Before the Asia Cup final, former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar made a hilarious gaffe on live TV. While discussing the India-Pakistan match on the cricket show Game On Hai, Shoaib mistakenly mentioned Abhishek Bachchan instead of Indian opener Abhishek Sharma.
Shoaib Akhtar said, If Pakistan get Abhishek Bachchan out early in a hypothetical situation, then what is going to happen with the middle order? Their middle order hasn't performed well. The entire panel burst into laughter, and he was immediately corrected.
The clip quickly went viral on social media, drawing a lot of laughter. Meanwhile, Abhishek Bachchan himself responded in a humorous way. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter), Sir, with all due respect, don't think they'll even manage that! And I'm not even good at playing cricket. His response resonated with netizens, and netizens thoroughly enjoyed it.
It's worth noting that Shoaib Akhtar had been questioning the Pakistan team's poor performance for the past few days. However, after defeating Bangladesh and reaching the final, he praised the team and said that defeating India is not impossible.
Akhtar believes that if Pakistan takes early wickets, especially that of Abhishek Sharma, the match could change its course. He said, We need to break out of this mindset, break down the hawa (aura) that has been built around the Indian team, and go in with the same attitude we had today against Bangladesh.
Take India on. That's the kind of attitude you need. And please remember we don't need to go in thinking we have to bowl 20 overs. No! We need to get them out. When you go out to get them out, even India will realise they have to fight to score runs and that they won't get any free runs.
India has already defeated Pakistan twice in this Asia Cup by 7 wickets in the first group match and by 6 wickets in the Super 4. Despite this, Shoaib is confident that Pakistan can give a tough fight in the final.
