Pakistan’s white-ball skipper Babar Azam on Wednesday opened up after losing the fourth T20I against New Zealand saying that he is hopeful that the team will be ready for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024.
The Green Shirts came close to chasing the target down but fell four runs short as all-rounder Imad Wasim couldn’t take his side over the line in the last over.
This was Pakistan’s second loss in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand and their chances of winning the series are over as even with a win in the last match, they would level it.
Talking after the match, Azam hailed his bowlers saying that they managed to restrict them under 180 as he had hoped but an early batting collapse dented their chances of chasing the target.
“I think we restricted them in bowling really well. We were expecting 190-200 but the bowlers stuck to their plans, it was chaseable, but we had a batting collapse. We lost three-four wickets in the powerplay but Fakhar's innings was outstanding. We wanted to chase it with positive intent but we were unable to do so,” Babar said after the match.
“When you lose back-to-back wickets, you need a few overs to catch up but that we got derailed in that period. It was a different surface; we were coming back after a long time, average score is 190 so I think we restricted them well.”
The 29-year-old then stated that he had to make changes in the playing XI due to injuries to some players before adding that the plan was to check our bench strength.
“There were some changes due to injuries but youngsters put in a great effort. Our plan was to give proper opportunity to (test our) bench strength and see where we stand and we wanted to play different combinations. Hopefully, we will have the team ready come the time of World Cup,” he added.
Pakistan vs New Zealand T20I series schedule
April 18 — 1st T20I, Rawalpindi — Match called off due to rain
April 20 — 2nd T20I, Rawalpindi — Pakistan won by seven wickets
April 21 — 3rd T20I, Rawalpindi — New Zealand won by seven wickets
April 25 — 4th T20I, Lahore — New Zealand won by four runs
April 27 — 5th T20I, Lahore
