World Cup 2023: 'Not a bed of roses', Shahid Afridi slams Babar Azam for poor captaincy during Afg defeat

Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has slammed Babar Azam for his insipid captaincy during the loss against arch-rivals Afghanistan in the World Cup encounter at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Pakistan lost the game despite posting a challenging target of 283 with a handy 74-run contribution coming from Babar. During the defence, Babar looked devoid of ideas as the field placements allowed Afghan batters to bat themselves into form and eventually coast to a historic victory.

"It is the captain's job to apply pressure, a pacer is bowling and there is no slip? Four are required on 12 balls and you've taken backward point? Apply pressure. What do the Australians do? They take one to two wickets and then put all of their players in the circle to apply pressure, like they did against Pakistan,” Shahid Afridi was quoted as saying by a local sports show.

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The former Pakistan captain said if an individual was the captain of the national team, they needed to take both praise and criticism in their stride.

"Captaining your national side is a matter of honour, but it is not a bed of roses. When you do good, everyone praises you and when you don't, everyone blames you as well as the head coach," Afridi added.

Afridi said the men-in-green were guilty of 'waiting for miracles in the field' as they were not thinking positively.

Babar laments the loss

After the defeat, Babar, during the post-match ceremony said Pakistan were not up to the mark yet again, with fielding letting them down.

"This hurts us. We had a good total. In the bowling, we weren't up to the mark as we are not taking wickets in the middleovers. If you are not good in even one department, then you'll lose the game," said Babar.

"We didn't stop boundaries and gave away runs, that cost us. Bowling - we started well, in the middle overs, we needed wickets but we couldn't take any," he added.

With the loss against Afghanistan, Pakistan succumbed to theirthird consecutive defeat in the tournament after starting the campaign brightly. With a tough fixtures run-in coming, Pakistan can ill-afford to slip up as even one defeat would mean the end of their World Cup dream.

(With inputs from agencies)

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