Pakistan fans were extremely disappointed with their team’s performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Babar Azam’s team lost two and won as many games from four matches to finish third in Group A. This early elimination drew harsh criticism from Pakistan fans and former players.
Pakistan surprised everyone when they opened the tournament with a Super Over defeat to co-hosts USA. This opening defeat proved to be a defining moment for Pakistan as they missed out on second place.
Speaking to Michael Vaughan and Adam Gilchrist, former Pakistan player Mohammed Hafeez, who will serve as team director from November 2023 to February 2024, also slammed the team.
Recalling an incident during a Test match, Hafeez said, “Gilley, if players are sleeping in the dressing room and you are playing Test cricket, if four-five players are sleeping in the dressing room, should you as a team director allow that?”
The question was posed to Gilchrist, to which Vaughan laughed and replied: “Are they tired?”
Hafeez explained, “I really don’t know. I went into the dressing room and there were four-five players sleeping in the dressing room during a Test cricket match. I thought, ‘how can you guys allow that to happen?’ If you do things like this, you can’t be part of this team. Stay focused during and outside the match. Whatever you do, it’s your life and I will never get involved. But during the pro time of the match, stay focused on the game. Stay in touch. If you are a fast bowler, you can take a rest, take an ice bath but you need to be focused on the game of cricket just like the opposition team. You can’t switch off during the match but unfortunately the media didn’t like that.”
The Pakistan national team structure has been in a lot of turmoil over the last couple of years, with Shaheen Shah Afridi replacing Babar as captain after the ODI World Cup in 2023. However, just before the T20 World Cup, Babar replaced Shaheen as captain.
