Over a year and a half back, the former Pakistan captain led the charge vilifying Rohit Sharma and his ilk and their association with the IPL. However, Wasim Akram is now apparently floundering about Sharma’s omission from India’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 squad.
Akram was not happy with what he was seeing with India’s talent. In his opinion, young cricketers were going the way of Twenty20 and the IPL and forgoing their technique and learning skills that would have made them better players at the other formats of the game.

Touching upon the inverted manner in which cricketers today see Twenty20 as their meal ticket, he had urged that talents such as Rohit Sharma should be first honed for the ODI format before being allowed to indulge in Twenty20 tournaments.

Indeed Rohit Sharma earned a lot of praise down under during his initial international days with team India. But subsequently he fell off the radar as form began to dip as did his fitness apparently.

Recently given a chance to shine again in the absence of senior Indian cricketers, Rohit Sharma once again displayed the sparkle that first caught the eyes of cricket aficionados. But that, however, was not enough for Rohit Sharma to steal a berth in the Indian team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

The change in Rohit’s batting and attitude did not bypass Akram either who continues to rate him highly as a talented cricketer. But Akram was also quick to point out, that it was only hard work and consistent performance that would ensure that a cricketer would be considered for such huge challenges.