5 times Pakistani cricketers trolled themselves

The Pakistani cricket team and their members have found themselves on the receiving end of trolls on several occasions even before the advent of social media.

They have never failed to entertain fans in one way or the other when they take the field. Their record against India in World Cups, Fawad Alam protecting his eyes from the sun with his hands in spite of having a cooler on his cap, Shahid Afridi trying to smell the ball and Mohammad Irfan letting the ball through his legs to make Sarfraz Ahmed go crazy on the field are just some of the instances that come to our mind when we talk about the Pakistani team trolling themselves.

On that note, let us take a look at some of the instances when the Pakistani team trolled themselves.

NOTE: Please note that the tweets are fake and only meant to elicit a chuckle. Do not take the views seriously.

Honorary mention: Pakistani fielding

ABCD stands for Akmal Ball Catch Drop. This is the simplest way of referring to Pakistani wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal's performances behind the stumps. Akmal has the knack of dropping the simplest of chances and has faced a lot of criticism for his technique over the years.

Akmal is not the only Pakistani cricketer who has the tendency to put down some easy chances. The Men in Green are renowned for it and the opposition batsmen are safe in the knowledge that if the ball goes up in the air, the fielder will drop it.

Pakistan have produced some very good fielders, but a majority of the cricketers who have represented the country are just liabilities on the field. Not only their catching but their ground fielding too is not up to the mark and the fielders make sure that they give you a reason to laugh when you watch them play.

Shoaib Malik-Saeed Ajmal dropped catch

We just saw how good the Pakistanis are in the field. In spite of a separate section (honorary mention) being allotted for their fielding, this dropped catch deserves a slide for itself, as this is one of the most hilarious dropped catches in the history of the sport.

Chasing 274 runs to win, a West Indian opener tried to hit Umar Gul over his head for a six but ended up getting a bottom edge as the ball flew high in the air without travelling the distance. As the ball was coming down, the mid-on and mid-off fielders, Saeed Ajmal and Shoaib Malik, converged on the ball without calling and neither of them went for the catch in the end, as they expected the other one to take it.

A fielder cannot get an easier catch (what made it slightly tough was the fact that it went so high, but cricketers playing at the top level are expected to catch these skiers) and Malik and Ajmal gave a tribute to Pakistan's fielding by messing up this chance. Ajmal's reaction when the ball hit the ground tells the whole story.

Kumar Sangakkara trolling Ahmed Shahzad

In an evenly poised ODI between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Pakistan were cruising along on 159 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 34.2 overs. Opener Ahmed Shahzad, who was still batting, played an inside out shot over the cover fielder. The ball went to the sweeper and the opener had enough time to complete two runs easily.

Shahzad finished the first run and sprinted back for a second without watching the ball. It was then that wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara showed his funny side. Acting like he had collected the ball, he attempted to run the opener out even though the ball was miles away from him.

Desperate to save his wicket, Shahzad dived full stretch to return to the crease and when he made it, he was shocked to see Sangakkara collecting the ball at that moment. The clueless reaction on the batsman's face and the wide grin on Sangakkara's summed up the entire incident.

Umar Gul-Shahid Afridi synchronisation

This would have probably won Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul a perfect 10 and also a possible gold medal had they managed to do it in a synchronised sport. But, unfortunately for them, they carried it out in a World T20 match against West Indies and ended up on the losing side.

The result of the match actually doesn't matter as the incident takes centre stage. Batsman Lendl Simmons punched the ball through the vacant cover region and the cover fielder (Afridi) and the backward point fielder (Gul) chased the ball, with the former putting in a slide to prevent the ball from reaching the boundary.

Gul put in a slide of his own at exactly the same time next to Afridi, in the same manner. This was one of the highlights of the tournament.

Umar Akmal hitting Devendra Bishoo with the bat

When talking about Pakistani cricketers and trolling, how can one forget about the 'talented' Umar Akmal? Akmal has given us enough reasons to pen down a "5 times Umar Akmal trolled himself" article.

Starting from his love of mangoes to claiming that he puts on weight just by drinking water, Akmal has made bizarre statements, resulting in him being at the receiving end of trolls on several occasions.

One thing that would be at the top of the list is the incident involving him and West Indian leggie Devendra Bishoo.

While Bishoo rubbed his hands on the wicket, Akmal swung his bat and hit Bishoo on his backside. While it was carried out in jest, it looked like the leggie took it seriously as he threatened to slap Akmal.

The legendary Pakistani run outs

Talking about the Pakistan cricket team, the first thing that comes to mind is their running between the wickets. The Pakistani batsmen have a history of getting run out in hilarious fashion.

They had the batsman who is more famous for his run outs than his outstanding record with the bat, Inzamam-ul-Haq. There are a lot of hilarious run outs involving Pakistani batsmen, but the one above takes the cake.

Umar Akmal hit the ball to the fine leg fielder and took off for a single with his partner Sohaib Maqsood responding to Akmal's call immediately. The latter ran half way down the pitch before making a U-turn and heading back to the non-striker's end.

Akmal continued to run to the other end and both the batsmen ended up on the same side when the bails were whipped off at the striker's end. Maqsood reached the crease first and survived while Akmal was forced to walk back to the pavilion.

To be fair to Pakistan, this was not the only instance a run out like this happened as the recently-concluded World T20 saw a couple of similar run-outs involving AB de Villiers/Faf du Plessis and Hardik Pandya/Ravindra Jadeja.