The Pakistani team’s skipper, Babar Azam, took the criticism well following his team’s third straight loss in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023. In Pakistan’s fifth match, played at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium, Afghanistan defeated them by eight wickets.
Pakistan scored 282/7 after electing to bat first, with half-centuries coming from Abdullah Shafique (58) and Babar Azam (74). With an extra second to spare, the Hasmatullah Shahidi-led team successfully pursued the target. After a 130-run partnership between the openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) and Ibrahim Zadran (87), Rahmat Shah (77) and Shahidi (48) led Afghanistan to victory with an unbroken 96-run partnership. Surprisingly, it marked Afghanistan’s first victory over the Men in Green in an ODI in eight tries.
Babar Azam thinks they did a fantastic job of batting first and putting up a respectable score. At the spin-friendly Chepauk ground, the 29-year-old vented his displeasure with the bowler for failing to apply pressure to the hitters.
“Yes, the loss has really affected us. We intended to build 280–290 total walls. When we finally did, however, our bowling and fielding were not up to par.
After the game, Babar Azam observed, “The spinners didn’t bowl as we wanted them to in the middle overs.
“In the middle overs, we got off to a good start, but we needed wickets. Even in the second inning, the pitch continued to favor the spinners. But we failed to reach our lengths, particularly our spinners. There was no pressure on their batters since we gave up a boundary every over, he continued.
In my opinion, our fielding unit could use a little more of that: Babar Azam continued by complaining that his fielders had not been attentive and proactive during the game. According to the captain, Pakistan’s bowling fell short of expectations because the bowlers were more concerned with halting runs than with taking wickets.
“We are unable to click simultaneously in all departments. We perform poorly in batting when we bowl brilliantly. We perform less effectively in fielding when we bat well. The key to fielding is mindset. And I don’t notice the team having any attitude. You must work harder and exercise more. You must be a proactive fielder when the ball is brought to you by keeping your attention on the ball and away from distracting thoughts. That is something I believe our fielded unit could use a little more of.
“We haven’t been able to carry out our plans in the bowling. Your attention switches to preventing runs when you are unable to hit the length you want to and end up giving up boundaries. That puts you under pressure because you keep making blunders, the Pakistani skipper continued.
The No. 1 batsman in ODIs went on to complain that the bowlers failed to bowl within the stumps. He said that spinners who gave away a lot of boundaries would face the same situation.
“Bowlers’ margin of error is relatively little here. You are hit if you bowl slightly outside of the stumps. So, there’s a little something missing there. The stumps prevent us from bowling inside them. The spinners are the same. Because the margin is so narrow, we bowl four nice balls, and then there are two balls that go for runs or boundaries. If you repeatedly bowl in one location, pressure will build. So that item is missing,” continued Babar.
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