Iftikhar Ahmed's Pakistan career is in jeopardy after a string of poor performances for the Men in Green. Iftikhar, once a reliable lower middle-order batter, failed to deliver for the side in the ODI World Cup as well as the recently concluded T20 World Cup after which he was brutally slammed by the cricket pundits.
PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi called for surgery on the Pakistan team following the team's poor show in the T20 World Cup and said that all non-performers would be axed from the side. Pakistan play a lot of white-ball cricket ahead of the Champions Trophy, with series against Australia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, and if Mohsin Naqvi's words are to go by, Iftikhar would find it hard to get his place back in the Pakistan team unless he makes a remarkable turnaround.
Iftikhar would have a chance to grab attention in the Champions Cup from September 12 where will play under the leadership of Mohammad Rizwan in team Wolves.
Meanwhile, a clip of Iftikhar recently went viral where the batter addressed himself as a tailender. The video seems to be from the training camp for Wolves where a reporter asks Iftikhar about his recent struggles in the middle-order. Iftikhar, however, was quick to point out that he is not a middle-order batter or all-rounder but a tailender.
"Main middle order ka player nhi hai, main tailender hu. Jo middle order ka player ya all-rounder hota hai wo 4 ya 5 pe khelta hai par main 7-8 pe khelta hu isliye main tailender hu (I am not a middle-order batsman or an all-rounder, I am a tailender. Middle-order batters and all-rounders play at 4-5 but I bat at 7-8 so I consider myself as an tailender" Iftikhar said in the video.
Chacha is angry with Pak captain and management. pic.twitter.com/pjjxsodU13
— Usama Zafar (@Usama7) September 8, 2024
Tailender is a term that is used to address batters who have limited batting skills, mostly the bowlers. Finisher might have been the right word for Iftikhar. Meanwhile, his hilarious take left the fans in splits who had a lot of fun mocking the Pakistan star.
greatest tail ender pak has ever produced he deserves to be in IU
— Sidicaprio (@wakeupsidz) September 8, 2024
Ham bhi apko tailender hi samajhty hen, apart from the fact that you can't bowl either @IftiMania
— Ahmad (@ahmadsaleem08) September 8, 2024
Iftikhar Ahmed has played 28 ODIs and 66 T20Is for Pakistan, scoring 614 and 998 runs respectively. His strike-rate has been over a hundred in both formats. He scored a century and a fifty in ODIs and four half-centuries in T20Is. He has also played four Tests but there is nothing to boast about. Overall, he took 25 wickets across formats.