Fans and former cricketers slammed the side as Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup on Thursday. The Babar Azam-led team lost to India in their opening match of the World Cup and failed to chase down the 130-run target against Zimbabwe in the second match of the tournament. Moreover, Babar Azam’s statement at the post-match presentation did not go down well with former cricketers, including ex-captain Salman Butt.
The former Pakistan skipper lashed out at Babar in a YouTube video after the skipper pointed out that the Zimbabwean had scored 10 more runs than expected at the wicket.
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Responding to the comment, Butt said, “Kal se, I have not thought beyond this statement jo hamaare kaptaan ne, hamaare best player ne, duniya ke top player ne baat ki thi, ki 10 run zyada the. Yaar 130 and 10 zyada? How is the statement? 130 bhi bada lag raha hai ball? (I couldn’t move on from our captain, our best player’s statement yesterday. He said they scored 10 runs more. Even with 130 runs, you mean they scored 10? What was that?)” Butt asked angrily.
In fact, Butt didn’t even mince words in his video post. As the session was also attended by Pakistani pacer Wahab Riaz, the video titled ‘Salman and Wahab Babar’s ‘stupid’ statement | The Loss of Zimbabwe”.
Butt took a dig at Babar over the statement. “Where’s the bowler?” Doosri team ke balley gaayab kar lein? Where is Karen? Kaise Zyada scored a goal. Yee baat unhone presentation me kahi hai. (What can a bowler do? Do they start hiding the bats of opposing players? How did that score get so big? He talked about it in the presentation!), declared Butt.
The opening duo of Babar (4) and Mohammad Rizwan (14) failed to get ahead in the runs against Zimbabwe and Shan Masood (44) failed to get in the way as Pakistan fell short of runs. The defeat once again highlighted Pakistan’s weakness in the middle order, which was one of the main concerns of many former cricketers ahead of the tournament.
Pakistan return to action later this week when they take on the Netherlands in Perth on Sunday.