Babar Azam, the captain of the Pakistan cricket team, acknowledged the criticism his team received after suffering their third consecutive defeat in the ongoing 2023 ODI World Cup. Pakistan faced an eight-wicket loss to Afghanistan in their fifth match, held at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

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Opting to bat first, Pakistan managed to score 282/7, with Abdullah Shafique contributing 58 runs and Babar Azam scoring 74. Afghanistan, led by Hashmatullah Shahidi, successfully chased down the target with an over to spare. Openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) and Ibrahim Zadran (87) established a 130-run partnership for the first wicket, while Rahmat Shah (77) and Shahidi (48) guided Afghanistan to victory with an unbeaten 96-run partnership. Notably, this marked Afghanistan’s first ODI victory over Pakistan in eight attempts.

Babar Azam expressed his belief that Pakistan performed well when setting a reasonable total while batting first. However, he expressed disappointment in the performance of the bowlers, who failed to apply pressure on the opposition in the spin-friendly Chepauk stadium.

Babar stated, “Yes, the defeat has been a significant blow for us. Our target was to score around 280-290 runs, which we achieved. However, we fell short in our bowling and fielding efforts. The spinners did not execute our game plan effectively during the middle overs.”

He continued, “We began reasonably well during the middle overs, but we needed to take wickets. The pitch continued to assist the spinners even in the second innings. However, particularly our spin bowlers, failed to find their ideal lengths. We consistently conceded boundaries in each over, which did not create any pressure on their batsmen.”