The Pakistan team captained by Babar Azam suffered an early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024 following back-to-back defeats against USA and India, to start the tournament.
They were unable to secure qualification to the Super 8 as they failed to finish among the top-two teams in the group stages. USA and India had qualified from Group A.
The team's poor performance has brought out several reactions from both fans and former cricketers in the Pakistan media.
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Former Pakistan opening batsman, Imran Nazir was speaking on Geo News following Pakistan's 3-wicket win against Ireland in their final game of the tournament, where he discussed about issues plaguing the Pakistan cricket team.
What issues in Pakistan cricket did Imran Nazir talk about?
Babar Azam's 34-ball 32 run-inning had guided Pakistan to a 3-wicket victory over Ireland at Lauderhill, Florida in their final game of the World Cup. Pakistan was chasing a target of 107, when they collapsed to 62/6 in the 11th over and it was up to the Pakistan captain to take the team past the finish line.
It was in this context that the host asked Imran Nazir about the criticisms regarding Babar's strike rate in the tournament. He raised the question to former Pakistan batsman, Imran Nazir, on whether Babar is to be blamed for taking a controlled approach (like against Ireland) when the batters around him are failing to score runs.
"A good batsman is someone who can handle all kind of situations. If we look at the Pakistan team, there is only such player who can do that, and I believe that it is Babar Azam. Looking at his performances, he knows how to perform in such difficult situations," Imran Nazir noted.
Nazir agreed with the host that Pakistan's problems cannot simply be blamed on captain Babar Azam's batting and strike-rate because the issue according to him, is with the current team's lack of proper middle order, for which he blamed the lack of grooming in the domestic system.
"I know that there has been a lot of questions on the state of our team because we do not have a good middle order, we did not build a proper one [middle order], even though we talk a lot about our domestic team."
"We lost to USA and then got eliminated from the World Cup, then played against the associate teams, whom we should never take them lightly, because everyone is playing the modern style of cricket, and they have nothing to lose," he said.
Nazir insisted that Pakistan should not take associate teams like the USA lightly because they have nothing to lose, while for established cricketing countries like Pakistan, there will always be pressure to prove their merit in every game.
"Associate teams have nothing to lose but on the other hand, a Test-playing nation like Pakistan will always be under high pressure. There has been doubts raised regarding our batters and bowlers, because there was not a single confident player or performance during the World Cup."
'Matter of skill' - Imran Nazir on Pakistan's poor batting performances
Imran Nazir was concerned about the lack of quality batters who can adapt to different conditions in the Pakistan cricket team, saying that the issue is due to lack of grooming in the domestic circuit.
"Many batsmen complain about the state of pitches, but it is a matter of a skill. We cannot see the kind of skills and grooming that is needed, from the domestic system. Why do we not have such players [middle order batters]?"
He added that Pakistan cricket is under a crisis after their shambolic performance in the World Cup as the management did not pick proper with skills to play in the middle order, highlighting the urgent need to groom players for the long-term.
"We have picked so many players from domestic team, given them chances and they have flopped. You cannot pick players based on their performances from a few matches."
"Losing to associate teams after such poor performances, I have never seen such a worse time [for Pakistan cricket] in my career," Nazir concluded.
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