Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja has lashed out at the national team for their poor performance in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024. Pakistan’s campaign was a forgettable one as they failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament. This was the first time that the 2009 T20 Champions failed to go past the group stages of the marquee T20 event.
But what ailed Pakistan? Well, Raja believes that the team’s lack of planning and inconsistency in selection were the main reasons behind their disappointing performance. The former batter pointed out that Pakistan kept experimenting with their opening combination throughout the lead-up to the tournament, which created a lot of uncertainty.
“I think there was no consistency in selection. Their preparations were hot-potch because they didn’t know who was going to open the innings. They were in that experimental mode for a very long time,” Raja said to Star Sports.
A dig at Amir & Wasim?
Raja also criticized the team management’s decision to recall retired players like Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim. While both Amir and Wasim were among Pakistan’s better performers in the tournament, Raja believes that their recall highlights the lack of depth in Pakistan’s bowling attack.
“Then they had to recall retired players. Even though they have been good in patches but what does it tell you about the system? What about the players who were in the queue, trying to get into the team. It just doesn’t set a great example. Plus the fact that there was change at the PCB. Change in captaincy also. I think lot of things didn’t go well for Pakistan.“
In addition to the selection issues, Raja also pointed to the change in leadership at the PCB and the captaincy change as factors that contributed to Pakistan’s struggles. He believes that these rigorous changes created a sense of instability within the team. Passing over his claims, it looks like PCB will make all those sort of changes once more as they mull over complete overhaul once again!
