‘They scored 500 when they are sick’: Shoaib Akhtar after England’s dominating run against Pakistan

England batters were on a roll against Pakistan on Day 1 of the first Test in Rawalpindi. The visitors posted 500+ runs on the first day of the Test and thoroughly dominated the Pakistan bowling unit to push them on the back foot.

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar lauded the England team’s approach and sarcastically added that “they scored 500 when they were sick”. England’s 13 to 14 members were earlier struck down by illness ahead of the first match.

“Shukr hai abhi England team ki tabiyat kharab thi, jo kal report aa rhi thi, England ki team ki tabiyat theek nahi hai. Jab tabiyat theek nahi hai tab 500 maar diye, agar theek hote to bahut bura haal krte (They scored 500 when they are sick. They would have thrashed us if they were fit and fine).”

Akhtar lavished praise on England coach Brendon McCullum and put his weight behind the former New Zealand skipper’s idea of scoring runs at a brisk pace in Test cricket as well.

“Inke jo coach hai Brendon McCullum, vo ye believe ni krta ki Test matches aise khele jaye ruk ruk k. Vo believe krta hai run a ball khele jaye. Vo jab se aaya hai Test cricket mai, England ne maarna shuru kr diya hai. England nahi rukta. Batting line up unke pass bahut lambi hai. Vo kehte hai ki run a ball khelo bhyii Test matches bhi (Their {England’s} coach Brendon McCullum doesn’t believe in batting slowly in Test cricket. He asks his players to score run-a-ball. England have playing aggressive cricket since he came to the helm. They don’t stop. They have depth in their batting line-up. So, I think, Pakistan also needs to change the mindset),” he added.

The former fast bowler didn’t really criticise the “young” bowling unit but added that they will need a lot of hard work to perform well in the longer format.

“Nothing against the fast bowlers. T20 k fast bowlers hai. Inko Test fast bowlers banne k liye bahut mehnat krni padegi. Hamari team hai, abhi baccho ki team hai. Kafi innocent hai. Kafi arse baad khel rahe hai but it was not a pleasant sight to see ki hamare bacche was really hammered (It’s a young team, full of innocent people. But Test cricket is actually very bruising. Pakistan need to assess where they are standing because it’s not easy. It wasn’t pleasing to see our kids getting hammered).”

England eventually ended up scoring 657 before they were bowled out. Zak Crawley, Duckett, Ollie Pope and Harry Brook notched up individual tons while skipper Ben Stokes chipped in with 18-ball 41.

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