Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq is making headlines once again after his controversial comments on a local news channel about India's fast bowlers, especially Mohammed Shami.

Razzaq was reviewing India's performance in the World Cup 2019 match against England during which he praised Shami for being a Muslim and giving his best performance for the country but criticized the other bowlers for not living up to expectations.

On Sunday, Mohammed Shami became the 2nd bowler after Shahid Afridi to take 4 wickets for the 3rd successive match in World Cup history. After bagging 4-wicket hauls against Afghanistan and West Indies, Shami picked his maiden 5-wicket haul to stop a rampaging England batting line-up from doing further damage.

"Shami to hai bhi Musalman, jo ki achi baat hai. Wo pura jor laga raha tha match mein (Translation- Shami is a Muslim, which is a good thing and he was trying his best in the match)," Abdul Razzaq told a local television channel.

Don't understand why religion has to be mentioned when looking at the performance of the Indian bowling attack #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/A3INMEEBP7 Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) July 1, 2019

India lost their first match of the 2019 Cricket World Cup to England. Chasing 338, India managed only 306 for 5 off their 50 overs to lose by 31 runs. But what irked Indian fans was the way MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav showed no intent to accelerate at the end when a win was still possible.

The India vs England game was also important for Pakistan who is battling hard to stay in contention for a berth in the semi-finals. Abdul Razzaq is not the first Pakistan cricketer to make a shocking claim regarding the match.

Before India took on hosts England on June 30, former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali had said India will play poorly in their remaining matches to ensure Pakistan does not make it to the semi-finals.

"India will never want Pakistan to make it to the semi-finals. They have matches remaining against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Everyone saw the fashion in which they won against Afghanistan," Basit Ali had said on a TV show on Pakistan-based channel Ary News. "They'll play in such a way that nobody will come to know what has happened. What happened in India's match against Afghanistan? What did Australia do against India? What did David Warner do?"

In fact, after India lost to England, legendary Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis had even questioned the sportsmanship of a few India cricketers.

"It's not who you are...What you do in life defines who you are...Me not bothered if Pakistan gets to the semis or not but one thing is for sure...Sportsmanship of few Champions got tested and they failed badly," Waqar had tweeted.