No pointing fingers, maintain the team bond, says Pakistan captain Babar Azam after T20 World Cup semis exit
Pakistan had the upper hand for majority time against Australia in the second semi-final of the Men’s T20 World Cup in Dubai but eventually were knocked out, thanks to Matthew Wade’s heroics.
After the game, captain Babar Azam, batting consultant Matthew Hayden and bowling consultant Vernon Philander were seen sharing inspirational words in the Pakistan dressing room. Azam said that the team should maintain unity and not point fingers at one another.
“First of all, I want to thank everyone from the (team) management. Everyone is pained and is thinking about where we went wrong and where we could have done better. Nobody will tell us this, we all know it. We have to learn from it. This unit of ours should not be broken,” said the skipper.
“No one should point fingers at others. We have to accept that we haven’t played well as a team. There should be no finger pointing. Everyone should look at the positives. We have lost, that is fine. It happens. We will learn from this and not repeat the mistakes in future. I am requesting all of you that this bond of ours should not break. This does not happen overnight and we should maintain this unity and not let one loss bother us.”
Pakistan had 49 to defend in the last four overs but Australia got home with an over to spare.
“As a captain I received great response for the team. It was a great environment, like that of a family. Everyone put in a lot of effort and no one shied away from taking responsibility. This is what is expected from a team,” added Azam.
“The effort is in our hand and the result isn’t. No one should feel sad or deflated. We should think about where we went wrong and how we can improve.”
“These are the times when you should support each other and not pull anyone down. I shouldn’t hear about anyone pulling a teammate down. Learn from this and enjoy. The pain will stay for a while but we have to overcome it. Wish you all the best,” he concluded.
