The Pakistani cricket team is having the worst nightmare of its life. The 1992 World Cup champions have continually faced severe criticism from both fans and former cricketers for their successive poor performances. The story started from elimination in the league stage at the ODI World Cup in 2023 to the shocking group stage loss at the T20 World Cup 2024. Pakistan's struggle still continues as they recently ended the two-match Test series with 0- 2 lost to Bangladesh, adding another loss on their home ground.
These losses led to numerous changes in the team's leadership as after the ODI World Cup debacle, all-format skipper Babar Azam resigned as captain and pacer Shaheen Afridi was appointed as the white-ball captain, while Shan Masood was still is always in charge of the team. in Testing.
Shaheen was removed from the captaincy after a 2-0 defeat in a four-match T20I series against England and Babar was handed the captaincy again with the white ball in March this year. However, Babar's second stint could not last long as he recently resigned from his position again to focus on his batting.
Commenting on the entire situation, veteran Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin stated that this constant change of captaincy has led to Pakistan's dismal show in all matches.
“I speak the truth when I say that the current state of Pakistani cricket and the phase they are going through makes me a little sad. Because some of the most exceptional cricketers have played for Pakistan, and it was such a great team. If you look at it from a cricketer's perspective, this is a proud cricketing nation. And where do they lack skills? They have so many skilled players,” Ashwin said in a video that has gone viral on social media.
Ashwin you beautiful! The man talks about cricket without any partiality. #PakistanCricket pic.twitter.com/VQ4rKsGjfn
— Syed Ali Imran (@syedaliimran) October 4, 2024
“And sometimes their whole musical chairs situation is really something. The music keeps playing and all they think about is getting a chair; that's what it feels like. In the 2023 World Cup they lost, and then Babar (Azam) resigned. Then he resigned sacked (Shaheen) Afridi became captain, but Babar was reinstated for limited overs, and Shan Masood was appointed as Test captain And look at the situation now: Pakistan hasn't won a Test match at home I haven't won a Test match for a long time , maybe about 1000 days. It's been almost three years,” he added.
Ashwin also stated that one of the biggest problems with Pakistan is that their players are more focused on individual goals than the team.
“What would I think as a cricketer? Should I focus on my game or the team? Any cricketer will be so unstable in the dressing room that he will start thinking about himself and less about the team,” Ashwin said.
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