The Pakistan captain apologised for his team’s performance at the World Cup after they were eliminated in the group stage.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam said his team’s batting did not live up to expectations at the Twenty20 World Cup and apologised to fans for missing out on a place in the Super Eights.
Pakistan suffered the biggest upset of the tournament when tier two teammates United States defeated the 2009 champions in a super over. The loss to arch rivals India leaves Babar’s side with a big hurdle to overcome if they are to progress.
India and USA have secured the two Super 8 spots from Group A, with Pakistan taking third place after a hard-fought three-wicket win over Ireland on Sunday.
“I really appreciate the support and I’m sorry about the performance,” Barbar said after the Florida game.
“I know the fans and the team are saddened by this. This is not the fault of any one player. We all made mistakes.”
Babar had stepped down as captain of all three formats after Pakistan failed to reach the knockout stage of the 50-over World Cup in India last year but has returned to captain the white-ball team ahead of the 20-over finals in the United States and West Indies.
A disappointing performance in the tournament has sparked rumours of discord within the squad, while the Pakistan Cricket Board president promised a “major surgery” on the team after their elimination was confirmed last week.
Pakistan’s batting was extremely disappointing as they failed to make the most of the powerplay overs and were unable to establish any combination.
“The pitching here has helped the fast bowlers a little bit but overall I think our batting hasn’t been great,” Babar said.
“We were in control and yet we lost two important games.”
All-rounder Imad Wasim said the team needs to completely overhaul its approach to white-ball cricket and Babar agreed.
“Cricket is being played so fast that every player has to think. In modern cricket, you have to have game awareness,” he said.
“The strike rate here is [low] … I think it’s a matter of game awareness and common sense.”
