"Pakistan Players Don't Know Who Their Coach Is.."- Wasim Akram

Former Pakistan captain, Wasim Akram has questioned his team’s performances in World Cup 2023. Amid hopes of a complete miracle of Pakistan doing the impossible at the Eden Gardens on Saturday to make their first World Cup semi-final since 2011, the 1992 World Champions stooped to their lowest.

The equations were never in favor of the Men In Green, and their chances almost dashed after England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to bat first against them, but while there were hopes that they could at least finish their campaign on a high, the side incurred a heavy loss in Kolkata by 93 runs. This was the first time ever Pakistan lost five matches in a single World Cup edition while losing four on the trot.

Pakistan’s forgettable World Cup show in India saw skipper Babar Azam immediately becoming the center of attention as fans on social media and experts blatantly criticized his captaincy. Babar’s performance as a batter was also heavily targeted as he managed to score only 320 runs in nine innings, which is 154 runs less than his breakthrough performance in the 2019 World Cup edition where he was in top form.

However, Former Pakistan Seamer, Wasim Akram lashed out at Babar’s critics during his conversation on A Sports and he blamed the faulty system of Pakistan cricket behind the disappointing World Cup show in India. He said that the captain was not the only one to blame for the poor show but it was the fault of an entire system where players don’t even know their coach.

“The captain alone is not playing the game. Yes, he did make captaincy errors in this World Cup and in the Asia Cup as well. But he isn’t alone to blame. This is a fault of the entire system for the last one year or more where the players don’t know who is the coach. You cannot make him the scapegoat here,” he said.

Babar Azam’s Batting Was Affected In This World Cup

Wasim Akram admitted that Babar Azam’s batting was severely affected by the pressure of captaincy. He averaged nearly 40 in the whole tournament and could manage to score only 320 runs in nine innings which was 154 runs less than his previous World Cup campaign in 2019.

“Babar is a star player and when he scores the entire nation becomes happy and proud. But captaincy has put pressure on Babar’s performance. He indeed looked stressed, both in the World Cup and Asia Cup. So he needs to learn how to handle pressure and think only as a batsman and how to get runs when he is there at the crease. It is easier said than done,” he added.

Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who was also a part of the panel, agreed with Wasim Akram saying that when the entire bowling unit and the middle-order batters failed to perform, then we can’t blame Babar alone for this poor World Cup show. He however blamed the team management, the selectors, and also Babar for backing these “out-of-form” resources.

“As a fan of Babar, we did expect that he would be among the top three run-getters. But in Indian conditions, he failed. And in terms of resources, all were toothless. If the fast bowlers and the spinners are not performing then Babar is not the only one to blame. But when it comes to leadership, everyone has to take the blame, whether it is the team management, selectors, coaches and Babar. It is because these resources were picked by them and you backed these out-of-form players,” he said.

Pakistan had a forgettable campaign in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 as they failed to qualify for the semi-finals. They were one of the hot favorites when the tournament started and had a good start with two back-to-back wins but eventually, they went off their track and are now eliminated.