Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,825
LAHORE: While completely dismissing criticism over his poor form ahead of the all-important World Cup, veteran Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik on Saturday said there were no out-and-out favourites for the mega event being staged in England and Wales.
“All teams at the World Cup are strong and there will be no fluke and no team is favourite. Everyone has to struggle and under English conditions rainy weather may create problems for any team on a given day,” veteran all-rounder Shoaib Malik, whose selection in the World Cup squad has raised many questions mainly due to his poor performance of late with bat and ball, said while talking to reporters during a mixed zone interaction here on Saturday.
The Malik, who holds a modest overall batting average of 35.12 in 282 One-day Internationals and has had a average batting record during the last year or so (21 matches, 506 runs, average 33.73), did not look happy with both media and former cricketers, for criticising him on what the player himself termed “non-technical reasons”.
“I hope the critics will not carry out postpartum of the players’ [performances] during the World Cup on non-technical reasons. I have no complaint against anchors but against [some] former cricketers, who just focus on dropping or bringing a player on the basis of [their] liking and disliking,”said Malik, who as off-spinner has lost his utility of late as he bowled only one over in his last 11 ODI appearances since November 2018.
He continued, “I don’t follow Pakistani media, so what it says about me I don’t care. The big thing is that it is my last World Cup and I am in the team and I will try my best to give my best for the team as I always played for my team, not for myself.”
When asked his batting strike-rate was on the lower side, Malik had no relevant response.
“On one hand, people consider me the team’s senior most player while on the other they also let me down but it makes no difference to me. I don’t like to say but we are living in a society where negativity has its role, based on liking and disliking,” the 37-year-old said without elaborating.
“In 99 per cent matches of my career I lost my wicket while trying to hit big shots and when I staged a comeback in 2015 my strike rate was 100-plus which matched that of the most aggressive players like A.B. de Villiers and David Warner,” Malik continued.
“I am also hearing that I am fond of captaincy and Sarfraz Ahmed may not be available [for captaincy]. These are just conspiracy theories. Sarfraz is our skipper and he will remain so and under his command we will win the [World] Cup,” he maintained.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1477501/embattled-malik-shrugs-off-criticism-vows-to-shine-at-world-cup
“All teams at the World Cup are strong and there will be no fluke and no team is favourite. Everyone has to struggle and under English conditions rainy weather may create problems for any team on a given day,” veteran all-rounder Shoaib Malik, whose selection in the World Cup squad has raised many questions mainly due to his poor performance of late with bat and ball, said while talking to reporters during a mixed zone interaction here on Saturday.
The Malik, who holds a modest overall batting average of 35.12 in 282 One-day Internationals and has had a average batting record during the last year or so (21 matches, 506 runs, average 33.73), did not look happy with both media and former cricketers, for criticising him on what the player himself termed “non-technical reasons”.
“I hope the critics will not carry out postpartum of the players’ [performances] during the World Cup on non-technical reasons. I have no complaint against anchors but against [some] former cricketers, who just focus on dropping or bringing a player on the basis of [their] liking and disliking,”said Malik, who as off-spinner has lost his utility of late as he bowled only one over in his last 11 ODI appearances since November 2018.
He continued, “I don’t follow Pakistani media, so what it says about me I don’t care. The big thing is that it is my last World Cup and I am in the team and I will try my best to give my best for the team as I always played for my team, not for myself.”
When asked his batting strike-rate was on the lower side, Malik had no relevant response.
“On one hand, people consider me the team’s senior most player while on the other they also let me down but it makes no difference to me. I don’t like to say but we are living in a society where negativity has its role, based on liking and disliking,” the 37-year-old said without elaborating.
“In 99 per cent matches of my career I lost my wicket while trying to hit big shots and when I staged a comeback in 2015 my strike rate was 100-plus which matched that of the most aggressive players like A.B. de Villiers and David Warner,” Malik continued.
“I am also hearing that I am fond of captaincy and Sarfraz Ahmed may not be available [for captaincy]. These are just conspiracy theories. Sarfraz is our skipper and he will remain so and under his command we will win the [World] Cup,” he maintained.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1477501/embattled-malik-shrugs-off-criticism-vows-to-shine-at-world-cup
