Pakistan captain Babar Azam admitted that his players showed a lack of attitude while fielding and they need extra effort in that department of the game after Men in Green’s eight-wicket defeat to Afghanistan in World Cup 2023 on Monday.
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The eight-wicket loss on Monday was Pakistan’s third defeat on the trot after starting the tournament with back-to-back wins. It was also Pakistan’s first defeat in men’s ODIs to Afghanistan.
The stunning defeat literally pushed Pakistan to the brink of elimination as they will need to win all their remaining four matches to be sure of a semifinal berth.
Against Afghanistan, Babar’s men were sloppy in fielding, especially at the boundary and in conceding a couple of overthrows. He blamed it on the lack of attitude from his players.
“Whenever you do fielding, it is only with attitude. And I don’t see any attitude from the team. You need to put in extra effort and be fit,” Babar said at the post-match press conference.
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“You should focus on the ball, not on other thoughts, and when the ball comes, as a fielder, you have to be proactive. So, I think we are lagging a little bit as a fielding unit.”
Pakistan play South Africa on Friday and that will be a make-or-break match for them. Babar said his team needs a new approach in the remaining matches.
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“We will have to go with a different plan, a different mindset, we will try to bring a positive vibe in the team,” said the captain.
“I hope we learn from this loss (against Afghanistan). It will hurt us a lot. We will try to talk about positive things.
“But, we will also talk about the things we did not do well. How we will do it in the future. Because every match is with a different team.” Babar admitted that his team has been sloppy in one department of the game or the other.
“Sometimes, we do well in bowling, (but) we don’t do well in batting. When we do well in batting, we don’t do it in fielding.”
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Pakistan pace bowling attack is rated as one of the best in the world but it has failed to live up to the expectations in this tournament, leaking runs easily.
Babar admitted that the absence of pacer Naseem Shah has hurt the team a lot.
“We are missing Naseem a lot. But apart from that, our bowling lineup is one of the best. But, I think we are not able to click.” He said there is nothing to lose for the side and they will give their best in the remaining matches.
Asked if the team was facing a dip in confidence after losing to arch-rivals Indian in their third match, Azam said, “No, I don’t think so. It’s not like that. We have seen in Australia’s match, we had scored almost three hundred.
“In bowling, we started badly, but we finished up well. But I don’t think we have anything to lose. Every team is a new match, and we try to give our best.”
With PTI inputs
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