Pakistan suffered an early exit from the T20 World Cup on Friday after winning just one of their first three group stage matches. Pakistan’s survival in the tournament depended on Ireland beating the United States, but the match in Lauderhill was abandoned without a single ball being bowled. Babar Azam’s side suffered a shock defeat to the United States in the opening game and then a narrow six-run defeat to arch rivals India.
Babar faced heavy criticism for his leadership throughout the campaign, with former England captain Michael Vaughan harshly criticising the Pakistan captain, saying he was never a good T20 captain. Babar also struggled with the batting, scoring a poor 44 against the USA and being dismissed after just 13 runs against India. He batted third against Canada, but scored 33 runs.
“I don’t see him as a T20 captain yet. I see him as a Test and 50-over captain. He is a better player in that format. In T20 cricket, he has played very well, he is a pure player but he is not good enough to be on par with the top 15 batsmen in the world in T20 cricket. I think there are better players than him in the batting order,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan further stated that Pakistan “cannot blame the weather” for their exit from the tournament and that they should have performed better in their matches against the United States and India. The United States equalised Pakistan’s deficit of 159 and beat them in the Super Over. Against India, Pakistan had a chance to win when they needed 48 runs off the first ball to overcome a 120 deficit, but their team collapsed and fell six short of the target.
“You can’t blame the weather. We should have won against USA and India. If we had won those two games we would have progressed to the Super Eights,” Vaughan said.
“That’s what Pakistan does every time in the World Cup – they beat the big teams. I didn’t think they would come close to India. Pakistan should have won that match.”
“In the game against the US, they played awful. They really defended poorly. The last ball, the fourth run from the Super Over, was awful. The ball went over there, they were running for two, three. Typical Pakistan play. They panicked but the US deserve a lot of credit. They kept their cool, played some good shots and got it over the line.”
They are not a team that excels at playing with a white ball.
Vaughan further added that Pakistan are a weaker team when it comes to the limited-overs format of the game. “I don’t think Pakistan are a strong white-ball team at the moment. Even when they reached the final in the last World Cup, I didn’t think they were a great team,” Vaughan concluded.
Pakistan lost to England in the 2022 T20 World Cup final and had a forgettable finish in last year’s ODI World Cup, finishing fifth with just four wins from nine matches.
