After failing to qualify for the cricket World Cup semi-finals, Pakistan captain Babar Azam has returned to Lahore from Dubai via a private airline flight on Sunday. The team manager and other Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials accompanied him.
On Babar’s arrival at Lahore Airport, fans raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. The squad that left Kolkata for Dubai on Sunday morning included captain Babar Azam, Iftikhar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, and others.
A second group of 22 members of the team have also left for Dubai from Kolkata, including Shaheen Afridi, Imamul Haq, Salman Agha, Muhammad Nawaz, coaching staff and other players.
Pakistan failed to make it to the semi-finals of the World Cup after a disappointing string of defeats, losing five out of nine matches of the group stage.
Pakistan cricket captain Babar Azam has a defiant reply for all his critics.
“For the last 3 years I was performing, I was also captaining, I don’t think there is any pressure on me. Team decisions are taken by the coaches and the captain, but if anyone wants to give advice, everyone has my number. It’s easy to sit on TV and talk,” Babar Azam said in a press conference.
Azam has been criticised heavily by fans, analysts and former cricketers after Pakistan’s poor performance at the World Cup.
“We have a net run rate plan in our mind, we will pursue it and how we 10 overs and what to play later is completely planned. If Fakhar Zaman plays 20 or 30 overs, we can get the required net run rate,” he said as Pakistan stares down at nearly impossible odds to make it to the semi-finals.
The captain of the national team said, “My performance was not such that people say that there was pressure on me, my goal was to finish well as a batsman. I wanted to try to win, and I bat according to the situation. We plan carefully, but sometimes the conditions don’t favor us to play freely. There are different conditions at each venue. We came to India for the first time, we didn’t know the conditions, and I believe we couldn’t perform as per expectations.”
Talking about the difficulty in reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup, Babar Azam said, “The match against Afghanistan and South Africa should have been won. We will learn from mistakes, the margin for error is very low at this level.”
On the question of the future of his captaincy, Babar said that right now the focus is on the next match.
Before departing for India to play in World Cup 2023, Babar Azam said in a press conference today that his squad has made the Pakistan number one team. “I know who fights for me and for the team,” Azam said.
Babar stressed that there is no pressure to play in India for the first time. “We know about the conditions, we have tried to get information from former cricketers, we are fully prepared for the World Cup, we will try to play well as a team”.
Calling it an honor to play as captain, Babar said that his team is trying to win. “Because of these guys we have become number one, I am not convinced of many changes in the team. We didn’t play well in the two cup matches, the fielding was lacking, and we need to improve. Every match doesn’t have the same mistake, if you cover one mistake, another one happens.”
Discussing strike bowler Naseem Shah’s injury, Azam said, “He will be missed in the World Cup, we will miss him a lot, he used to bowl with Shaheen, and he gave us a different vibe.”
The captain said that ‘Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, in consultation with coach Mickey Arthur, has selected Hasan Ali because he has experience.”I can’t say yet who will bowl with Shaheen. He has given the same message to the national team. We have done it before and still have to do it, our focus is not on one match but on all, from 2019 we are playing eight to nine players together.”
The captain added that spinners are very good. “I agree they have not performed but it is not that they are not good, it is not easy to play in the Pakistan team, they are good then they are in the team.”
Regarding the central contract, Babar Azam said that it is being discussed and will be done soon, PCB has always thought well of the players, this time it will be good too.
Moreover Babar Azam denied rumors of a fight with Shaheen Afridi.
“There is nothing like that, we love each other like family,” said the national team captain.
It should be noted that after the defeat by India and then Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, there were rumors about captain Babar Azam and fast bowler Shaheen Afridi having a verbal altercation in the dressing room.
Later, before his wedding, Shaheen posted a picture with Babar captioned “family”.
