The 2009 champions faced a shocking defeat to USA in their opening match, which they lost in ‘Super Over’ tiebreaker. It followed a defeat against traditional rivals India after being in the winning position for 32 of the 40 overs in the match.
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The team came back to beat Canada in their next match, but with two points from three matches and just a game against Ireland left to play, Pakistan now also require other results to be in their favour to finish second in the group and advance to the next round.
This has led to Pakistan’s former players lambasting captain Babar and his team. In another such video on social media, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt could be seen taking Babar & Co to task.
“There is self proclamation that our captain is the king and the other is world’s best fast bowler,” said Butt, with his fingers perhaps pointing towards seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi. “Sometimes we compare this guy with (Jasprit) Bumrah and him (Babar) with (Virat) Kohli…Okay, you touched ICC (top) ranking at one point, but also touch reality sometime. Are you able to win a match on your own? Is there a standing of our team?
“It’s similar to those YouTube thumbnails that you are enticed to click and open once.”
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Butt added that some of the decisions taken in Pakistan cricket are influenced by social media campaigns.
“Besides its good things, one bad thing about social media is that you can get anything done by paid campaigns…your decisions are based on paid campaigns,” Butt said.
“We should bring these self-proclaimed greats back on earth and (tell them to) stay who they are. First win a match, a big tournament, fight it out to win against a big team, finish a match single-handedly, then think what you want to proclaim,” a visibly angry Butt added.
He said that there is no comparison with India at the moment, who have grown with the game and are mentally a much tougher unit now.
“India is very different from us…Their mental superiority is winning them matches…Because of being consistent, because of playing tougher teams, playing better cricket and giving better results, mentally they are accustomed now. They don’t feel the pressure now like they used to earlier,” said Butt.
“But we haven’t grown. There are changes in cricket every year, but we are not growing with that, so we are getting weaker. The other teams are growing, mentally as well.”