Pakistan cricket team led by Babar Azam failed to make an impression in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. They lost to the co-hosts, USA in the Super Over after the game ended in a tie.
After that, they surrendered at the hands of Team India in a thrilling encounter where they lost by six runs. The Green Shirts managed to defeat Canada and Ireland. However, that wasn’t enough to qualify as they were eliminated from the competition.
On the other hand, Team India and the USA who are placed in the Group A points table qualified for the Super 8’s of the marquee event. Following Pakistan’s exit from the tournament, former fast bowler, Shoaib Akhtar took to his official X (previously Twitter) to post a one-line tweet.
The tweet has gone viral, receiving more than 40,000 likes. The majority of the users launched a scathing attack on Pakistan for their inability to adapt to the conditions.
Pakistan had to rely on another result to go in their favour but that wasn’t meant to be. They needed Ireland to defeat the USA before their final group-stage match against the Irish. Pakistan (+0.294) had a better Net Run Rate than the USA (+0.127).
Nevertheless, the game was washed out due to rain, which means that Pakistan can only reach four points. On the other hand, the USA concluded their group stage campaign with 5 points from four games.
Pakistan signed off the tournament with a win over the Irish by three wickets. After the game, Babar Azam, at the post-match presentation said, “We finished well, we took early wickets in the bowling. In the batting we did not do well but we took it home with the tailenders.”
Furthermore, he said, “Bowling was good as conditions suit our fast bowlers. Batting we made a few mistakes, we had chances to win against USA and India. If the team needs me to open, I will and if they need me to bat 3, I will.”
“Whatever the team situation suits I will do it. We have a good bunch of players, a few days rest and then there is a series. We will sit and assess where we went wrong. As a team we are not good in this tournament, Babar Azam added.