Ramiz Raja has criticised the media response to Pakistan’s disappointing campaign in the 2023 World Cup, and asserted that the team needs to “start afresh” on multiple fronts after the competition ends.
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Pakistan are playing their final match of the World Cup against England at Eden Gardens today. While they were not mathematically out of contention for a semi-final position before the game, it would have required a near-impossible margin of result for them to overtake New Zealand in the points table on net run rate. Pakistan have won four matches in the tournament, but suffered losses to India, South Africa, Afghanistan and Australia. Those losses, and the manner of some of the defeats have provoked calls from prominent voices in Pakistan’s cricket media for Babar Azam to resign the captaincy.
Speaking on Test Match Special during England’s innings in Kolkata, Raja was asked what Pakistan should do with Babar after the competition.
“That’s a big question actually,” he answered. “He’s mulling over a few things. I had a chat with him yesterday and he’s depressed. I think, what has happened back home is obviously there’s been a massive backlash as expected but it’s the way they’ve targeted certain players, and especially Babar Azam, during the World Cup campaign is not great or has not been great. Our media can be absolutely cold-hearted.
“He was down and out, Babar. But it’s the World Cup so you’ve got to take the heat somehow. You see the problem with this team is that it has the potential to play modern-day cricket, it’s just that they’ve been shy and they’ve been timid in their approach. A few of the players have been out of form as well… I think there’s a lot of pressure on him, and I think he has to decide himself what he wants to do.”
Babar is currently Pakistan men’s captain across all formats. In ODIs, he has the highest win percentage of any captain in the side’s history (69.64 per cent), having led Pakistan in 28 ODIs since 2020. Prior to Pakistan’s final batting innings in the competition, Babar has scored 282 runs in the tournament, with four fifties at an average of 40.28.
Raja was also asked what direction Pakistan would take with the whole team after the tournament.
“If Pakistan are to take a new direction, eradicate the faultlines, I think they need to start afresh,” he said. “Not a new team exactly because these are young kids. But it’s about how they want to shape up at the world stage. So it has to be a DNA alteration situation, and address the issues. What is happening at the domestic level? At the U19s? Because it can’t be only the top tier that is forced to play in a certain way and you don’t have any process and any young players playing the same kind of aggressive cricket or modern-day cricket.
“So it has to work in cohesion. It’s about addressing the entire process and rebooting and reassessing where Pakistan are right now and what can be done. I think the nucleus will remain the same, Babar is going to be as important as he is right now. But who knows? There is so much pressure on him that he may leave the job after this World Cup and play as a regular player. He didn’t share the secret of what he wants to do after this World Cup, he was not really pleased with how the attack has been mounted on him back home.
“It’s just that they need to start again with maybe a new leader, maybe a different coaching staff, maybe things to do at the first-class level, at the U19 level, just reassess the situation and move forward.”
Asked who, among the players currently in the Pakistan set-up, could replace Babar as captain, Raja said: “Shaheen Afridi, he leads his local [Pakistan Super League] franchise, and then you’ve got Rizwan, Shadab is vice-captain. I don’t know whether they want to go with Shadab, Rizwan or Shaheen Shah Afridi but I think out of the three they will probably nominate one.”
