Former Pakistan stumper Moin Khan has claimed that Pakistan players’ looked scared during their Asia Cup clash against India. Pakistan recently suffered an ignominious loss of 228 runs against India in the Super Fours stage of the continental tournament.
Virat Kohli (122) and KL Rahul (111) scored fine centuries to help India post a massive score of 356 runs on the board. In response, Pakistan was skittled out for a paltry score of 128 runs with Kuldeep Yadav returning with a fifer.
Khan feels senior players like Mohammed Rizwan, Shadab Khan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi didn’t pass any suggestions to skipper Babar Azam when Indian batters were piling on the runs.
Moin Khan said in an interview with Cricket Pakistan, “I saw this 100%. The players looked scared, they were hesitant in even giving suggestions to Babar, whether it was Rizwan, Shadab or Shaheen. It was visible that the team wasn’t gelled up. There were no discussions, and even if there were suggestions those were not being followed. And even if Babar was following them, they weren’t working.”
“Another thing is that against Indian players, they get scared. And those who really are scared that their suggestions won’t work… that’s fear. As a cricketer, you have to play on your potential and you should contribute 100%. It’s okay if your suggestions go wrong, it happens. But your body language shows whether you want to win, and that wasn’t visible,” Moin stated.
The 52-year-old feels there might have been some issues in Pakistan’s dressing room, which led to their heavy defeat.
“And I’m pretty sure there were some issues in the dressing room. And I know, in a professional environment, there are differences but you have to end them to perform better. You have to move on,” the former keeper-batter concluded.
Meanwhile, Pakistan suffered a five-wicket loss against New Zealand in the warm-up match despite putting 345 runs on the board. Pakistan will begin their World Cup 2023 campaign against the Netherlands in Hyderabad on October 6.
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