Former skipper Mohammad Hafeez has lashed out at the Pakistan pace trio of Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf after they suffered a six-wicket defeat to arch-rivals India on Saturday in Dubai. In the much-anticipated clash, the pace troika failed to deliver as India chased down the 242-run target quite comfortably in 42.3 overs. Shaheen was the only pacer for Pakistan who added scalps to his wickets tally by dismissing Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma, while Naseem and Rauf remained wicketless. Despite claiming a couple of wickets, Shaheen failed to create any impact as he leaked 74 runs in 8 overs at an economy rate of 9.20.
The Pakistan team has banked heavily on the pace troika since 2022 and backed them in the ICC events, but they failed to help them win any title.
Hafeez pointed out that the Pakistan team has set high expectations from the three pacers since the 2022 T20 World Cup but failed to deliver whenever it mattered most.
“2023 mein Asia Cup shuru hua, hamari expectation thi ki ye trio—Shaheen, Naseem aur Haris—ye ready hai ki hume bade events jitwa ke de, failure. 2023 50-over World Cup, failure. 2022 T20 tournament in Melbourne failure. Ye wala ICC Champions Trophy, failure. (Since the Asia Cup in 2023, we were expecting this trio—Shaheen, Naseem, and Haris—to deliver trophies for us. But they’ve been unsuccessful. The 2023 World Cup a disaster. The 2022 T20 tournament in Melbourne, a disaster. And now, this Champions Trophy, another failure),” Hafeez said on PTV.
Hafeez didn’t hold back in his brutal take on the current Pakistan pacers in the Champions Trophy and said they don’t have the skills to win you big tournaments.
“It is time to realise that these guys, according to many people they have skills, but their skills are not enough to win a big tournament. Let’s move on from them. Let’s bring other people,” he added.