“We couldn’t finish off close games,” says Babar Azam after introspecting Pakistan’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 journey

Pakistan captain Babar Azam and pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi said mistakes made in their earlier matches proved to be costly as Pakistan were ousted from the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in the first round.

Pakistan started the tournament on a horrid note, losing to the USA and India before beating Canada and Ireland. The two wins, however, were insufficient, as USA finished on five points, one more than Pakistan, to advance to Super Eights along with India.

After beating Ireland by three wickets, Babar said losing quick wickets against the USA and India proved to be costly. “I think with the bowling, conditions suited our bowlers. But in batting, we made a few mistakes in the matches against the USA and India. When you lose wickets, the pressure is on you. We couldn’t finish off close games, and as a team, we weren’t good,” he said at a post match chat.

Babar, however, said although they finished their ICC T20 World Cup 2024 engagements on a winning note, they could have done better with the bat. “Yes we finished well. We took early wickets with the ball. But with the bat, we didn’t finish well. We lost back-to-back wickets, but got over the line in the end,” he added.

The Pakistan captain said the team’s immediate goal is to regroup quickly and added that if the management feels he should step down as the skipper, he would be ready for it. “Let’s see what the team needs and I’ll be okay with it. We have a good bunch of players, we’ve to go home, chat and see where we have lacked and then come back,” he said.

Afridi, who returned with figures of 3/22 in his four overs and smacked 13 runs off five balls, including two sixes, said Pakistan did not play the right brand of cricket and said they have some areas for improvement. “We haven’t played the kind of cricket our country demands, have a few areas to improve on. It’s tough,” Afridi, who was adjudged the player-of-the-match against Ireland, said.