 "Sunil Gavaskar and Wasim Akram said instead of 'blaming everything' England cricket team must focus on their faults. Images: Reuters/DP World Dressing Room Show")
Cricketing greats from Asia, Sunil Gavaskar and Wasim Akram, have criticised the England cricket experts and fans who complained about the Indian cricket team playing all its Champions Trophy 2025 matches in Dubai . The sharp reaction against the English cricket fraternity came after the England cricket team was knocked out of the Champions Trophy 2025 after losing to underdogs Afghanistan at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Meanwhile, legendary Waqar Younis and Ravi Shastri also pointed out where things have been going wrong for the England cricket team.
Champions Trophy 2025: News | Schedule | Results | Points Table
England who won the ODI World Cup in 2019 and the T20 World Cup in 2022, have been struggling to find a single win in one-day internationals. They have now suffered six consecutive defeats, the first time England have lost so many matches since September 2009.
Gavaskar says England ‘blame everything’ but their performance
Analysing what is going wrong with the England cricket team, batting legend Gavaskar and pace great Akram said that England need to stop “blaming everything” like India playing all their matches in Dubai and need to introspect on what is wrong with their system.
“They will still come and start mourning the next morning. See they cannot lose. If they lose there has to be an excuse and the excuse cannot be that they weren’t better that day or the other team was better, they will start blaming everything,” Gavaskar said on the DP World Dressing Room show. “They will start blaming India also because India are playing all their matches in Dubai and why are we not playing our matches at one venue.”
Akram agreed with Gavaskar and said that England complaining about any perceived advantage that India have been handed should have come before Champions Trophy 2025 began and not midway through the tournament after results started going against their way.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Their two commentators, our good friends, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain have said that but, I said, you have to make these noises before the tournament not after the tournament,” Akram said.
Gavaskar was quick to add that it was the duty of England’s representatives to raise these concerns with the ICC and talking about it now doesn’t make sense.
“Their representatives at ICC should be asking why, but the other question is can you go into a tournament without India? India would have said no, then what happens?” asked the former India captain.
‘England can’t win because of their mindset’
Waqar Younis said that the morale of the England team is really low which has become a hindrance for the former world champions.
“Overall when you look at Lahore pitch, you think 325 is very much chaseable, but England’s mindset with recent few games, they can’t win against anything. They are struggling against all teams, on different pitches, they lost to India recently, they lost to South Africa, it has been a struggle,” Younis said on the DP World Dressing Room show. “They never had the confidence. There was only one man standing (Root). That one man could have won them the game but they (Afghansitan) were persistent, they never lost hope and they kept coming back at them.”
Former India coach Shastri advised the England cricket team to start taking playing in Subcontinent “seriously with no excuses” to be recognised as a team that does well on way tours.
“Afghanistan. You guys rock. Kammaaal Kaardi. For England. Take playing in the Subcontinent seriously with no excuses. Only then you will be recognised as a Team that can TRAVEL #AFGvENG #ChampionsTrophy2025,” Shastri wrote on X.
While England have been knocked out, all other three teams – Afghanistan, Australia and South Africa – are still alive in the race for the Champions Trophy 2025 semi-finals .