(AP Photo)

Shoaib Akhtar heavily criticized the England cricket team for their decision to bowl first after winning the toss, which led to their 68-run loss against India in the 2024 T20 World Cup second semifinal at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Thursday.

“Ye mujhe koi bata de kis Einstein ne kaha tha England ko ke toss jeet ke aapne doosri batting karni hai, kaunsa sciencedaan hai inke paas (which Einstein told England to win the toss and chase, which scientist they have). A team that has three spinners, Axar, Kuldeep, who is a match winner, and (Ravindra) Jadeja; then they have (Jasprit) Bumrah. So kisne aapko mashvara diya ke India ke khilaaf toss jeet ke aap doosri batting kar lein (so who advised you to win the toss and chase against India),” said Shoaib.

“I don’t think that was a good decision,” he added.

“I am very happy to see India (win), a well deserved team that has full range of batting…I have been saying this since long (that) there is no batsman like Rohit Sharma, then Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. These three batsmen, one of whom is an allrounder (Hardik), can win you a game by all means,” Shoaib said.

After captain Rohit Sharma crafted his 32nd T20I half-century with a 39-ball 57, supported by Suryakumar Yadav who contributed 47 runs off 36 balls, India set a challenging total of 171/7 on a challenging pitch. Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel then delivered superb performances, each claiming three wickets, which resulted in England collapsing to 103 all out. This decisive victory secured India’s spot in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa.

England skipper Jos Buttler dismissed suggestions that their decision to bowl first after winning the toss had a significant impact on the match outcome.

“With the rain around, didn’t expect the conditions to change that much. Don’t think it really did. They outbowled us. They had an above-par score. I don’t think that toss was necessarily the difference between the teams,” he said after the match.