Who is accountable for Pakistan’s World Cup failure?
After Pakistan lost both of its games in the 2023 World Cup, cricket experts blamed captain Babar Azam for the team’s terrible showing. Afghanistan beat Pakistan by eight wickets on Monday, in their most embarrassing loss to date. They did a great job with both the bat and the ball. On a local sports station, former captain Wasim Akram talked about how badly the team did in the mega event. He said that the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the selectors, the coaches, and the captain were all to blame.
“At the 45-over mark, Shaheen and Haris each had two overs, and Hasan Ali had one over. But we gave the ball to Usama Mir, why?” Who is going to answer these?” Akram said.
He also asked if the Pakistani team’s players were fit.
“It was very embarrassing today.” To lose only two wickets and still get to 280 or so is pretty big. It doesn’t matter if the field is wet or dry; look at how fit the players are. Over the last three weeks, we’ve been yelling that these guys haven’t had a fitness test in two years. Their faces will drop if I start asking for names. It looks like these guys eat 8 kg of lamb every day. He also said, “Should there not be tests?”
In spite of this, former right-handed hitter Shoaib Malik said that captain Babar Azam was mostly to blame for the loss.
He said that Babar’s success as a batsman is fine, but as a leader it’s not good enough.
Part of the group was Moin Khan, who used to be captain. He said that Babar has been captain for more than three years, but “we have not seen anything that he has learned with time.”
“When they need to take a wicket, they don’t bring in close-in fielders.” These kinds of plans have to be used, and close-in fielders should have been used when we played Afghanistan, he said.
Misbah-ul Haq, the team’s past captain, agreed with him and said that bad strategy was to blame for their poor performance.
Misbah said, “During the power play overs, we can see that Haris Rauf is not confident, and in the first over he gives 18 to 20 runs.”
“You should change your plan if this happens every time.”
Malik spoke up and said that the spinning department is also having trouble and can’t do its job. “Saud Shakeel is on your team; why not let him bowl?” Monday’s win was Afghanistan’s first over Pakistan in eight ODIs. It came just eight days after they shocked everyone by beating England in Delhi.
Pakistan’s World Cup quest is in shambles after this loss. They have lost three of their five games so far and will face South Africa at the same venue on Friday. On the other hand, Afghanistan’s season has gotten a little better with two wins in five games. Their next game is on Sunday in Pune against a Sri Lankan team that is also having a rough time.
