Approaching this world tournament, Pakistan suffered quite a few losses, New Zealand backed out of the tour 20 minutes prior to the start of the series. Due to which England also refused to tour. So basically, Pakistan did not have any international match practice. Subsequently, PCB decided to hold the National T20 Cup to give players some practice before their departure to the UAE.
Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam had his debut tournament as captain. 13 players out of the 15 nominated for the WC were playing their first WC, only Hafeez and Shoaib were the ones who played earlier. Then the schedule of Pakistan’s matches was also kept such that their first 3 matches were up against the tougher teams of the group. On the other hand, India’s matches had lengthy breaks in between.
Even then Pakistan’s team defied the odds, did the unthinkable, did something which has not been done in the previous 13 attempts – defeating India in the World Cups. Going on to tell New Zealand that there was no security issue in Pakistan and letting Afghanistan know that it was Pakistan that helped them in their need of the hour.
Across 5 group stage games, Pakistan produced 5 different men of the match which shows the team effort. The semi-final match was against Australia which was closely fought till the 19th over. Pakistan missed at least three run-out chances and then the famous catch drop, had it been taken story could have been entirely different, but then again it’s all part of the game.
We’re still proud of you all, you did your best and made us proud. You can only go higher from this effort and may Allah help you all in your future endeavors when it comes to Pakistan cricket.
To many of us, beating India was the World Cup-winning moment for us all.
Osama Writes 