Last Update on: November 11th, 2023 at 01:25 pm
Former India opener Aakash Chopra expressed his disappointment with Pakistan ahead of their ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 league-stage match against England at the historic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Aakash Chopra criticized Babar Azam on his YouTube channel, Chopra said Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has not played well in the entire World Cup. Azam has managed to score 282 runs in eight innings in the tournament averaging at 40.29 with a strike-rate of 82.69.
“If we talk about batting, Mohammad Rizwan played well at the start but Babar Azam hasn’t played well in the entire tournament. Whenever he has played, he has played at almost a run-a-ball and we didn’t see any dominating knock, although these are good batting conditions,” said Chopra.
He went on to say that Pakistan does not have that firepower in its middle order. Pakistan has won four out of eight matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 where they lost four on the trot against India, Australia, Afghanistan, and South Africa respectively
“Fakhar Zaman was there at the start, then he wasn’t, and he played well when he came back. However, by the time he came, Imam-ul-Haq was out. Abdullah Shafique is playing and if we see down the order, the might was not seen,” Chopra added.
Aakash Chopra Admits He Had Expected Better From Pakistan
Aakash Chopra said he had more expectations from the Men In Green, adding that they haven’t been playing modern-day cricket. Pakistan will have to beat England by an unimaginable margin if they have to secure a berth in the semi-finals.
“The truth is that it has not been a very good tournament. I will be very honest, I had more expectations from this team. Maybe my expectations were wrong because the way they played the Asia Cup, you could figure out that this team is not playing modern-day cricket,” said Chopra.
After their four-match losing streak starting against India at Ahmedabad, Pakistan bounced back with two back-to-back victories against Bangladesh and New Zealand respectively. However, with an NRR of 0.036. they have to beat England by a margin of 287 runs in order to replace New Zealand in the top four. Even Worse, if they are put to bat second, they have to chase the target in just 2.4 overs which is too far-fetched.
