“I can’t play for all the players”: Babar Azam on Pakistan’s early exit from the ICC T20 World Cup 2024
After a disappointing early exit from the ICC T20 World Cup, Pakistan captain Babar Azam acknowledged that the team failed to perform as a cohesive unit, leading to their lackluster campaign. While they managed to secure a consolation victory against Ireland in Florida on June 16, their batting struggled, requiring a hard-fought effort to secure the win.
“Sir, as I mentioned earlier, the entire team is disheartened. We did not play well as a unit. I want to clarify that we did not lose because of any single individual. We are losing as a team. This is not about blaming one person. As a captain, I cannot take the place of every player,” said Babar.
“There are 11 players and everyone is assigned a specific role. That’s why they came here to compete in the World Cup. I believe we as a team have struggled to execute our gameplan. We need to accept that we simply did not perform well as a cohesive team,” he continued.
“While we’ve reached the finals of the Asia Cup and World Cup and the semi-finals, we were unable to clinch victory on those occasions. Though we take pride in those accomplishments, we acknowledge that we failed to qualify this time. As a team, we accept responsibility for our underperformance and subpar execution. I, as captain, along with the entire team, recognize that we did not play to our full potential,” he added.
“We failed to live up to the expectations we had set. We were unable to deliver at crucial moments. As a player and captain, I take responsibility and do not want to blame anyone in particular. The fault lies with all 15 players. We simply could not play to our potential. But we will sit down together to discuss it and learn from our mistakes,” he remarked.
Pakistan finished their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign with a win against Ireland.
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