Ramiz Raja has criticised the media response to Pakistan’s disappointing campaign in the 2023 World Cup, and asserted that the team needs to “start afresh” on multiple fronts after the competitionend
Pakistan will play their final World Cup match against England at Eden Gardens today. Even if they had not been mathematically eliminated from contention for a place in the semi-finals before the match, they would have needed a near-impossible margin to overtake New Zealand in the points table from a net run rate perspective. Pakistan won four matches in the tournament but lost to India, South Africa, Afghanistan and Australia. These losses and the circumstances in which some of these defeats took place have led to prominent voices in the Pakistani cricket media calling for Babar Azam to step down as captain.
During the Test Match Special during England’s innings in Kolkata, Raja was asked what Pakistan should do after the match against Babar.
“That’s actually a big question,” he replied. “He’s thinking about some things. I spoke to him yesterday and he’s depressed. I think it’s clear that what happened at home was a massive backlash as expected. The way they targeted certain players during the World Cup season, especially Babar Azam, was neither good nor great. Our media can be downright cruel.
“He was depressed, Babar. But it’s the World Cup, so you have to manage the heat. You know, the problem with this team is their chances of playing modern cricket. She was just shy and timid in her approach. Some of the players were out of form as well…I think he’s under a lot of pressure and he’s not very confident in his approach. I think you need to decide for yourself what you want to do.”
Babar is currently the captain of the Pakistan men’s team in all formats. In ODIs, he has led Pakistan in 28 ODIs since 2020 and is the captain with the highest winning percentage (69.64 per cent) in the team’s history. Before Pakistan’s last bat of the tournament, Babar had scored 282 runs in the tournament. His average of 4 50 points is 40.28 points.
Raja was also asked about the direction Pakistan will take as a whole after the tournament.
“I think if Pakistan wants to move in a new direction and eliminate fault lines, it has to start from scratch,” he said. “It’s not a new team, especially since they’re a young team. But it’s how they want to perform on the world stage. So there should be a situation of DNA change, and the question is It has to be fixed. What is happening at the national level? What about U19? Because you can’t just be forced to play a certain way in the top league, there’s no process, you don’t have young players playing the same type of attacking cricket or modern cricket.
“So we have to work together.” It’s about tackling the whole process, rebooting and reassessing where Pakistan currently stands and what it can do. I don’t think the core will change and Babar will be just as important as he is now. But who knows? The pressure on him is so great that he may even quit his job and play as a regular player after this World Cup. He did not reveal what he wanted to do after the World Cup and was not very happy with the way the attack was playing at home.
“But they have to start again, maybe with a new leader, maybe a different coaching staff, maybe with things to do at first-flight level and under-19 level, just to reassess the situation and continue. Please.”
When asked who among the players currently in Pakistan’s team could take over as captain instead of Babar, Raja said, “Shaheen Afridi, he is leading the local franchise (Pakistan Super League). Then there is Rizwan and Shadab.” captain. I don’t know if they want to name Shadab, Rizwan or Shaheen Shah Afridi, but I think they will probably pick one of the three. ”
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