The Pakistan team led by Babar Azam suffered their second straight defeat in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 as they shockingly lost to Zimbabwe in Perth by one run on Thursday, October 27. Earlier, the Men in Green had lost to India in MCG by 4 wickets.
Pakistan failed to chase down 130 against a lowly-ranked Zimbabwe on Thursday, as the Zimbabwean bowlers, especially Sikandar Raza and Blessing Muzarabani kept the Pak batters under pressure. Openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam failed for the second time in a row.
Earlier, Mohammad Wasim’s 4 and Shadab Khan’s 3 wickets kept Zimbabwe to 130/8 in 20 overs.
"Embarrassed" by Pakistan's shock defeat to Zimbabwe, which has put the former champions at risk of not making the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, ex-players lashed out at the "average mindset" and team selection.
Fans and former players turned on captain Babar, PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja, chief selector Muhammad Wasim and head coach Saqlain Mushtaq on social media.
"Very very embarrassing and disappointing. The fact is you have to play hard to even beat a team like Zimbabwe they wouldn't be defeated by themselves. Our selections have been average and our mindset has been average and it has landed Pakistan cricket in this mess today,” Shoaib Akhtar said.
Former Test opener Mohsin Khan also shared his disappointment at the loss against Zimbabwe.
He said: “Is this where our cricket has come to? We can't score 130 runs against a low-ranked team like Zimbabwe. If this is our batting quality then God helps our cricket. Zimbabwe bowlers were disciplined and persistent and it was clear they wanted to win this match more than us.”
One of the greatest batters to come out of Pakistan, Javed Miandad questioned the player selection.
He said: “This is what happens when you allow the non-performing batter to remain in the team and keep deserving players out. I have said it before international cricket is not a place for learning and unfortunately, every time the team has done badly we have tried to sweep it under the carpet by saying they are learning. Seeing the way some of our batters threw their wickets away it was shameful because they are professional cricketers.”
Former captain Rashid Latif said Thursday's result had left the World Cup wide open and made it more interesting.
“It has become a very difficult situation for Pakistan now to qualify for semi-finals but overall it makes the tournament open and shows you can't take any team lightly nowadays,” he added.
Salman Butt, another former Pakistan captain slammed the team's performance and also questioned Babar's captaincy.
“These players were not just equipped to play well in Australia and once Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Azam didn't get going the writing was on the wall for us. I have been saying all along you don't make someone a captain so that he can learn while playing and leading the national team. You only appoint someone as captain when you know he has the required leadership qualities to lead the other players well,” he said.
Pakistan will face the Netherlands on Sunday.
(PTI inputs)
