Akhtar Took So Many Injections, He Can’t Walk Now: Shahid Afridi Responds To Shoaib’s Criticism Of Shaheen Afridi
New Delhi: Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar’s comments on Shaheen Afridi where he said that Afridi should have completed his overs in the T20 World Cup final against England has not gone down too well with the ex-Pakistan captain and Shaheen’s father-in-law Shahid Afridi. Notably, Shaheen could not complete his quota of overs in the summit clash and only bowled 2.1 overs as Pakistan lost to England by five wickets.
Akhtar said that Shaheen had a great chance of becoming the greatest superstar of Pakistan and if he was Shaheen, he would have taken injections and completed his overs.
“If I was in his [Shaheen Afridi] place, I would have become the greatest celebrity of Pakistan during those 12 minutes by bowling the same number of deliveries. I would’ve come to bowl, fall, break my knees, but I would’ve got up, used injection to numb my knees, and repeated the same again,” Akhtar was quoted by cricketpakistan.com.
The Rawalpindi Express has now got a response from Shahid Afridi who said that Akhtar used to take many injections during his playing days the result of which is that he can’t walk properly now. Afridi, however, praised Akhtar and said that not everone can be Shoaib.
“Shoaib Akhtar took so many injections that he can’t walk now!” Afridi said During an interaction with Samaa TV. “See, this is Shoaib Akhtar’s class. He can do that. It’s difficult, though. Everyone can’t be Shoaib Akhtar. It’s difficult to play with injury if you take injections and painkillers. Because then, you risk aggravating the injury further. Anyway, let’s leave Shoaib Akhtar alone!”
Akhtar was also critical of Babar Azam and said that the Pakistan skipper is not a brand as he can’t speak English.
“Abhi aap dekh le, koi character nahi team mein. Naa koi baat karne ka tarika. (You can see there’s no character in the team, nor they know how to talk). How awkward it looks when they come to the presentation. Kitna mushkil hai English seekhna aur baat krna? (How difficult is it to learn and speak English?),” Akhtar was quoted as saying by timesnownews.
“Cricket is one job, and handling media is another. If you can’t speak, I am sorry, but you won’t be able to express yourself on TV. “I want to openly say that Babar Azam should be the biggest brand in Pakistan, but why hasn’t he become the biggest brand in Pakistan? Because he can’t speak,” he added