Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad can never be Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers: Shahid Afridi

Former Pakistani skipper Shahid Afridi is not new to creating a stir by his outspoken nature. This time, he is back hogging the headlines as he believes that the country’s cricket think-tank made an error by overestimating players like Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal, and said that it is wrong to compare them with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

“It was wrong to expect them to be like Virat Kohli or AB de Villiers and perform like them,” Afridi said in an interview with a local news channel.

Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal, both have been overlooked for the upcoming England tour on disciplinary grounds. They were also omitted for the training and skills camps set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan too came out with a statement that it was the decision of the new selection committee to sideline the duo. Afridi too agreed with the decision and believed that the duo need to work on their disciplinary grounds.

Earlier, former coach Waqar Younis too came down hard on Umar Akmal in his scathing report after he was ousted from the post of head coach.

Afridi too lauded the appointment of Inzamam-Ul-Haq as the chief selector and said that Inzamam spoke to him about his future plans.

“And I told him that if he wants to try out youngsters then he should do that, but whenever he feels he needs me, I am there to play for Pakistan”, Afridi further said.

Afridi also spoke about the return of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir. Where on one hand, he was very supportive of Amir, he was not quite the same when it came down to the return of Amir and Butt.

The combative all-rounder said that the attitude of Asif and Butt were entirely different, whereas Amir was apologetic.

“After the scandal, I spoke to Amir and he admitted his mistake and sought forgiveness from everyone. However, I don’t know for what reason Butt remained in a state of denial and that really hurt me a lot as the scandal had damaged the image of Pakistan cricket,” he said.