Star batsman Babar Azam, who set a record of becoming the highest-scoring Pakistani at a World Cup Tuesday, said there was no grouping in the team Pakistan. Speaking at a news conference along with opener Imam-ul-Haq, here on Tuesay, Azam said "When we lose a match, we start to hear about grouping in the team. We started hearing about grouping after the loss to India." However, he ruled out any possibility of grouping in the team.
About the World Cup 2019, he said that defeat in the match against West Indies hurt Pakistan's chances of making it to the semi-finals of the tournament. "We suffered until the end of the World Cup 2019 because of their loss to the West Indies in their first group stage match," he said. Answering a question about being handed the captaincy of the side, Azam said, "It is the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)'s decision whom they want to give the captaincy. My work is to play cricket."
To another query about the players in the team, Azam said, "No player out of the 15 that went to play the World Cup-2019 was a 'railu katta'. All the players were picked on their performance." When asked about coach, Azam said, "It does not matter who the coach is, our job is to perform." Regarding his record of becoming the highest-scoring Pakistani at a World Cup, Azam said he was happy breaking a legend's record. "It is an honour to break a record of legend such as Javed Miandad."
Babar said that after losing the match against India, it was natural that whatever the players did would be used to criticise them. "It happens. I too can do it and so can he [Imam], sometimes even during batting," Babar said of the infamous Sarfaraz yawn that became the fodder for countless memes on social media. Agreeing with his teammate, opening batsman Imam-ul-Haq requested the media and public to criticise their cricket if they so wish, "but please keep our personal lives a little separate".
Imam also asked for "time" when a reporter compared Pakistani batsmen performances with the splendid knocks by two other South Asian players: India's Rohit Sharma and Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan. "This was our first World Cup. We are around 24 years old and will take a bit of time [to reach that level]," Imam said, adding: "It was premature to expect Virat Kohli-like performances from them after only 40-50 matches."
When asked about the presence of Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq on the tour, Imam said, "Presence and absence of chief selector on tour does not affect the team's performance. Whenever he has accompanied the team, he has always motivated the team. You cannot blame the chief selector for the team's chaotic and shambolic performance in the World Cup."
Imam acknowledged that the Pakistan team should have won their World Cup match against Australia and regretted that his performance in that game contributed to the Green Shirts' loss. "That match was very much going in our favour and I was set [on the pitch]. But then I got out and Pakistan was let down because of me," Imam said. Babar Azam also said he should not have gotten out in the match against Australia. "It was my mistake that I played a bad shot. If I hadn't been dismissed maybe there would have been good results."
Vowing to improve his performance in future, Imam said, "I wanted to contribute more, but that's life. Humans learn from their mistakes and so will I." When asked to comment on reports that the selection committee would be dissolved, Imam said, his job was only to perform and these matters were for the PCB to decide. Imam said there was no questioning the fact that Pakistan's fielding in the World Cup had been "terrible", but dismissed the idea that the players were not receiving enough fielding training.
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