CHENNAI: "...we did not lose this because of one person. We are losing as a team. I am not saying this because of one person. You are pointing out that because of the captain, I cannot play in every player's place." The frustration of Pakistan captain Babar Azam was visible in his voice on Sunday afternoon in Lauderhill, Florida.
After all, it was the third question about his captaincy since the 15-minute-long post-match press conference began after Pakistan's last T20 World Cup game. They had just come off the field with a win against Ireland, not an easy one, but that was nowhere closer to being the talking point. The 2022 T20 WC runners-up had been eliminated in the group stages with just two wins to show and Babar was not going to let off that easily.
There was a similar theme to every question that followed. Captaincy, his responsibility, the batters not being proactive, the mindset, whether he will resign, on the selection committee and cricketing board back home, they kept coming. And Babar, to a large extent, was repeating the same things - how it is about the team, about building partnerships, about playing together as a group, applying themselves and not about just one individual.
It was only when a question was asked about the pitches, Babar was happy to answer it. He said the pitches should have been better and the weather was bad before adding, "This tournament is supporting the bowlers. The wicket should have been better."
Babar has some ground there to stand, but barely. As much as there have been questions about the New York pitch and weather in Florida, it is in no way the key reason behind Pakistan not advancing to their Super 8s. They fielded and bowled badly to lose against USA from a winning position, couldn't apply themselves against India and lost their first two games.
By that time, their campaign was all but done. From Babar's rotation of bowlers, and batting order to the regular issues that plague Pakistan (fielding, dressing room issues and so on) there are a 'n' number of reasons why they were not able to put out their best.
However, the most important of them all lie at the top of the batting order — Babar and his partner Mohammad Rizwan. The duo have the most prolific partnership in all T20Is, but that might not amount to much when it comes to results, especially in the last year and a half. Since the beginning of 2023, Babar has a powerplay strike rate of 117.57.
His partner Rizwan goes at 132.35 in the same phase before slowing down to 117.76 SR in the middle-overs. In overs 7-16, Babar moves up to 142.15 SR, contrasting to how Rizwan operates. Both the openers have a dot ball percentage well over 40 in the powerplay — Babar 47.7 % and Rizwan 44.5 %. This essentially means, Pakistan would probably have an average of 16 dot balls in the powerplay should both Babar and Rizwan bat through the powerplay.
As much as it is right to say a team cannot lose because of one person, when they have two openers who are in a bubble and then are followed by two more (Saim Ayyub and Fakhar Zaman make up the top four with Babar occasionally batting at No 3 in this WC), it leaves the rest too much to catch up.
In this T20 WC, Babar and Rizwan are in the top ten run-scorers (until the Sri Lanka versus Netherlands game). And coincidentally, they are the only two batters to have a strike rate less than 120 — Babar 101.66, Rizwan 90.9. Against Ireland on Sunday, Babar came in at No 3, batted till the end, and finished with an unbeaten 34-ball 32 in a chase of 107. If not for Shaheen Shah Afridi's unbeaten 13 off five balls, anything could have happened in the end.
If the batting is one issue, the administrative mess that is PCB has been the Achille's heel. They brought back Babar as captain after he resigned from all formats in a span of few months, leaving the team and Afridi, who was the named successor, in a pickle.
For now, let's skip that and just look at numbers. Do Babar, who has not hit a single six in the first six overs of three T20 WCs, and Rizwan deserve a place in a T20I XI? The answer is no. Will Pakistan and those in power take that call and move forward? Well, as Babar said, "The decision is of the PCB."