DUBAI: Struggling to conceal a resigned look on his face after his team suffered a comprehensive six-wicket defeat at the hands of India on Sunday night, Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan had no qualms admitting that the defending champions’ campaign was over.
“For now, we can say that it’s over. This is the truth. As a captain, I don’t like depending on others. If you are good enough, you show it by winning and keeping things in your hands. Waiting on other teams, I don’t like worrying about their results. What matters is that India and New Zealand beat us. We accept it. They played strong and we didn’t play well. If we get a chance (to sneak through) then so be it,” Rizwan told reporters.
Their exit from the tournament was confirmed on Monday when New Zealand beat Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. It is the third ICC white ball tournament in a row in which they’ve been shown the exit door before the knockouts begin – the 2017 Champions Trophy winners also crashed out at the league stage in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup.
One of the biggest reasons why Pakistan lost the match was because they ended up with a sub-par total batting first. “When you lose, you’re obviously disappointed and it’s a difficult time, difficult questions come up. We made mistakes in all three departments, that is why we lost today. In our team meeting before the game, we said we’ll target 270-280, given the outfield and the pitch was slow. If we’d got 280, the result might have been different. Saud and I started building up a partnership, over which we took some time, but after that our shot selection was poor. That gave them a chance to take wickets and put pressure on our middle order,” Rizwan said.
Pakistan were let down by their fielding too, as they dropped a couple of important catches. “India’s effort was greater, they were braver than us. That is why they got the result. When we had to show enough bravery in some moments, we didn’t do it. In our fielding, we needed to show more energy, but we were lacking in that as well,” Rizwan said.