Misbah-ul-Haq shockingly blames India for Pakistan's downfall ahead of blockbuster Asia Cup clash
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Former Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq has made a massive claim surrounding the recent downfall faced by the Pakistan team in international cricket ahead of the Asia Cup and has blamed the likes of big cricketing nations like India, England, and Australia for deprioritizing bilaterals with the green army.
Just ahead of Pakistan's Asia Cup 2025 campaign, a former player has made a huge remark on the current struggles within the Pakistan side and has cited a huge concern that went unnoticed even to several cricket pundits.
The last three years of the international calendar would undoubtedly be the most forgettable years for the Pakistan Cricket Team. They have been knocked out of the group stages of the last 3 mainstream ICC tournaments, and their standings on the ICC World Test Championship points table have also been shameful.
Former Pakistan skipper's mindless attack on India for Pakistan's downfall
Just before Pakistan begins their Asia Cup campaign on the 12th of September, former skipper Misbah-ul-Haq has claimed that Pakistan cricket's downfall in recent times is due to their lack of exposure to competitive cricket alongside top teams like England, Australia, and India.
India and Pakistan have stopped playing bilaterals for over a decade, while the other above-mentioned teams also rarely play against Pakistan. Pakistan are mostly focused on facing weaker teams, which do not challenge their players a lot, hence hindering player development.
"Pakistan doesn’t play against India, and only faces big teams like England and Australia once every two years while continuously playing against smaller teams, then how will the Pakistan cricket team improve?" said Misbah-ul-Haq as quoted by Pakistan media.
Pakistan Cricket's current form in International Cricket across three formats
The Pakistan national team are currently going through massive turmoil in international cricket, amid which they even made some changes in their central contracts offered to players, made some tough calls for the Asia Cup squad, and lastly also announced their decision to cut their player share of ICC revenues.
As far as performances in recent tournaments are concerned, Pakistan have performed very weakly, as they have lost two of their last 3 Tests and 9 of their last 11 ODIs matches. Moreover, in the shortest format of the game, they had lost 7 of their 14 T20I matches until the recent tri-series, where they lost only one of their 5 matches.
Currently, they have dropped to 7th in ICC Test rankings, while they are 7th in T20Is and 5th in ODIs.
Pakistan won the UAE Tri-series just days before the Asia Cup 2025
Ahead of the Asia Cup, Pakistan played a tri-series involving Afghanistan and the UAE in the United Arab Emirates. This helped the players with some more game time on the UAE grounds.
However, many had claimed Afghanistan as the second-best Asian team, while some were in support of Sri Lanka to pose a challenge to India in the Asia Cup. However, Pakistan was not considered in any aspect.
Skipper Salman Ali Agha re-established the hope within the Pakistan team and led them from the front as Pakistan beat Afghanistan twice in the tri-series and won the series to mark a grand opening to their Asia Cup preparations.
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