Don’t think Virender Sehwag had the talent that Imran Nazir possessed: Akhtar

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar believes that Virender Sehwag’s Pakistani contemporary, Imran Nazir, was more talented than the aggressive Indian but didn’t have his brain and was also let down by the country’s cricket administration.

The 44-year-old believes Pakistan, in general, did not take good care of the talent it had.

“I don’t think Imran Nazir had the brain that Virender Sehwag had. I don’t think Sehwag had the talent that Imran Nazir had. There is no comparison with regards to talent. We tried to contain him a little,” Akhtar told local media.

“When he hit a brutal hundred against India in a side match, I asked them to play Imran Nazir consistently but they didn’t listen.”

Nazir played only eight Tests for Pakistan, scoring 427 runs and featured in 79 ODIs to score 1895 runs.

Imran Nazir featured in 79 ODIs for Pakistan.   -  AFP

Sehwag, on the other hand, scored 8586 Test runs from 104 matches and had 8273 ODI runs from 251 matches.

Criticising the Pakistan cricket establishment, the Rawalpindi Express said it did not nurture the players it had.

“It is unfortunate that we do not know how to take care of our brands. We could have had a player better than Virender Sehwag in Imran Nazir. He had all the shots while also being a good fielder. We could have utilised him brilliantly but we just couldn’t,” he said.

The former pacer said legendary former batsman Javed Miandad played a crucial role in shaping Nazir’s career.

“Whenever Imran Nazir played well, it was because of Javed Miandad. He would be in the dressing room and trying to get him to play. Whenever he played a bad shot Javed bhai would send him a message in order to keep him focused,” he said.