Kolkata: Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Rameez Raja, who is busy commentating for the ICC World Cup 2023, came to Eden Gardens and spoke to the Pakistan team on eve of their crucial match against England here on Saturday.
The former captain spoke to the current skipper Babar Azam for a long time and exchanged notes ahead of their last group league game.
Pakistan's elimination from the World Cup is just a matter of time as they have to win by 287 runs against England to qualify for the last-four stage.
However, Pakistan captain Babar Azam made it clear that Pakistan don't want to lose before losing. Initially, the Pakistan team started to play without opener Fakhar Zaman. And now the Babar and Co are relying on that Zaman.
"There's still one match left. This is cricket, many things can happen here. We want to play the last match well," Babar Azam said ahead of Saturday's game against England.
But why such a situation in Pakistan? The Pakistan skipper said, "The loss of the Afghanistan match has brought us to this situation. But at any stage, in any endeavor you should have positive hopes and I firmly believe that. Already Fakhar Zaman has found the rhythm. He is expected to score big runs. A partnership is a big thing. If Fakhar stays in the wicket till 20 or 30 overs, it could be different. Then (Muhammad) Rizwan, Iftikhar (Ahmed) will come down. We have planned for it," Babar said at the pre-match media briefing on Friday.
What is the reason for Pakistan's poor performance? The Pakistan captain was not willing to blame anyone in response to this question. "It cannot be called the fault of bowling, fielding or batting. We didn't do well as a team. We conceded a lot of runs while bowling. As a team we couldn't execute the plan which included bowling, batting, and fielding," he added.
The captain thinks that there was a lack of preparation. "Pakistan had to face problems because they could not score runs, especially in the middle overs of the innings. As the ball became softer, it was difficult to play big shots," he said.
After 1999, critics say that the Pakistan cricket team had no success. Babur Azam refused to accept the fact. According to him, the Pakistan team has played semi-finals in several tournaments in limited overs games.
"But because of the failure in the last step, the overall good game went unnoticed. Good performance in recent Asia Cups has not paid off," Babar concluded.
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