Pakistan suffered a five-wicket defeat against England in the final match of the T20 World Cup 2022 on Sunday. According to Pakistan captain Babar, a different outcome would have been possible had fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi not been injured during the game.
Afridi had injured his knee while taking the catch of Harry Brooks. He was brought into the attack in the 16th over but could only bowl one ball and Iftikhar Ahmed had to complete that over. As a result, the bowling balance was affected.
Ben Stokes hit a six and a four on Ahmed as the pressure created by Pakistan eased after that.
“Maybe if Shaheen could have bowled that over, things would have been different. And since there were two left-handers (Stokes and Moeen Ali) and I thought of bowling an off-spinner,” argued Babar.
“Since we didn’t build a partnership, we went on the back foot. The England bowlers were brilliant but that’s no excuse. We played according to the situation but we were under pressure till the 20th over. Had Shaheen been there, it could have been be different.”
Pakistan’s middle order did not perform to their potential and they paid the price scoring only 137/8, at least 20 runs short of the par score at the MCG.
However, the captain thought otherwise.
“I won’t blame the middle order for our loss. We win and lose as a team. After scoring 85 (84) in 11 overs, we should have scored at least 150. But that’s how cricket works.” The beauty is. Every day is not the same,” said the Pakistani captain.
The captain commended his teammates for their excellent performance at the end of the tournament.
“Yes, losing the final hurts but how we played our last four matches (including the final) goes to the boys,” Babar said.
“We have lost and I can understand that questions will be raised. But it is too early to predict and we need to discuss a lot of things,” he said when asked whether some things need to be changed in their setup.