Pakistan is now out of Champions Trophy without even winning a single match and the last game against Bangladesh was washed out in Rawalpindi. Captain Mohammad Rizwan also spoke about their elimination and highlighted that there were a lot of expectations that came from Pakistan team.
“The expectations from the whole nation is high but we didn’t perform and that is disappointing for us. Obviously, you can learn from the mistakes. Thankfully we noticed our mistakes from the tri-series and the big tournament. Hopefully, we can work on it when we play against New Zealand next and, hopefully we can improve there,” Rizwan stated during the post-match press conference.
“Basically, the guy (Saim Ayyub) who has performed well in Australia and here, he is injured. The team gets disturbed. But as a captain, you have to look forward as you are playing for Pakistan. We have a lot of talent, we didn’t give it as an excuse that Saim Ayyub was injured and Fakhar Zaman was injured,” he remarked.
“Bench strength of Pakistan, we have five teams in Champions Cup. We need lot of improvement in different aspects. We need to bring in awareness and professionalism to take our team to a higher level like other teams. I can’t say anything, it’s disappointing. We’re here representing our nation, that’s our priority. The expectation of our nation was high. It’s disappointed that we didn’t perform well. We accept that, our nation is upset, we’re also upset,” Rizwan added.
Pakistan’s elimination was a record low, as they became the first team in 23 years to be knocked out without winning a single match of the 50-over format. Having lost to India and New Zealand in their first-round games, Pakistan ended Group A bottom with a net run rate of -1.087.
