'Does religion teach you to deceive others and lie in the field?' - Ahmed Shehzad lambasts Mohammad Rizwan for playing religion card

Ahmed Shehzad has been quite critical of the Pakistan Cricket Team, which failed to progress beyond the first round in back-to-back ICC events. After finishing fifth in the ODI World Cup last year, the Asian giants bowed out in the first round of the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024.

Mohammad Rizwan, who scored only 110 runs in four innings at the T20 World Cup at an average of 36.66 and a strike rate of 90.90, recently addressed the media and spoke about Pakistan's abysmal performance in the 20-team tournament. However, his comments on his religious beliefs irked Shehzad. Rizwan said that every Muslim is a brand ambassador of Islam wherever he goes.

Also Read: ‘The criticism is justified and we deserve this’ - Mohammad Rizwan breaks silence after Pakistan’s humiliating T20 World Cup exit

“I think that every person is a brand ambassador for two things. If he is a Muslim, he represents Islam wherever he goes in the world. Secondly, he’s a brand ambassador of Pakistan. What people say, we don’t care about that,” Rizwan said.

Shehzad didn't like how cricketers like Rizwan are playing the religion card. The former Pakistan opener launched a scathing attack on the experienced wicketkeeper-batter for his comments.

“It is really disappointing that some players are hiding their poor performance in the World Cup by holding unnecessary press conferences and playing the religion card. Where does religion go when they lie about their fitness and when they admit they were acting on the field? Does religion teach you to deceive others and lie in the field?" Shehzad wrote on X in Urdu.

Shehzad went on to remind everyone that the players are paid to perform instead of being part of some group.

“You are paid to perform on the field and you join the grouping in the team instead. Religion teaches us to fulfill our responsibility with full determination and not to lie about our suffering,” he continued.

Also Read: India played a good brand of cricket and deserved to win: Shaheen Afridi

The 2009 champions started their T20 World Cup campaign with a loss to debutants USA. In their subsequent game, Babar Azam's side went down to arch-rivals India. Pakistan finished their campaign with wins against Canada and Ireland but that wasn't enough to take them through to the Super Eights.