CHENNAI: All is not well with this Pakistan team. Tagged as a balanced unit before the tournament, the team has lost three matches on the trot. Their qualification to the next stage of the ODI World Cup — the semifinals — hinges on the outcome of the match against South Africa on Friday. Like all results of Pakistan cricket team and their ups and downs, their fortunes are somehow tied with that of their captain.
It’s no surprise that Babar Azam is under pressure, especially after senior former players trained their guns at him and questioned his leadership acumen during the match against Afghanistan, which they lost. Babar would be under the scanner again as the team would seek a turnaround when they take on South Africa here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. If net session is an indication, it did offer a glimpse into team psyche. They were trying to maintain sanity.
Yet there were enough indications of the invisible hands of fate. Whether out of design or coincidence, Pakistan captain was the last to enter nets. Interestingly, the Pakistan Cricket Board issued a statement on the under-fire team, saying that fans should back the players as they try to make a come back.
Pakistan had a long net session in the afternoon on Thursday. Babar arrived after a fielding session but looked sombre and serious. Sources close to the Pakistan team management revealed that Babar was indeed under ‘pressure’ and that the South Africa game was a do-or-die one for his future as Pakistan captain.
Although Pakistan have lost three games in a row, they are not that bad a side as results indicate. They are a talented lot and it is just that they have not clicked as a unit. Pakistan vice-captain Shadab Khan gave an insight into the thought process of his team. He insisted that his team is aware that a loss could end the team’s hopes. At the same time he drew confidence from the fact that Pakistan had come out triumphant from such situations in the past.
“It depends on individual and team. I think that reduces the pressure because you have no option, nothing to lose. If you lose, you’re obviously out of tournament. And there are miracles in our belief. We have full faith in our team. The more positive things you bring to the match, the more you benefit,” said Shadab. ‘’We have under-performed, we haven’t played to our potential. We have been in this situation and our team will bounce back.”
“I think our team has come out of such situations and also performed well in tough conditions, and hopefully from tomorrow our winning streak will start,” said the leg-spinner. Shadab felt that it was time to introspect and play to potential. “You should accept reality. If you are not able to perform, then you should be honest with yourself. Because you know best about yourself — maybe no one else knows about me. So, I think you should analyse yourself.
You should have an honest opinion about yourself. Talk to yourself and try to improve,’’ he said. Pakistan’s spinners have been struggling with four of them taking just six wickets in five matches. Shadab who is generally a leg-spinner, was seen practicing off-spin bowling at the optional net session on Wednesday. ‘’It’s (off spin bowling) is just an experiment. I was just bowling the warm-up balls. That’s it. It’s nothing serious,” he said.
On the other hand, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma is aware that Pakistan on a given day can spring a surprise if they played to potential. “Pakistan are a dangerous lot and we know they haven’t played close to their best yet. But tomorrow (Friday) could be that, so we want to make sure, we are ready for that. We want to exploit their weaknesses,” said Bavuma.
The South African captain revealed that he had before the tournament had thought of Pakistan as one of the four teams that could top the group stages. So despite Pakistan’s poor show so far he was not willing to write off the Babar Azam-led side. “We can’t write Pakistan off. At the start of the tournament, I had them among the top four teams at the end of the group stages, so that is the amount of respect you have for Pakistan. We don’t have a great record against Pakistan in ODIs,” said Bavuma. ‘’Pakistan can be mercurial, which means they can be good one day and not so good the other day. We want to make sure that when they are good, we are good as well.”
After four wins from five games there are talks that South Africa could fall prey once again to the ‘’ chockers’ tag. “I don’t think it’s given us any extra motivation. We looked at ways as to how we can maybe divert our attention away, not necessarily using the ‘chokers’ tag, but how do we address and deal with the precedent expectation,” he said.
