Pakistan suffered an excruciating defeat in the mega contest against India in the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup. The Indian crowd in the Nassau County International Stadium in New York were ecstatic following India’s brilliant comeback with the ball in hand, winning the game by 6 runs after setting a target of just 120 runs.
Following the defeat, the Pakistan cricket team has been on the receiving end of massive amounts of criticisms since it's not just a loss against the arch-rivals, but the loss also puts their super 8s qualification hopes in jeopardy.
One of the players who has been under the line of fire is Imad Wasim. Imad had a horror show with the bat against the Indians, as he scored just 15 runs off 23 deliveries with a single boundary to his name. The 12 dot balls in his slow paced innings was a major factor in building pressure on the Pakistanis.
Former cricketers like Saleem Malik and Shoaib Malik seemed to be very furious over his performances, with Saleem even going to the extent of making a controversial accusation on Imad. Saleem accused Imad over purposely eating up the deliveries to make the match more interesting and accusing him of possible fixing.
Saleem himself has been a convicted match fixer and was imposed a life ban from playing cricket in 2000, which was later lifted in 2007. Bearing this in mind, Australian legend, Adam Gilchrist has pointed out Saleem's ironical statements on Imad’s performance against India.
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‘Saleem Malik of all people’ - Adam Gilchrist
Following the game against India, Pakistan were brutally trolled by Pakistani media, fans as well as former players and pundits. Gilchrist in a recent podcast, has pointed out at the irony of some of those statements, especially from people like Saleem Malik, who has been convicted over the same thing that he has accused Imad of.
A bunch of Pakistan ex-cricketers haven’t missed their team at all. Talking about just general comments, Saleem Malik of all people has accused Imad Wasim of chewing up deliveries on purpose just to make it a bit more interesting. Not sure if there are any other accusations that come along with that or is it that Imad just wanted a bit more of a tough chase on his hand.
The frustration following the loss from former players is understandable, but Saleem seemed to have taken the matter a bit too far for Gilchrist’s liking.
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Pakistan will now be playing its final two games of the group stages against the likes of Canada and Ireland. They still have a chance to qualify for the super 8s but it will be heavily dependent on other results in Group A along with their own.
