Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan in action© AFP
Pakistan got off to a forgettable start in their Champions Trophy 2025 campaign as they lost against New Zealand by 60 runs. Opting to bowl first, Pakistan gave away 320 runs after Will Young and Tom Latham smashed centuries. Later, the hosts got bundled out for 260 as their batters completely failed to put up a strong fight against the Kiwis. For New Zealand, skipper Mitchell Santner and William O’Rourke scalped three wickets each. After this loss, former Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal slammed Mohammad Rizwan and co for their poor performance.
In a conversation on ARY News, Kamran asked lashed out at Team Pakistan and called them undeserving for Champions Trophy.
“Zimbabwe aur Ireland ki series ho rahi hai, udhar jaayein. Wahan jaake khelein aur agar hum udhar jeette hain toh hum deserve karte hain (Champions Trophy). Humari iss tarah ki cricket ho rahi hai. Itni neeche gir gayi hai humari cricket pichle 6-7 saal mein. (There’s a series going on between Zimbabwe and Ireland. Go there and play with them. And if you win against them, then only you deserve to play the Champions Trophy. This is condition of Pakistan cricket. Our cricket standards have fallen drastically in the last 6-7 years.)” said Kamran.
During the Champions Trophy opener, New Zealand were struggling at 73/3 but centuries from Will Young and Tom Latham helped them reach 320/5 in 50 overs. Kamran went on to praise New Zealand for their mature brand of cricket.
“They (New Zealand) were three wickets down in the early stages of the match. Look at their maturity that they took time, rotated the strike and started firing only after getting the full control. This is what a mature team does. They always come with a backup plan. Their batter Rachin Ravindra got injured and even his replacement (Will Young) scored a century,” said Kamran.
After the match, Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan admitted that the team made mistakes against the Kiwis.
“They made a good target, we didn’t expect that. We were looking at something around 260. We tried our best and used all tactics, but they played well and put up a good target. We see the pitch conditions, earlier the pitch wasn’t easy to bat but when Will Young and Latham got together batted it got easier. At the end, we made the same mistake like we did in Lahore and they made a good target,” said Rizwan during the post match presentation.
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