Bangladesh batting is more mature than Pakistan side at the moment: Aaqib Javed

During the 1990s, Pakistan had a fearsome bowling unit. With the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, the Asian giants were a feared opposition because of their bowling. One more bowler who had an impressive spell with the Pakistan team back then was Aaqib Javed.

The right-arm quick bowler played an instrumental role for the Pakistan team in the 1992 World Cup win. Recently, in an interview, he has made some jarring comments comparing the Pakistan cricket team with that of Bangladesh. According to the former pacer, Bangladesh’s batting unit is more mature than Pakistan’s.

“At the moment, if you compare the Bangladesh batting with Pakistan, you can see that they are not behind. Sometimes they look more mature and seems to have more options in their batting line up than the Pakistan side,” said Aaqib as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

Bangladesh has achieved more in their limited resources than Pakistan: Aaqib Javed

Javed recalled the time when in the 90s and early 2000s, Bangladesh wasn’t the best team. He pointed out that the investments made by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) into their national academy have helped them bring out the best cricketers. He credited Bangladesh’s development programs which have helped the cricket to grow drastically in recent times.

“I still remember the time when we use to play with Bangladesh. It was mostly one-sided at that time but recently, Bangladesh has come out with really talented players who actually made their mark at the highest level. The reason behind this is that Bangladesh was very consistent in their development side. They have a very good and consistent development plan under their national academy. If I compare Bangladesh’s progress with Pakistan, I think, Bangladesh has achieved more in their limited resources than Pakistan,” he added.

The Bangladesh team has grown from strength to strength in the past few years. They have beaten almost every Test-playing nation in at least one format and have also made it to the Champions Trophy semi-finals. It should also be pointed out that Bangladesh has played more Asia Cup Finals than Pakistan in recent times. Even at the junior-level cricket, Bangladesh made history by winning the U19 World Cup earlier this year.

Coming back to Aaqib Javed, the right-arm pacer retired from the game at a young age of 28. He played 163 ODIs and picked up 182 wickets. He also played 22 Tests and picked up 54 scalps.