‘This World Cup is an eye-opener for everyone in Pakistan cricket’ – Misbah-ul-Haq | Sporting News India

Following Pakistan’s early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024, former captain Misbah-ul-Haq has requested an urgent need to course correct the mistakes and make changes immediately.

Pakistan suffered back-to-back defeats against USA and Pakistan to start the tournament which put them in a difficult position to finish in the top-two of Group A and as a result, they failed to qualify for the Super 8 phase.

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It was even more concerning for the Pakistan team that they struggled in the chase against Ireland during their final group stage game, after restricting their opponents to 106 runs in the first innings. They managed to get over the finish line, thanks to Babar Azam’s 32* and a 13*(5) inning from Shaheen Afridi. 

What did Misbah-ul-Haq say about the Pakistan cricket team?

The former Pakistan captain was disappointed after Pakistan’s batting collapse against Ireland in the T20 World Cup 2024 match at Lauderhill, Florida, as they crumbled to 62/6 at the end of 11 overs.

“There was plenty of seam in the first innings, which cause a lot of difficulty for the batsmen. Pakistan should have still made a better show out of it.”

Misbah was concerned about the ability of the current Pakistan batters to adapt their game in challenging conditions, saying that such skillful players are needed for the team to succeed. 

He further highlighted that batters these days struggle because they play T20 cricket on high-scoring wickets, which does not improve their skills as it does not challenge them enough.

“I will say that until you have 6 proper batsmen, who can bat in different kind of situations, players who can adapt and change their game according to conditions, you cannot succeed. Batters who have played on only one type of pitches in T20s, and those that do not have enough experience in other formats, will struggle when they have to bat on tricky pitches.”

At the same time, he added that Pakistan batters are not able to play aggressive cricket on flat and high-scoring surfaces either.

“On the other hand, on flat tracks (over160-170 pitches), we have not been able to play aggressive cricket. This World Cup has been an eye-opener for not just the whole team but also for the system including the selectors,” he said.

Misbah, who also had a stint as the national team’s head coach from 2019 to 2021 said that there is a need for proper plans to be put in place immediately, so we can see the results in the future, adding that the poor performance in the World Cup was also due to poor planning by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in the past.

“There needs to be discussion about how we can correct these mistakes. We have been talking about this issue for a long time. If we start planning now, we will only get a result after 2 years. This performance in the World Cup was due to poor strategies put in place 1-2 years ago. We have to do something to address these problems immediately,” he concluded.