Former all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez came down heavily on Pakistan captain Babar Azam after the Men in Green lost a close encounter to India in their T20 World Cup 2022 opening match at the MCG on Sunday, October 23.
In front of over 90,000 people, Pakistan lost a match that was in their grasp until the last three overs began.
Batting first after losing the toss, Pakistan posted 159/8 with Iftikhar and Masood scoring half-centuries. In reply, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah reduced India to 31/4 in 6 overs. But then Virat Kohli (82*) and Hardik Pandya (40) added 113 runs for the 5th wicket.
When India needed 48 runs in the last three overs, Kohli began by hitting Shaheen for 3 fours in the 18th over, then hit Rauf for two sixes in the 19th over, and then also hit Nawaz for a six off a no-ball in the last over of the chase.
Mohammad Hafeez was totally unhappy with Babar’s captaincy in such a high-pressure game against India.
"Babar Azam's captaincy is like a sacred cow that cannot be criticized. It's the third consecutive big game that we are seeing flaws in Babar captaincy, but we keep hearing that by the time he gets to the age of 32 he will learn. In today's match, from the 7th over till the 11th over, when India were struggling for even 4 runs an over, why did Babar not fulfill the spin quota overs in that timeframe," Hafeez said as a guest on a Pakistani channel.
On the other hand, Babar was all praises for his bowlers and then lauded Virat Kohli for taking the game away from them and winning it for India.
"Our bowlers bowled really well. All credit to Kohli and Pandya. It wasn't easy with the new ball. We had partnerships after 10 overs. We had a chance. We tried to stick to our plans. But credit to Virat Kohli. In the middle we decided we wanted a wicket and held the spinner back. We had a lot of positives. The way Iftikhar played and the way Shan played," he said at the post-match conference.
(NDTV inputs)
