File photo of Wasim Akram© Video Grab
England were dumped out of the running for the Champions Trophy 2025 by Afghanistan on Wednesday night, with the 2019 World Cup winners failing to chase down a target of 326. While it seemed like they were in the hunt for the majority of the run chase, loss of wickets at regular intervals led to England’s downfall. Following the defeat, Pakistan legend Wasim Akram and India legend Sunil Gavaskar cracked a joke regarding England’s batting order, and, in particular, about the fact that Adil Rashid has 10 first class centuries.
Rashid had the responsibility to take England home in the final two overs but could only manage 5 runs off 7 balls.
“Whenever I come in the commentary box, a stat guy keeps repeating that he’s got 11 (10) hundreds. I’m sorry Adil, but you didn’t look like a guy with 11 hundreds,” joked Wasim Akram, speaking on the Sports Central channel.
Sunil Gavaskar added to the fun.
“If he’s batting at No.9, how can he get a hundred? He should be opening the batting. This message should be sent to the England team management that he has got 11 hundreds, he should be opening the batting,” Gavaskar added.
England relied majorly on Joe Root to help them chase down a target of 326. Root slammed 120 off 111 balls, but no other batter managed to cross 40. Ben Duckett (38), Jos Buttler (38) and Jamie Overton (32) were the next best contributors.
Batting first, Afghanistan recovered from a top order slump to post a total of 325. Ibrahim Zadran smashed a scintillating 177 off 146 balls, making it the highest individual score in Champions Trophy history.
Azmatullah Omarzai also played a crucial role with both bat and ball, hitting a 31-ball 41 and then taking a superb five-wicket haul.
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