'If I was the coach, I would make all Bangladesh players see psychologists’: Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram gave a brutal assessment of Bangladesh's failures in the 2022 T20 World cup as they were beaten by Pakistan in the virtual quarter-final.

A psychiatric evaluation would be mandatory if he were the coach or captain of Bangladesh, he claimed. The former captain of Pakistan was also critical of Najmul Hossain Shanto's batting style, saying that he "threw his wicket away" after reaching 50.

"Bangladesh have to blame themselves. They should. If I was the captain of the Bangladesh team or the coach of the Bangladesh team, I would make sure these guys see psychologists. Because at one stage, Shanto was on 54 and things were going well then. They were 73 for 2 and I thought they'll get to 160. But then Shanto stepped out and played a weird shot off Iftikhar and was bowled. If you had kept on taking singles, the score would have reached 155," a visibly disappointed Akram said.

The Bangladeshi batsmen, in Akram's opinion, should have been more pragmatic and avoided risky shots against the best bowlers of the other team. According to him, the team would have fared better if they had switched up the strike more frequently rather than focusing on getting solo glory shots.

"In an international level, when you see a certain bowler was coming to bowl and you know that the opposition captain has brought him to take wickets, that's where you don't play a shot. You try to rotate the strike in that particular over but the Bangladesh players made up their minds to hit him and hit Shaheen only," the former left-arm pacer added.