Pakistan batter Imam-ul-Haq has shared an insight into how a defeat to India terribly affected the mentality of Pakistan players leading up to the 2023 ODI World Cup. Imam speaks about the 2023 Asia Cup, where Pakistan were handed a humiliating 228-run defeat by India, thereby also ending their hopes of winning the Asia Cup. In that game, Pakistan were bowled out for just 128, chasing India’s 356. Imam narrated the raw emotions of how that game, and then the loss to Afghanistan during the World Cup, completely shattered the confidence of the Pakistan team.
“The sudden loss to India in the Asia Cup (in 2023) started a downfall. The Asia Cup was a disaster. I saw several of our boys crying, a lot of them locked themselves in their rooms and many of them had stopped smiling,” narrated Imam on the Ultra Edge Podcast.
Following the defeat to India in the Asia Cup, Pakistan were again comprehensively beaten by India in the 2023 ODI World Cup. A few days later, Pakistan’s hopes of qualifying were almost dashed when they were beaten by Afghanistan as well. Imam said that these losses badly affected his teammates.
“I remember the exact picture after the Afghanistan match. Where I was sitting, where Babar (Azam) was, Haris (Rauf) and Shaheen (Afridi) were sitting in front of me and one of them was bitterly crying. Shadab (Khan) was sat in a corner,” Imam said.
Imam Ul Haq: The Downfall of Pakistan started after Asia Cup match vs India.
They cried after match vs India in WC and then crying stopped for a while.
But then it resumed vs Afghanistan where they cried twice:
1. after losing the match
2. after watching Afghan celebration pic.twitter.com/stAoQVV3GE
— Johns (@JohnyBravo183) December 21, 2024
“The downfall started from the India game, and after the Afghanistan loss, it was the end for us,” Imam said further.
Pakistan went on to miss qualification to the semi-finals of the World Cup, leading to Babar Azam resigning from captaincy. Although he was reinstated six months later, Pakistan’s poor white-ball form continued as they got knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2024 in the initial group phase. This led to Babar quitting captaincy permanently.
Pakistan are experiencing a renaissance since then, having won back-to-back ODI series, in Australia and South Africa respectively, under the leadership of Mohammed Rizwan.
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