Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has made a scathing attack on the Babar Azam-led team after the poor ODI World Cup 2023 campaign in India, saying that players lack professionalism and everything else is just an excuse.
Pakistan were officially knocked out of ODI World Cup 2023 on Saturday after they failed to chase an improbable target of 338 in 6.4 overs in their last league match against England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Riding on Ben Stokes’ attacking knock (84 from 76 balls), England posted a total of 337/9 in 50 overs. Thereafter, the Babar Azam led Pakistan needed to chase the whole target of 338 runs in 6.4 overs to overcome New Zealand’s Run Rate.
However, they lost the wickets of both openers Abdullah Shafique and Fakhar Zaman cheaply and could only manage to score 30/2 after 6.4 overs, getting officially knocked out of the semi-finals race as they finished in the 5th position in the tournament out of 10 teams.
The 41-year-old Malik lambasted the Pakistan team and said that things like too much travelling and schedule pressure are just excuses to hide poor performances.
“Travelling are excuses. The whole world is travelling. Look at India’s calendar. Their pacers didn’t lose pace and swing. It is the , which is missing in our team,” Malik said on the A Sports.
“You ask half of them and they would not know how to recover. In the recent past, we didn’t have any ingredient, which can help you to get rid of cramps. We saw that in the case of Maxwell, they gave him some gels and he played with severe cramps. These are all excuses. Travelling doesn’t matter,” he added.
Malik, who has retired from Test and ODI cricket, also explained why players get the cramps.
“You pick players after one match performance in the PSL. When you go to the crunch situation, your nerves will be tightened and then it will be followed by the cramps. It is not that only because of dehydration you get those cramps, it comes because of pressure as well,” he said.
The former Pakistan captain also requested the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to play their B side if the touring teams are not sending their top sides and also questioned Babar Azam’s captaincy.
“They should make a rule that if the travelling team has sent their B squad, make sure that our B players are facing them for the sake of their development,” said Malik.
“Lack of resources. No street smartness from the captain. We have only won against small teams. He (Babar) has been captain for the past three years and there is no improvement,” he added.
