File photo of Kevin Pietersen© BCCI/Sportzpics
Under-fire Team Pakistan invited more trouble for itself after losing the first Test of the two-match series against Bangladesh by 10 wickets on Sunday. It was Pakistan's first-ever defeat against Bangladesh in the longest format. Pakistan, who were already going through numerous changes after their debacle in the ODI and the T20 World Cup, are once again in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. From wrong team selection to poor decision making, Pakistan failed in all aspects during the match.
Shan Masood and co are facing a lot of backlash from many former cricketers for their poor outing. Recently, former England skipper Kevin Pietersen also expressed shock at Pakistan's dismal show.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Pietersen wrote, "What happened to cricket in Pakistan? When I played the PSL, the standard of that league was tremendous, the players had a very good work ethic and the youngsters on display were magic. What's happening there?"
— Kevin Pietersen(@KP24) August 26, 2024What happened to cricket in Pakistan? When I played the PSL, the standard of that league was tremendous, the players had a very good work ethic and the youngsters on display were magic.
What's happening there?
Earlier, ignored Pakistan star, Ahmad Shehzad also didn't mince words in his criticism on social media, calling it an "all-time low".
"I haven't seen Pakistan go this low in my life. Batting, bowling and fielding is a discussion for another day. But this is a new low in Pakistan cricket. It will be very tough for them to recover from this defeat. They haven't recovered from the defeat against Afghanistan until today," Shehzad said in a video shared on social media.
"I had said this before as well, Pakistan team is already heading towards darkness, so you cannot take short-term decisions. The situation is just like hockey. Even so, we never expected that Pakistan will lose to Bangladesh, but they have done that as well. Pakistan's players are not at fault. The cricket board is responsible.
"Players never force anyone to put them in the team. It's the board that keeps playing them and is not allowing domestic players to come in. If you don't have domestic players who can replace the existing lot, then what have you done so far?," he added, questioning the functioning of the PCB.