KARACHI: The Pakistan cricket team played their third game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 against arch-rivals India in Ahmedabad on Saturday. However, the result didn’t go Pakistan’s way as they suffered their first defeat of World Cup 2023 and that happened in the game that mattered the most.
Pakistan were invited to bat first and they got bowled out for 191 at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium. They suffered an embarrassing defeat in front of the 100,000+ crowd of Ahmedabad.
Pakistan’s skipper, Babar Azam, scored his first ODI fifty against India today. However, his fifty did not benefit Pakistan that much.
Babar not being able to score big in important matches remains a big concern for team Pakistan. Despite being the No.1 ODI batter, Babar has continued to disappoint the fans in big games.
Babar came in to bat when the score was 41/1. He scored 50 (58) but when the platform was set to launch the attack, he got out to an ordinary delivery by Mohammad Siraj, and afterwards, wickets kept tumbling and Pakistan could not post a sufficient total. Although, the rest of the batters were also quite disappointing but a player of Babar Azam’s caliber should have done better.
This wasn’t the only occasion when the ‘King’ of Pakistan team failed to deliver in an important game. It has already happened thrice this year (excluding the WC23 game against India).
Previously, in the game against Sri Lanka (in World Cup 2023), when Pakistan had to chase 345, Babar was dismissed by Dilshan Madushanka in the 8th over of the chase as he tickled the ball down the leg-side. The delivery wasn’t that extraordinary but the skipper got out on that and disappointed his supporters. Babar only scored 10 (15) in this game.
During the Asia Cup 2023 encounter against India, Pakistan were bowling first and they conceded 356 runs against India. Indo-Pak encounters are always high-voltage games and chasing 357 isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. With high hopes from Babar, he once again disappointed his fans and only managed to score 10 of 24 before giving his wicket away to Hardik Pandya.
After losing to India in the Asia Cup 2023, Pakistan had to face Sri Lanka in a must-win contest. Pakistan was batting first in this encounter and a Babar special was needed in this match because he is the captain and premier batter of the unit. However, he once again got out cheaply for just 29 of 35 balls.
In 2023, we have seen on four different occasions that Pakistan team is in trouble, and Babar has failed to rescue the side properly.
Since 2022, Babar’s form in multi-nation tournaments has been dull. In World T20 2022, Babar only managed 124 runs at a mediocre average of 17. The Asia Cup 2022 was no better where he scored 68 runs in six innings averaging 11 with the bat. In Asia Cup 2023, Babar averaged 51 with the bat scoring 207 runs in the event but out of these 207, 151 runs came in one innings against Nepal.
The World Cup 2023 has not started well for Babar with the scores of 10 (vs Sri Lanka) and 5 (vs Netherlands). He did get a fifty against India, but it was of no use for Pakistan.
The fans still remain hopeful that Babar will start to score big in crucial games, and hopefully win some matches for Pakistan with his batting performances.
Bazif Jabbar Passionate Cricket writer and Commentator. Sharing the magic of the game through words.- Babar Azam
