Pakistan cricket has been rocked by a fiery outburst from batting great Muhammad Yousuf who came down hard on the coaches working with the national team, accusing them of failing to fix long-standing technical issues in the batting of Babar Azam and several other players.
In a strongly worded post on social media, Muhammad Yousuf claimed that he had pointed out flaws in the batting techniques of Pakistan’s players years ago. However, he alleged that certain coaches close to Babar Azam and other squad members stopped him from actually working with them to fix those problems.
Muhammad Yousuf said that issues which could have easily been corrected back then have now grown into serious problems, and are a big reason behind Pakistan’s recent downfall in international cricket. He stated that this failure to act is what has pushed Pakistan cricket into the decline being witnessed today.
He didn’t hold back in his criticism, describing these coaches as poison for the game, accusing them of lacking vision, blocking progress and misguiding even the most gifted players. He warned that if Pakistani cricketers don’t figure out who they should really be listening to, their careers will end much sooner than they should.
According to Muhammad Yousuf, the technical weaknesses in Pakistan’s batting lineup have now been laid bare across multiple tours, from Bangladesh to England. He wrote that problems which could have been fixed years earlier have instead turned into a major vulnerability, leaving Pakistan cricket exposed and struggling to compete at the international level. Muhammad Yousuf, notably, had stepped down from his role as the PCB’s batting coach back in July last year.
Pakistan’s string of disappointing results, marked by frequent batting collapses and highlighted by their recent Test defeat at Leeds during the ongoing England tour, has brought long-simmering tensions within the country’s cricket setup out into the open.
This internal conflict has now become very public, with several former Pakistan cricketers openly criticising one another, both on social media and through mainstream media outlets.
Adding to the controversy, former batsman Muhammad Wasim — who served as chief selector between 2020 and 2022, also questioned the circumstances around Imam-ul-Haq’s calf-muscle injury during the second Test at Lord’s.
Let’s see what will be the reaction of Pakistan coaching staff.
