Pitch demanded an extra pacer: Babar

His decision to play an extra paceman may have come for criticism but Pakistan skipper Babar Azam defended his ploy to play Mohammad Wasim Jr against Zimbabwe even as they suffered back-to-back defeats to stare at an early exit from the T20 World Cup.

Days after their heartbreaking loss to arch-rivals India, there was worse in store for the 2009 champions as they were shocked by Zimbabwe by one run to leave their campaign in tatters.

“To be honest, we are not up to the mark in all the three departments. Its very hard as a team and as a captain,” Babar said in the post-match interaction.

Pakistan went on with an extra pacer in Wasim, a move that looked to have paid off initially as he emerged as their top-wickettaker (4/24) to restrict Zimbabwe to 130/8.

But their batting looked out of depth and struggled to chase the paltry total, falling short by one run.

“I dont think so, because this pitch required fast bowlers, so we have that planning, so we have extra fast bowler,” the Pakistan skipper said, defending their pace-heavy ploy.

“When me and Rizwan got out, then Shan (Masood) and Shadab (Khan) built a partnership… But after Shadab got out, we had a collapse, and we did not finish well.” Winless after two matches, Pakistan will now face the Netherlands in a must-win match on Sunday and Babar vowed to come back strongly.

“We have two days, and well sit together and discuss the mistakes and then well come back strongly.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)