Pakistan's captain apologizes for his team's performance in the World Cup after being eliminated in the group stage.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam said the team's batting let them down in the Twenty20 World Cup and apologized to fans for failing to reach the Super Eight stage.
Pakistan suffered the biggest upset of the tournament when the United States, a second-tier member of the game, beat the 2009 champions via the Super Over. The defeat to arch-rivals India left Babar's side with a mountain to climb to advance.
India and the United States took the two Super Eight spots from Group A, while Pakistan finished third after Sunday's hard-fought three-wicket win against Ireland.
“Thank you very much for supporting us and sorry for that performance,” Babar said after the game in Florida.
“I know the fans and the team are sad about this. It's not any player's fault. “We all made a mistake.”
Babar had resigned as captain of all three formats after Pakistan failed to reach the knockout stage of the 50-over World Cup in India last year, but was reinstated as white-ball captain ahead of the 20-over final in the USA and the West Indies.
Amid lackluster performances in the tournament, rumors of divisions within the camp emerged, while the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board promised “major surgery” to the team after his departure was confirmed last week.
Pakistan's batting was a big disappointment as they failed to make the most of the powerplays and failed to establish partnerships.
“The pitches here helped the fast bowlers a little bit, but I think overall our batting didn't work,” Babar said.
“We lost two crucial games even when we were in charge.”
All-rounder Imad Wasim has said the team needed a complete reset of its approach to white-ball cricket and Babar agreed.
“Every player has to think because cricket has become very fast. With modern cricket, you have to be aware of the game,” he said.
“You know the strike rate here is [low] … I think it comes down to awareness of the game and common sense.”
