Babar Azam, the Pakistan captain was seen giving an inspirational talk to the entire team after they lost the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2021 to Australia in Dubai on November 11. He also told the players to not point fingers at one another and maintain unity within themselves.
Pakistan came into the semifinals undefeated from group 2 of the Super 12s stage. They had won all five matches in the league stage, including their first win over India ever in a World Cup tournament.
They were looking good against Australia as well, as they posted 176/4 after being put in to bat by Australia captain Aaron Finch. Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan slammed brilliant half-centuries.
They even had Australia tied up in the chase until an 81*-run partnership between Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade took the game away from them in the last 5 overs. Wade was even given life as Hassan Ali dropped a relatively easy catch at midwicket in the penultimate over bowled by Shaheen Afridi.
Wade then hit Afridi for three consecutive sixes to finish the match with 5 wickets in hand and one over to spare.
"Everybody is sad, everybody is feeling the pain. We need to figure out where we went wrong and where we have to improve. No one will tell us this, we all know this. But we have to learn from this," Babar told his teammates in a dressing-room speech shared by Pakistan cricket.
"We have created a unit at the World Cup and this shouldn't break. There should be no finger-pointing. We should go into saying 'he did this, he did this and all that'. We, as a team, did not play well. No one should point fingers at any other person.
We lost, it's okay but we have to learn from this. We will. In the times to come, we shouldn’t make the same mistakes. I am telling you again, we shouldn't let the unit break. We have worked hard to create this. One loss shouldn't force anyone to leave this unit. As a captain, I am backing everyone. We have created a very good atmosphere in the dressing room, one that feels like family. Everyone has put in the effort. Every match, every player has taken up responsibility," he added.
Here is the video:
Babar also said that the loss in the semifinals is hurting everybody but urged his teammates to pick themselves up and focus on not repeating the mistakes in the future.
"We will put in the effort, that is in our hands but the result is not. I know everyone is sad. But this will last for a short while. We will start thinking about where we went wrong and where we should have improved. Don't get bogged down. Try lifting each other. Learn, there is a bit of sadness but we have to overcome that," Babar added.
(India Today inputs)
