KARACHI: Former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has portrayed Mohammad Sami few days ago, as mentally weak, after growing criticism over Sami’s selection to the Pakistan Twenty20 international squads that will play against Australia and in the World Cup T20 in Sri Lanka in September-October this year after he failed to make an impact on the Sri Lankan tour.
And now Akhtar further says that Sami is mentally weak, which lead to his downfall in international cricket, although he was expected to have a brilliant career when he made his debut for the country.
The fast bowler tiled his place in the Pakistan squad, despite the presence of some great bowlers like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar. Sami went on to complete hat-tricks in Test cricket as well as in the 50-overs format and bowled a number of match-winning spells for the country.
The Karachi-born cricketer however, lost his place in the team later on due to extremely inconsistent performances, especially in the five-day version, in which he is averaging 52.74 runs per scalp, which is not acceptable for a regular bowler.
Apart from slamming Sami’s ability to cope with pressure situations, the Rawalpindi Express believes that the fast bowler has been unlucky throughout his career.
Akhtar, who is the fastest bowler of the game’s history, urged the team management to give confidence to Sami, who he thinks, can still turn out to be a match-winner for Pakistan.
"He has been playing for 11 years but if you tick him off once he loses focus and comes under pressure. He has the ability and I wish he does well now but for this he has to be assigned a role in the team and pressure must be put on him to perform as a frontline strike bowler," he said.
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