Shoaib Akhtar makes shocking claim: There's divide in Indian team, one camp with Virat Kohli, other against

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has made a shocking claim amid India's woeful campaign in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021. Akhtar feels there is a divide in the Indian team at present with the squad divided into two factions, one supporting captain Virat Kohli while the other one is against him.

It has been a disastrous start for the Indian team at the T20 World Cup 2021 as they find themselves languishing at the fifth spot on the Group 2 points table after consecutive defeats in their first two matches. India lost their opener against Pakistan by ten wickets before New Zealand handed them a crushing 8-wicket defeat in their second Super 12 clash.

As former cricketers and experts try to make sense of what has gone wrong with the Indian team in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021, Akhtar has come up with an absurd claim. The former Pakistan fast bowler believes the Indian team is divided into two camps and it's crystal clear that all his teammates are not supporting skipper Kohli on the field.

“Why I can see that there are two camps within the team? One is with the Kohli and one against Kohli. It’s crystal clear. The team is looking divided. I don’t know why this is happening. Maybe it’s because of his last T20 World Cup as a skipper. Maybe he made wrong decisions, which is true. But he’s a great cricketer, and we have to respect him,” Akhtar said on Sportskeeda.

Batting first against New Zealand, the Indian batting line-up was derailed by the New Zealand bowlers as the Kohli-led side could only manage to post 110 runs on the board in 20 overs. In reply, the Black Caps chased down the target with as many as 5.3 overs to spare and won comprehensively by eight wickets to bag their first win in the tournament.

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The Indian team has been facing criticism from all corners after the shocking defeat as questions are being raised over the move to drop Rohit Sharma at number three and allow young Ishan Kishan to open the batting.  The body language of the team was also criticised by many. Akhtar said criticism is important for the Indian team as they played poor cricket against New Zealand and had no plan whatsoever on the ground.

“Yes, criticism is important because they played bad cricket against New Zealand and had the wrong attitude. Yesterday, after they lost the toss, everyone’s heads were down. They had no idea whatsoever. India, you only lost the toss by that time, not the whole match. They were just present there, and had no game-plan whatsoever,” said Akhtar.

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India are now in a must-win situation and need to win all of their remaining three matches against Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia to even stand an outside chance of finishing second in Group 2. India's fate now rests in the hands of the other teams in the group.