Pakistan captain Babar Azam expressed his disappointment over the team’s performance in the third Test against England at the National Stadium in Karachi. The Men in Green suffered an eight-wicket loss to bring the curtains down on the three-match series, which the visitors won by a 3-0 margin.
Chasing 167 runs for victory, England were just 55 runs short of the target at the end of Day 3, with eight wickets remaining. They chased down the remaining runs without losing any more wickets within the first hour of the morning session on Day 4 to win the third Test by eight wickets. This marks the first instance of Pakistan being whitewashed in Tests at home.
Babar also has another unwanted record to his name after becoming the first Pakistan captain to suffer four home Test match losses in a year.
Noting that there were some positives to gather despite the tame series loss, Babar said during the post-match presentation:
“Disappointing series as a team. We weren’t good enough to fight back but credit also goes to England. They played really well. We lost (this game) in the first innings.”
He continued:
“We were good in patches but not consistent overall. (Bowling) It has been a challenge when your best bowlers are not fit. We have a lot of positives to take from this series to take into the next one but we also have to fix up our mistakes too.”
Pakistan lost a home Test to Australia earlier in 2022. Their chances of making it to the World Test Championship (WTC) final are as good as gone, with the 3-0 whitewash defeat against England pushing them down to the seventh spot in the points table.
Babar Azam under extreme pressure as captain
While Pakistan are among the best white-ball teams in the world, evident by their deep runs at the 2022 Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup 2022, the same cannot be said for their Test squad.
Right from the pitches to poor cricket at times, Pakistan have been on the back foot against England’s aggressive approach and could not find a way to recover from it.
The absence of their premier pacers arguably had an impact, while Azhar Ali’s retirement leaves a huge void in the batting order.
The performances of Abrar Ahmed and Saud Shakeel are a few positives that the side can take away as they next host New Zealand for two Tests and three ODIs.
While the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has thrown its weight around Babar in the recent past, another home series loss could be a tough one to recover from.
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