Pakistan captain Babar Azam expressed his disappointment with his team’s performance across all three aspects of the game following their unexpected loss to the USA in Dallas.
Despite being finalists in the previous T20 World Cup two years ago, Pakistan was heavily favored to begin their Group A campaign with a win ahead of their highly anticipated weekend clash against India.
However, they delivered a lackluster display starting with a poor Power Play performance after being asked to bat first.
Both Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman managed to hit sixes early on but were dismissed shortly thereafter, with Usman Khan also falling for a low score.
Pakistan’s middle order, known for its inconsistency, faced further pressure when their captain struggled to score 4 runs from 14 balls during the field restrictions.
Despite recovering somewhat from a shaky start to reach 30/3 in the Power Play, Babar and Shadab Khan managed to push the score to 63 in the next six overs.
However, their progress was halted when Shadab and Azam Khan fell in consecutive deliveries from Nosthush Kenjige in the 13th over.
Babar’s dismissal a couple of overs later left Pakistan with an underwhelming total of 159 on a pitch that was becoming easier to bat on.
Reflecting on the defeat, Babar stated, “To be honest, whenever you lose a game, you are always upset.
We did not play well in all three departments.
For six overs, I think we did not capitalize properly, but later on, after the 10th over, we got momentum, but again we lost too many wickets and then your momentum is gone.
So yeah… I think as a batting unit, we need to step it up in the middle and in the end.”
He further added, “Even in the second innings, I think we also got help [from the wicket], but we were not up to the mark in terms of our bowling areas.
We lacked in that in the first ten overs.
We came back after that but they had already taken the momentum.
But given the bowlers we have, we should have defended that total.
On this pitch, I think it was a defendable total for our bowling.”
Babar also acknowledged the need for improvement in their mindset against supposedly weaker teams, stating, “See, whenever you come to any tournament, you do the best preparation always.
You can say it’s a kind of mindset.
When you come up against a team like this, you relax a little.
If you don’t execute your plan against any team, then whatever team it is, they will make you pay.
So I believe that our execution was not up to the mark.”
Leave a Reply