Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has claimed that Imran Nazir was a more talented batsman in comparison to Virender Sehwag but he didn’t have the brain which the explosive Indian opener had.
“I don’t think Imran Nazir had the brain that 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 was quoted as saying on a TV show by Cricket Pakistan.
He, however, believes Pakistan didn’t use Nazir well else the team would have had a better player in him than Sehwag.
“When he hit a brutal hundred against India in a match, I asked them to play Imran Nazir consistently but they didn’t listen,” he said.
“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 added.
Nazir played just 8 Tests, 79 ODIs and 25 T20Is for Pakistan, amassing 427, 1895 and 500 runs in the three formats respectively. On the other hand, Sehwag represented India in 104 Tests, 251 ODIs and 19 T20Is in which he scored 8586, 8273 and 394 runs respectively.
