Shoaib Akhtar has declared Pakistan cricket at its lowest point after watching the team collapse for 171 on the opening day of the first Test against England at Headingley.
Pakistan are staring at an innings defeat on Day 3. They trail by 162 runs with only five second-innings wickets remaining. England made 409 in response to that 171, and the match is effectively over.
“Pakistan cricket is completely in shambles at the moment. It’s absolutely shocking to see them reaching so low. They have reached to the lowest point, they even can’t compete with their opponents anymore.”
Shoaib Akhtar, August 2026
Akhtar’s words landed while Pakistan’s second innings was falling apart. Shan Masood made 29 before falling, leaving Salman Agha and Mohammad Rizwan to delay the inevitable.
The first innings told the full story. Josh Tongue and Ollie Robinson shared all 10 wickets between them. Robinson took 5-51 and became the first bowler to take a wicket with the first ball of a Test series in England. Tongue finished with 5-46. Abdullah Shafique made 61 and Imam-ul-Haq contributed 42, but from 117-3, Pakistan lost their last seven wickets for 54 runs. The entire team was bowled out inside 49 overs.
England’s reply was comprehensive. Harry Brook scored 91, Jordan Cox 73, Joe Root 66, and Dan Lawrence 51. Ali Usman took a maiden Test five-for with 5-92, the first by a visiting spinner at Headingley since Ashley Mallett in 1972. But it was damage limitation against a team that had already taken full control.
Babar Azam is ruled out of the Headingley Test with injury. His absence removes Pakistan’s most reliable batter from their most important overseas assignment of the year.
🚨Pakistan has reached it’s lowest point, can’t compete with opponents anymore – Shoaib Akhtar🤯
Shoaib Akhtar said :🗣️
“Pakistan cricket is completely in shambles at the moment. It’s absolutely shocking to see them reaching so low. They have reached to the lowest point, they… pic.twitter.com/eqCoRlhkFT
— Akshat (@Cricketmythos) August 21, 2026
“We are ready to be whitewashed here in England, even Babar Azam can’t save us now. There seems to be lack of young talent in Pakistan which is hurting us badly.”
Shoaib Akhtar, August 2026
Akhtar predicted a whitewash before the first Test is even finished. Two more Tests remain: Lord’s (August 27-31) and Birmingham (September 9-13). Pakistan have not won a Test series in England in 30 years.
The Headingley collapse is not isolated. Pakistan’s overseas Test record since late 2022 reads like a crisis document. They were whitewashed 3-0 in Australia in 2023-24, losing in Perth by 360 runs, in Melbourne by 79 runs, and in Sydney by eight wickets. They lost both Tests in South Africa in 2024-25. Bangladesh, a team Pakistan had beaten in 12 straight Tests before 2024, whitewashed them 2-0 at home in Rawalpindi and then repeated the result in Bangladesh in May 2026. Bangladesh became only the second team to whitewash Pakistan in successive Test series, after Australia between 1999 and 2009.
Pakistan drew the West Indies series 1-1 in July-August 2026, earning their first away Test win in three years in Port of Spain. But even that series started with a 90-run defeat in Trinidad, where Pakistan were bowled out for 120 chasing 211. Babar was named Player of the Series, yet the team still could not win the series outright.
Stuart Broad has already called this Pakistan side a “weaker” team. The Headingley scorecard confirms his assessment.
The Fear That Disappeared
When Akhtar says “teams were scared of us,” he is not romanticizing the past. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Pakistan’s pace attack of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Akhtar himself was the most feared in world cricket. Batters across the world knew that on any surface, in any country, Pakistan had three bowlers capable of ending a match in a single session. That was not reputation. That was a production line.
Those bowlers came through Pakistan’s departmental cricket system, a structure that employed over 400 cricketers across organizations like PIA, WAPDA, and Khan Research Laboratories. In 2019, the PCB abolished it entirely. The regional model that replaced it failed to sustain the same depth. When Akhtar says there is a “lack of young talent,” he is describing the downstream consequence of that decision. At Headingley, Pakistan needed a pace bowler who could change the match with a spell. They did not have one. Tongue and Robinson ran through the batting order while Pakistan’s seamers could not produce the same threat in return.
Aakash Chopra gave Pakistan “grace marks” for their WTC position earlier this year. After Headingley, even grace marks may not be enough. Sarfaraz Ahmed has said Pakistan’s batting collapses remain an unsolved problem, and this match proved him right.
Lord’s and Birmingham are ahead. Joe Root is back as captain, England’s seamers are in full rhythm, and Pakistan’s best batter is injured. Akhtar is predicting a whitewash. Nothing in the Headingley scorecard suggests he is wrong.
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