In the World Cup, Pakistan defeated the Netherlands in their first match. The Netherlands won the toss and decided to bowl. But Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel brought Pakistan to a stable position by establishing a partnership of 120 runs. Both batsmen scored 68 and 68 runs. Shadab Khan scored 32 and Mohammad Nawaz scored the fastest 49 runs.

In the second World matches, Sri Lanka won the toss and scored 344 runs for 9 wickets. They scored more than 300 runs for the first time against Pakistan. Kaushal Mendes scored 122 and Samara Wickrama scored 108 runs.  In reply, Pakistan crossed the target of 345 with ten balls remaining.

Muhammad Rizwan scored 131 and Abdullah Shafiq scored 103, this was the first time that 2 Pakistani batsmen scored centuries in a World Cup match. Pakistan's total is also the highest total in the second innings of the World Cup match.

Earlier in 2011, England scored 338 runs against India to tie the match.  However, Pakistan's strong batting line-up suffered an embarrassing defeat against arch-rivals India in the most important match of the World Cup. Before the tournament, there were also talks about Pakistan's bowling line, but the bowlers could not defend the small targets.  India won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat. The openers provided a start of 41 runs in 8 overs. On one occasion, Pakistan were 155 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in the 30th over. On this occasion, captain Babar Azam was bowled by the opponent bowler's ball as soon as he completed 50, this was the turning point of the Pakistani innings. After that, Rizwan was also dismissed after scoring 49 runs and the entire team scored 191 runs in 42.5 overs.  In the fourth match of the World Cup, Pakistan once again made a mistake and decided to field after winning the toss.

Osama Mir dropped an easy catch of David Warner for 10 runs off the ball of Shaheen Afridi, which cost Pakistan. Australia made 367 runs for 9 wickets. The Australian opener made a partnership of 259 runs for the first wicket. David Warner got out after scoring 163 runs off 124 balls.

Abdullah Shafiq and Babar Azam also left one catch each. The Australian opener made a partnership of 259 runs for the first wicket. In response, the Pakistani team got out by making 305 runs in 45.3 overs. Opener Imamul Haq and Abdullah Shafiq started the Pakistani innings in a confident manner. After completing the partnership of 100 runs, Abdullah Shafiq was dismissed for 64 runs on the score of 134. Imamul Haq, who scored 70 runs in the next over, was also dismissed.  After India, Pakistan faced the second defeat in the tournament against Australia. In the fifth match of the World Cup, the Pakistan cricket team touched the bottom of the low, and Afghanistan, the last ranked team in the World Cup cricket table, created a new history by defeating the favorite Pakistan by 8 wickets by pulling off another big upset.

Due to bad defensive captaincy, Pakistan's hopes seem to be fading. The bowling line, which was considered the strongest, could not defend the target of 283 runs against the Afghan team after the third consecutive defeat and the worst performance. There is still a chance for Pakistan to go to the semi-finals, but it will have to depend on the success of the remaining 4 matches as well as the results of other teams.  In my opinion, there was no place for in-fit Fakhr Zaman in the Pakistani cricket team. Instead, it would have been better if Sarfaraz Ahmed had been given a chance.

Instead of in-fit Naseem Shah, Hassan Ali should have been replaced by Mohammad Amir

Shadab Khan also does not have a place in the team, Imad Wasim was supposed to replace him. There is still time, if these 3 players are replaced, better results can come.

It may be mentioned here that the changes should have been made after the Pakistan’s bad show in Asia Cup. It may be recalled here that the Pakistan cricket team, which was being declared as the hot favorite in the Asia Cup, started its losing streak. In the Asia Cup, Pakistan made a mountain of runs against a weak team like Nepal in its first match. The Pakistani team 342 runs were scored, including Babar Azam's 151 and Iftikhar Ahmed's 109. Against Pakistan's strong bowling, Nepal's inexperienced batsmen lost their courage for 104 runs in 23.4 overs.   In the second match, the Bangladesh team was bowled out for only 193 runs while batting first. Pakistan won this match with the loss of 3 wickets.

In the third match, India scored 356 runs against Pakistan, in response, the Pakistani team did not achieve the desired target. And  also lost the match. In the Super 4 stage, Pakistan won the toss and batted first and scored 252 in 42 overs in the rain-affected match. In response, the host Sri Lanka shocked the strong team of Pakistan by defeating the strong team of Pakistan by 2 wickets after a sensational match and threw Pakistan out of the tournament. Even with this defeat, the Pakistan Cricket Board and their supporters did not think where to make changes and the team that had shown a disappointing performance in the Asia Cup was retained for the World Cup as well.

Meanwhile, some sports analysts say that sports is sports and we should not make it an issue of the ego. God knows why we make sports a problem of our ego, especially in the game of cricket, we should not care about defeat.  They say that we should remember that victory and defeat are not in the hands of man, he can only try and in this regard, not only the captain, but the whole team, it is true that "competition is done by the weak".

This is the reason why Mickey Arthur, the director of Pakistan Cricket Team, expressed his indignation at the ongoing criticism of the national team captain Babar Azam and the team management after the fourth consecutive defeat in the World Cup. Mickey Arthur told reporters that criticism of "Babar Azam, Chief Selector Inzimamul Haq, our coaches and management is unfair. "Our tragedy is that we put all our expectations on one player while the team consists of eleven players. There is no doubt that Babar Azam is the best in the world. But he was under great pressure. And the team captain not only has the responsibility of the rest of the ten players on his shoulders, but also the crowd pressure, and should not be blame for everything.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 01 2023

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