all-rounders but this is just brainless and clueless management. I am really disappointed. We can’t blame the kids; they are just like the management—they don’t know what to do. The intent is a different thing, they don’t have the skillsets like Rohit, Virat, and Shubman. Neither they know anything, nor the management. They have just gone to play without any clear direction. No one knows what they should do.”
The former Pakistani pacer had put another video after the first innings, where he sounded even more disappointed. He suggested that someone from the batting lineup needed to play like Australia’s Glenn Maxwell, but they didn’t have the required skillset.
“This was the batting. We all know the capability of this batting lineup. They can only show intent when they have the skillset. When they don’t have the skillset how can they do what Glenn Maxwell did (against Afghanistan in the 2023 World Cup)… just intent isn’t enough. You need intent, skillset and the execution, only then can you put up a good score. But this was Pakistan’s batting for you,” Akhtar said.
Pakistan will now play against Bangladesh on February 27 for their final league stage game. They’ll hope that Bangladesh beats New Zealand and Pakistan beats Bangladesh by a massive margin to qualify for the knock outs on the basis of their Net Run Rate.