Cricket World Cup: Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman expressed some strong feelings following his country’s dismal batting performance against England.
The Babar Azam-led Pakistan cricket squad was one of the favourites when they qualified for the 2023 Cricket World Cup. It’s a dismal state of affairs as they exit the Cricket World Cup having only managed four victories in nine games during the round-robin phase. Pakistan’s 2023 Cricket World Cup campaign came to an end after they lost to England by 93 runs. For Pakistan to advance to the semifinals, the game needed to be a miracle.
Pakistan was given a 338-run goal by England, and they had to reach it in 6.4 overs—a nearly impossible feat. Even more depressing was the fact that the Pakistani top-order surrendered without resistance.
Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and former captain of the Pakistan cricket team Ramiz Raja revealed some deep feelings during the batting show.
“Even today’s batting display was a wonderful example of cricket in the 1980s. Pakistan cannot continue to believe that they can play this kind of cricket and defeat superior teams that have developed their aggression, strategy, and thinking. All I can hope is that the negative, fault-lines get fixed. This squad requires mental stimulation. since the core will largely not change till the next World Cup. Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi are both very young, according to Ramiz Raja on Star Sports.
“The worst thing is a poor performance when bowling. In comparison to other departments, the spin department appeared completely empty. Their spin game was also a question mark. I had never seen a subcontinental squad play spin so blandly before. I didn’t think Pakistan would be that weak against spinners. They suffered losses against Afghanistan and India. Pakistan was ineffective anytime aggression was required.”
Speaking about the match, England joined the celebration once it was all over and found plenty of reasons to grin as they crushed a demoralised Pakistan by 93 runs in their last World Cup match held here on Saturday.
England qualified for the Champions Trophy, which will be held in Pakistan in 2025, by virtue of winning their last two games and placing seventh in the 10-team standings.
England’s opening-day innings of 337 for nine in 50 overs destroyed Pakistan’s remote prospects of qualifying for the semi-finals.
As a result, Pakistan’s batsmen were unable to retire David Willey’s (3/56 in 10 overs) sharp swinging deliveries or pick Adil Rashid’s (2/55 in 10 overs) googlies, only managing 244 runs in 43.3 overs.
Pakistan’s hitters could not have eclipsed England’s total and defeated New Zealand on net run rate, thus even if they had smashed 40 straight sixes in 6.4 overs, there was absolutely no prospect of them making the cut.
The question of academic interest was whether Pakistan’s batting lineup could survive the pressure of the scoreboard, and once again, Babar Azam’s team batted like it was 1992 rather than 2023.
The two cornerstones of Pakistani batting, Babar (38 off 45 balls) and Mohammed Rizwan (36 off 51 balls), once again found it difficult to get going and allowed the game to drift during their 51-run partnership in 11.2 overs.
