PAK vs SA: Babar Azam Slams 'Absent-Minded' Teammates For Poor Fielding Performance vs Afghanistan

Pakistan captain Babar Azam could not hide his disappointment with his teammates’ poor fielding performance during the embarrassing loss to Afghanistan in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.

Having lost their previous two games, Pakistan were desperate for a win when they locked horns against Afghanistan at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Monday (October 23). While Afghanistan are no longer considered pushovers, not many were expecting Pakistan to lose the game.

However, Afghanistan stunned their fancied opponents by 8 wickets to register a historic win. Pakistan had won each of the seven meetings in ODIs between the two sides before losing the crucial World Cup clash. One of the main reasons behind Pakistan’s loss was their poor fielding. Fielding has never been Pakistan’s forte and it was utterly dismal against Afghanistan as their players made several blunders on the field.

And Babar Azam could not hide his disappointment with his team’s poor effort on the field. Speaking at the end of the game, he blamed his team’s poor performance in bowling and fielding departments for the loss.

“Players are absent-minded during fielding […] don’t know what they are thinking,” said Babar Azam.

“We didn’t perform well in bowling and fielding [departments]. Spinners didn’t bowl well in the middle overs and didn’t put [enough] pressure [on Afghan batters],” he added.

Babar Azam-led side lose three in a row:

Talking about the game, Pakistan scored 282 for 7 in the allotted 50 overs. Captain Babar Azam (74) and Abdullah Shafique (58) scored the fifties. Iftikhar Ahmed (40) and Shadab Khan (40) then came up with fine cameos to help their side recover from 206 for 5 and post a competitive total.

In reply, Afghanistan chased down the total in 49 overs by losing just a couple of wickets. Openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) and Ibrahim Zadran (87) added 130 runs for the first wicket before the latter and Rahmat Shah (77*) added 60 runs for the second wicket. After Zadran’s dismissal, Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi shared an unbeaten stand of 96 runs to take their team home.