ISLAMABAD: England cricketer-turned-commentator Nasser Hussain on Saturday opened up on Pakistan’s poor batting performance against hosts and arch-rivals India in their ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 fixture at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.
Pakistan took a slow start, and it seemed the side would manage to add at least 300 runs on board, but after the dismissal of Babar on 156 in the 30th over, the whole team collapsed and went to the pavilion on 191 in the 43rd over. After the fourth dismissal, Pakistan added just 36 runs, and the rest of the players collapsed like cards.
Commenting on the dismal performance of the Pakistani defensive batting line in such a pressure situation, former England captain Nasser Hussain hit out at the Pakistan team’s batting performance, adding that Babar Azam’s side was themselves to blame for their undoing.
“It’s a collapse that only the Pakistani team can manufacture it,” he said. Nasir Hussain just reminded the harsh reality of Pakistan collapsing in such a situation. He wanted to say that the world was expecting the same from Pakistan as a batting line, like Pakistan can do only this.
During the innings break, Nasser Hussain termed Pakistan a “very up and down” side, which is “levelling off a little bit” under captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
“I often think that it is why Babar and Rizwan bat the way they do because they still feel 50 overs is a long time. But looking at the middle order, they had a few bit of success in the tournament. I think they set their target too high,” Hussain remarked.
Pakistan Batting line
It is worth noting that Pakistan chased the most runs (346) in World Cup history against Sri Lanka during their second match of the mega event. Cricket gurus were of the view that Pakistan’s batting line had become strong after a long time. However, the unpredictability of Pakistan’s batter order proved them wrong, as they scored just 191 runs in the next game.
