Exit from T20 World Cup casts gloom in Pakistan

Pakistan may have ended their T20 World Cup campaign on a winning note but the team’s overall performance in the mega event has cast a gloom over the country’s cricket fraternity.

“You get one chance in two years’ time to leave an imprint of your country’s cricket excellence and you fail again. It is very disappointing to see all this,” former captain and batting great Javed Miandad said on Sunday.

The batting maestro said the more he watched T20 cricket, the more he realised it is now a very methodical format and the Pakistan players are not able to keep up with the other teams.

Miandad said the team’s performance against the higher-ranked teams is a matter of great concern, and the Pakistan Cricket Board needs to take some radical decisions now.

Former captain Mohammad Yousuf said a few players had been given too many opportunities to establish themselves in T20 cricket and have failed to deliver in major events.

“It is time to move on and learn from our blunders,” he said. Former skipper Moin Khan said that until Pakistan are not able to defeat higher-ranked teams, it would never win an ICC event.

“You can’t win a major tournament unless you have the capability to beat top teams. Unfortunately, we have made too many mistakes in selection and on the field. More importantly, our main players didn’t fire in the World Cup,” he lamented.

Former skipper Babar Azam, incumbent captain Salman Ali Agha and other senior players such as Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Mohammad Nawaz are facing intense criticism. Agha is expected to step down from the leadership role after returning home.

Saqlain Mushtaq, who has also coached Pakistan in the past, has also faced a lot of criticism for trying to defend his son-in-law Shadab’s performances by putting the blame on head coach Mike Hesson.

“I don’t think former players who sit as experts on these shows should do so if they have their close ones and relatives playing in the team. It is obvious their analysis is biased,” cricket writer Omair Alavi said.