Pakistan cricket team deserves all the criticism in the world for losing their first T20 World Cup 2024 encounter vs USA on Thursday. They were poor with the bat and the ball, and skipper Babar Azam’s captaincy and a few decisions weren’t impressive either. If one was to dissect the reasons for the loss, there’d be plenty — alleged rift between Babar and Shaheen Afridi, poor team selection, and how things are run in the PCB..but then we need to cut them some slack.
Fatigue Setting in on Pakistan Cricket Team
One of the biggest reasons why Pakistan team didn’t perform to their potential in the PAK vs USA match, could be because the players are mentally and physically exhausted. While everyone has been talking about how poor have they been, no one has spoken about how, they’ve been on the road for the last two months.
Pakistan’s Hectic Schedule & Travelling
The PSL 2024 started on Feb 17 and ended on March 18. In that one month, the matches were spread across four venues — Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, and Karachi where the final was also played. All the teams were stationed in Karachi since March 9. From there on, the players went to the North, in Kakul, where they had military-style training from March 26 to April 8.
After a small break, they played a series vs NZ in Rawalpindi and Lahore April 18-27. Then came the Ireland series, from May 10-14 in Dublin, that they won 2-1. Just a week later Babar Azam’s team played vs England in four different locations — Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, where two matches were washed out due to rain.
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Finally, come the T20 World Cup, Pakistan cricket team land in Dallas on June 1 and play vs USA on June 6. Because of their crammed schedule, they don’t play any warm-up match. And now again, Pakistan flew to New York and land on June 7, for match vs India on Sunday.
More Travel Unloading for Babar Azam & Team
It seems like Pakistan cricket team is unlikely to get rest anytime soon, as after their match vs Canada on June 11, they will head to Lauderhill, Florida, where they play against Ireland on June 16. And if the team manages to reach the Super 8s, then they would travel to the Caribbean as well.
