Lashing out against Babar Azam & Co after their meek surrender to arch-rivals India in Sunday’s T20 World Cup clash, Pakistan’s fast bowling legend Wasim Akram revealed that there are internal conflicts within the team, and such players should be sacked.

Akram’s comments came after Pakistan agonisingly fell six runs short during their chase of a paltry 120. With zero points in their kitty and a couple of games left in the group stage, the threat of an early elimination looms large on the 2022 T20 World Cup finalists.

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The former all-rounder stopped short of revealing the names but opened up about the internal feud within the outfit, and said that the support staff is often made the scapegoat after such lacklustre performances but instead the non-performing players need to sacked.

“There are players who don’t want to talk to each other. This is international cricket, and you play for your country. Make these players sit at home,” Akram said.

Furious over the humiliating defeat, the former Pakistan captain lashed out at the likes of Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Fakhar Zaman for lacking game awareness, and has asked for a complete makeover of the nation’s cricket team.

“They have been playing cricket for 10 years, and I can’t teach them. Rizwan has no game awareness. He should have known that Bumrah was given the ball to take wickets and that the wise thing would have been to play his deliveries cautiously. But Rizwan went for a big shot and lost his wicket,” Akram said.

“Iftikhar Ahmed knows one shot on the leg side. He has been a part of the team for years but doesn’t know how to bat.

“I can’t go and tell about the game awareness to Fakhar Zaman. Pakistani players think that if they don’t perform well, the coaches will be sacked, and nothing will happen to them. It is time to keep the coaches and change the entire team,” Akram further said.

Veteran all-rounder and former captain Shoaib Malik also made a scathing attack on Babar Azam, asking him to ‘leave captaincy’.

“I have been saying for a long time, please leave captaincy. You are a class player, and you will only be able to show your class when you do not have additional responsibilities on you. If Babar stays away from captaincy, it will be good for him,” Shoaib Malik said.

“People keep talking about Babar and Rizwan’s strike rates, so you brought in Saim Ayub. Yesterday, it was a 120 chase, why were you trying to improve your strike rate? The platform was set in every manner. If as a leader and a batter, your brain doesn’t kick in, in these sorts of situations, when will it? I am forced to say today that the core of this team, in the T20I format, I think we have to stop backing them,” Malik added.

The former Pakistan captain also questioned Rizwan’s approach with the bat against India in the chase of 120.

“I didn’t understand that shot from Rizwan. They brought back their main bowler to pick up a wicket and Rizwan has been playing for so long and captaining in PSL. He should be familiar with the situation and put up his hand and say this is my match,” he said.