T20 World Cup 2022: Babar Azam and his team have been under severe criticism for the past few days. Their loss against Zimbabwe did not go down very well with their fans and experts. Their former cricketers have also been very critical and have questioned the policies that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has in place. After their tri-series victory against New Zealand and Bangladesh, the boys in green were being touted as one of the favourites to win the World Cup, but as of now, the tables have turned.
In the ongoing World Cup, team Pakistan is heavily relying on the results of the other teams, especially the results of the Indian cricket team. Team India's loss against South Africa on October 30, 2022, at the Perth Stadium, has dented their hopes further but they will have some sigh of relief as they have somehow managed to win their last encounter against Netherlands. Babar Azam's troops have no option left but to win all their remaining games and hope that the other teams perform according to their expectations. With the threat of rain looming over the India vs Bangladesh match, the points table is expected to spice up further.
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Just before the India vs South Africa clash, Pakistan had locked horns against Netherlands. Babar Azam's men very convincingly restricted Netherlands on 91, but it was their batting and lack of intent that has been under severe criticism. Pakistan are in a dire need of improving their run rate, but they never made any conscious effort to chase this target down in any hurry. The Pakistan batters took their own sweet time and chased the target down in the 14th over. They also lost 4 wickets in the process. This has riled up Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir as they questioned Pakistan's lack of intent.
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Wahab Riaz said:
We couldn't see any positive intent from the team. Our batters are not in good touch. True, that we won the match, but we could've chased the target down in a lesser number of overs. Atleast, they could have tried. I certainly think that it was a good win, but they could have tried and dominated the game.
Mohammad Amir also reacted to the same and said:
I am happy that they are off the mark. If you are chasing 90-odd runs in 20 balls, you have an open chance. Pakistan should have chased this down in 10 overs just to nullify the run rate factor. They also demoted their best batsman Shan Masood. I am unable to dissect what were they thinking.
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Pakistan will now play against South Africa on November 3, 2022, at the Sydney Cricket Ground
