New Delhi: Pakistani skipper Babar Azam was not a happy man after their match against Afghanistan did not go the way the former had planned.
Pakistan suffered their first-ever loss against Afghanistan in ODI cricket as they suffered a huge dent in their ICC World Cup 2023 campaign in the form of a loss by 8 wickets.
The skipper during the post-match conference, Babar went full rage against his teammates and said,” Whenever you do fielding, it is only with attitude. And I don’t see any attitude from the team. You need to put in extra effort and be fit.”
Babar points out the issues within the team
Afghanistan vs Pakistan in ODIs:
– PAK won
– PAK won
– PAK won
– PAK won
– PAK won
– PAK won
– PAK won
– AFG won in World Cup 2023. pic.twitter.com/kx1Igphaoe— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 23, 2023
The Pakistani skipper, in the interview, also said, “You should focus on the ball, not on other thoughts, and when the ball comes, as a fielder, you have to be proactive. So, I think we are lagging a little bit as a fielding unit.”
“We will have to go with a different plan, a different mindset, we will try to bring a positive vibe in the team, I hope we learn from this loss. It will hurt us a lot. We will try to talk about positive things, But, we will also talk about the things we did not do well. How we will do it in the future. Because every match is with a different team,” said Babar on their take for the upcoming matches.
Babar also gave his take on Naseem Shah’s absence from the team, “We are missing Naseem a lot. But apart from that, our bowling lineup is one of the best. But, I think we are not able to click,” he said.
Notably, Naseem Shah was the team’s integral part and was one part of Pakistan’s deadly pace trio, including Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf. He was excluded from Pakistan’s World Cup squad after picking up a knee injury in his Super 4 match against the eventual winners of the Asia Cup 2023, India.
As it happened
And that moment….
❤️🇦🇫#PAKvsAFG #AFGvPAK #CWC2023 #BrandedFeatures #BabarAzam𓃵 #RashidKhan #PKMKBForever #HappyDussehra2023 #विजयादशमी pic.twitter.com/jVaCEOtQ0Y— MINI (@Jeevanyeli50591) October 24, 2023
Pakistan faced Afghanistan on Sunday after losing back-to-back matches against India and Australia and was looking to make their way back to the winning ways, however, the team from Afghanistan has other plans in their head.
Earlier, the Pakistani skipper won the toss and opted to bat first. They got a great start as the openers Abdullah Shafique (58) and Imam-ul-Haq (17) added 56 runs for the first wicket.
Captain Babar Azam (74) played a captain’s knock and took the Pakistani innings forward. Shadab Khan (40) and Iftikhar Ahmed (40) gave the finishing touch as Pakistan finished their innings at 282 for 7.
Noor Ahmed was a star bowler for Afghanistan with 3 wickets under their name.
In reply, Afghanistan started their innings in a grand fashion, adding 130 runs for the first wicket.
Openers Rahmanullah Gurabaz (65) and Ibrahim Zadran (87) set the stage for their team, and Rahmat Shah (77*) and skipper Sahidi (48*) gave the finishing touch as Afghanistan registered their first-ever ODI win against Pakistan by 8 wickets and 6 balls to spare.
