Despite their two consecutive victories, they were unable to turn around their terrible season and guarantee a position in the Super 8.
After Pakistan’s early and stunning exit from the T20 World Cup, skipper Babar Azam set out the team’s next steps.
Pakistan was placed in Group A and suffered back-to-back defeats to co-hosts the United States and then India, their bitter rivals.They rebounded with two wins in a row, but it wasn’t enough to turn their disastrous season around and secure a position in the Super 8.
After finishing their campaign with a win against Ireland on Sunday, Babar admitted that Pakistan has good players, but they have failed to perform as a team.
“We have a decent group of players. We must go home, talk, and determine where we fall short before returning. Couldn’t finish close games; as a team, we weren’t very good,” Babar stated in the post-match presentation.
After reducing Ireland to 106/9, Pakistan’s chase was almost derailed when their middle order struggled against Irish quicks.
As wickets continued to fall at the other end, Babar remained on one end, acting as the anchor. At the end, Shaheen Afridi—who was brilliant with the ball—came in and hit two maximums to give his team a three-wicket victory.
In all facets of the game, Babar evaluated both his own and the Pakistani team’s performance and concluded that they were lacking in the batting department.
“We had a strong finish. We bowled well and got wickets early. We didn’t perform well in the batting, but we still won with the tailenders. Conditions were ideal for our fast bowlers, therefore the bowling was good. When we batted, we had opportunities to defeat India and the USA despite a few blunders. I’ll bat third if necessary, and I’ll open if the team needs me to. I’ll do whatever the team situation requires,” he said in closing.
Because to his incredible ball-handling performance, Shaheen Afridi was named Player of the Match. The 24-year-old conceded 22 runs at a meager economy of 5.50 despite ripping off three wickets in his four-over stint.
Pakistan’s low-run chase was made possible by his period in the powerplay, which stunned Ireland. Wicket was promoting the new ball. Our goal was to attack early and focus on our strong points. It went according to plan. We tried to hit our regions and I thought we should bowl fuller. “In the post-match presentation, we did not play good cricket, which is what our country demands.”
With Pakistan’s hopes of victory in jeopardy, Shaheen arrived at the last end. In an attempt to save Pakistan from further humiliation, he forcefully kicked the ball twice into the stands.
