Despite reaching the finals of the Asia Cup 2022 and giving a tough fight to England team in the recent T20I series at home, in which they lost 3-4, the Pakistani team has come under severe criticism from experts and fans alike.
Though their star batters, captain Babar Azam and keeper Mohammad Rizwan have been a constant presence in the top spots in ICC T20I rankings, both of them have been slammed for their batting strike rates and have been consistently blamed for the Pakistan team’s failures.
However, the PCB chief Ramiz Raja defended his captain and keeper-batter and even involved the Indian team and Virat Kohli as examples in an effort to defend and back Rizwan and Babar and the Pakistani team.
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Speaking to Samaa TV during an interview, Ramiz admitted that the Pakistan team did not perform well in the Asia Cup final, but said that the team has been harshly criticized.
Bringing the Indian team’s performance in the Asia Cup and Virat Kohli into his defense, Ramiz said that once Virat Kohli scored his maiden T20I century against Afghanistan, Indian fans and media had forgotten about their entire Asia Cup campaign where they had failed to reach the final despite being the overwhelming title favorites.
He said that Pakistan fans wouldn’t have done the same if Babar scored a century and would’ve criticized him for his slow strike rate.
“Previously we used to falter at the very first hurdle. Yes, we reached the final and yes we did not play well. But it's okay to have a bad day. But there were others teams as well in the Asia Cup. I mean then India should then have been severely criticized for not reaching the final. But that is not what their fans and media do. I'll tell you...when Virat Kohli scored a century against Afghanistan, they forgot their entire Asia Cup. Will we ever do that? What we say is that Babar Azam scored a ton, but his strike rate was 135 while David Warner's was 147.3. So this is useless,” he said.
After the loss of the Asia Cup, Pakistan lost the 7-match T20I series to England despite leading the series 3-2 at one stage.
