Team Indian led by Virat Kohli suffered two consecutive ‘humiliating’ defeats in the super 12 stage of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Following the defeat from Pakistan and New Zealand, the Men in Blue have been receiving criticism from fans and experts. Now, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram made a scathing attack saying that the Indian team’s ignorance to play limited-overs international cricket seems to be the big reason behind their poor performance in the showpiece ICC event so far. He alleged that India do not take international cricket seriously.
![Wasim Akram wearing a suit and tie: Wasim Akram Says India 'Not Taking International Series Seriously' as 'They Think IPL is Enough']({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"53","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAMCvxO.img?h=533&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=658&y=477"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAMCvxO.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=658&y=477"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAMCvxO.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=658&y=477"}})
To validate his opinion, Wasim highlighted that the senior players of the Indian team played the last big international limited-overs series against England in March. Apart from this, they did not play any other limited over series prior to the T20 World Cup, he said.
Pakistani former pacer, who holds the record for most ODI wickets, went on to say that even though the Indian players performed brilliantly in the Indian Premier League (IPL) recently, but it can not match the standards of international cricket.
“India last played a limited-overs series with all the senior players in March. Now we are in November. So that shows they are not taking those international series seriously. They think playing the IPL is enough,” Akram said on A Sports, Pakistan’s sports-based channel.
Akram said that in IPL and similar league cricket, a batter usually faces one or two good bowlers in a gamer, however, in international cricket matches, a batter faces at least five good bowlers.
Akram’s comment came after India’s defeat to New Zealand on October 31. New Zealand’s victory over India by 8 wickets on Sunday pushed 2007 World T20 champions’ semi-final chances hanging by a thread.
Commenting upon the India Vs New Zealand match, Akram said that losing toss deflated India in the first place and it further worsened due to management’s decision to push Rohit Sharma for batting at No. 3 in a crucial, do-or-die game. Akram said management could have sent Ishan Kishan at number 3 instead of Rohit, who had scored four centuries in T20Is as an opener.
