Wasim Akram Critiques Pakistan's Test Batting and PSL Impact
Wasim Akram has seen enough. Pakistan’s greatest fast bowler cut through the usual politeness in Lahore, turning a routine media interaction into a blunt indictment of the country’s Test cricket structure and, above all, its batting.
The trigger, he said, should have been obvious: a home-and-away Test series defeat to Bangladesh. For Akram, that result was not just embarrassing, it was a siren that went ignored.
“That series loss should have forced immediate corrective measures,” he argued, making it clear he believes nothing of substance followed what he views as a clear warning sign.
PSL under the spotlight
Akram went straight at one of Pakistan cricket’s proudest products of the last decade: the Pakistan Super League.
The league has delivered fast bowlers, storylines, and packed stadiums. What it has not delivered, in Akram’s eyes, is the one thing Pakistan’s Test team is crying out for.
“It has been 10 years since the PSL started, but has a single batter been produced by the PSL?” he asked. “Yes we have produced a few bowlers but tell me have we produced any noteworthy batting talent.”
For a man who played through eras of Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf, the contrast is painful. Pakistan still churns out quicks; the batting cupboard, he feels, is bare.
A teenager across the border
To underline the gap, Akram pointed across the border to India, referencing the emergence of a 15-year-old batting prodigy, an apparent nod to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
“I think when we produce a batting talent like the 14-year old then we will see improvement coming through,” he said, using the teenager as a symbol of the sort of precocious quality Pakistan has not unearthed in years.
White-ball cricket, Akram admitted, remains competitive. Pakistan can still trade blows in ODIs and T20Is. The red-ball game is a different story.
The former captain did not sugarcoat it. Pakistan’s Test cricket, he said, is in a “bad” state.
Coach debate dismissed
While speculation swirls around who should coach Pakistan next, Akram brushed that entire argument aside.
Names like his own and Gary Kirsten inevitably surface whenever the role is discussed, but he was unmoved by the noise. For him, the identity of the coach is a sideshow.
Whether it is Akram, Kirsten, or anyone else, he insisted, the fundamental issue remains the same: they will be working with the same limited pool of players.
Changing faces in the dressing room, he argued, will do little if the conveyor belt feeding that room stays broken.
Instead, he called for the Pakistan Cricket Board’s domestic structure to be allowed to breathe and mature. Not weeks. Not one season. Three to four years.
Patience, planning, and a clear pathway – that, he believes, is the only way out of the current spiral.
“Revive club cricket”
Akram’s frustration is not detached or clinical. He sounded like a fan, as wounded as anyone watching Pakistan’s recent red-ball performances.
He returned to a familiar, old-school theme: club cricket.
“Club cricket needs to be revived if we want improvement in red ball cricket,” he said, urging the PCB to invest heavily at the grassroots. His suggestion was specific: spend 100 million rupees each in Karachi and Lahore, because that is where the talent emerges.
For Akram, the obsession with quick fixes and constant chopping and changing at the top has masked deeper problems. He sees a national side in constant rotation, but with no real progress.
He pointed out the contradiction: calls for consistency in selection, yet the same names keep circling in and out, without any structural shift beneath them.
England tour under fire
The ongoing Test series in England came in for sharp technical criticism.
Akram, who mastered English conditions in his pomp, was unimpressed by Pakistan’s batting method against the home attack.
“In England in the ongoing series they didn’t move their front foot forward, playing bowlers like Ollie Robinson while standing rooted in the crease,” he said.
In those conditions, he argued, you cannot survive – let alone dominate – if you are stuck in the crease. Footwork is courage made visible.
“You need to play with courage, but for that, talent is essential,” he added, tying mental bravery to the underlying quality of technique and temperament he believes is missing.
Fast bowlers not spared
Even Pakistan’s traditional strength did not escape scrutiny.
Akram warned against getting carried away by radar-gun highlights. One ball at 150 km/h, he said, is “no big deal.” The real measure of a fast bowler is whether he can live around 140 km/h through the day.
Endurance. Repeatability. Spells that hurt, not just deliveries that look good on a screen.
He urged caution with the country’s emerging quicks. Let them play, he said. Let them grow. Do not anoint them as saviours before they have done the hard yards.
Shaheen and a missed opportunity
Shaheen Afridi inevitably came up. Akram described the left-armer as an experienced bowler, the kind of cricketer who should have been in England.
He admitted he did not know why Shaheen’s pace had dipped, but felt that a bowler of his stature needed to be part of the tour.
Akram also mentioned Akif Javed as someone he would have liked to see given a chance.
“If it were up to me, I would have asked for Akif Javed, as he bowled well recently in England,” he said, offering a rare, clear preference in a conversation otherwise focused on systems rather than individuals.
A call for roots, not bandages
Akram’s words land at a time of mounting concern over Pakistan’s Test trajectory and the output of its domestic system. His message cut through the fog of short-term fixes.
Stop shuffling the deck, he argued. Fix the table.
Invest in clubs. Trust a domestic structure for three to four years. Demand batters of genuine quality, not just another wave of raw pace.
Pakistan has never lacked talent. Akram’s challenge is harsher, and far more demanding: can the country finally build a system that knows how to grow it?
