Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram was all praise for the United States of America (USA) after the T20 World Cup debutants qualified for the Super 8 stage of the tournament. After their rain-hit stalemate against Ireland, USA rode on their wins over Canada and former T20 World Cup champions Pakistan to qualify for the next round. The only blip in their campaign came at the hands of India, but they had also given a tought fight to the Rohit Sharma and co. before going down.

Speaking in a video shared by ICC, Akram said USA deserve to be in the next round, especially after beating Pakistan.

“Yeah, absolutely. And congratulations to Team USA. They’ve done amazingly well when you talk about globalisation of the game. This is it USA qualifying for Super Eights,” Akram said in a video shared by ICC’s Instagram handle.

Akram, however, took a dig at the Pakistan team, saying that the while USA will be heading to the next round, the Babar Azam and co. will be boarding a flight to Dubai, before heading back home

“They deserve to be there. They had beaten Pakistan in the round match. So they are there. And for Pakistan was the plan EK 601 to Dubai and then to the respective cities. And then we see what happens from there onwards,” Akram added.

The USA advanced to the Super Eights stage of the T20 World Cup on Friday when their match against Ireland was abandoned, an outcome which meant former champions Pakistan were eliminated.

Ground staff spent hours working to dry the wet outfield at Lauderhill but shortly after the umpires had inspected conditions a huge downpour ended any hope with the field quickly under water once again.

The spot in the last eight also means that the USA have qualified automatically for the 2026 World Cup.

(With AFP Inputs)