'We saw many of our boys crying': Pakistani star comments on defeat to India in Asia Cup 2023

pc: dnaindia

Pakistan's top batsman Imam-ul-Haq recently gave information about the deep impact the crushing defeat to India had on the mentality of Pakistani players ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup.

Imam recalled the 2023 Asia Cup in which Pakistan suffered a humiliating 228-run defeat to India, completely dashing their aspirations of winning the title. In this match, while chasing India's target of 356 runs, Pakistan team was out for only 128 runs. Imam vividly described the intense emotions after that match as well as the defeat to Afghanistan during the World Cup, which dealt a severe blow to the Pakistani team's confidence.

“The sudden defeat to India in the Asia Cup (in 2023) marked the beginning of the fall. The Asia Cup was a disaster. I saw many of our boys crying, many of them felt themselves Locked in rooms and many of them stopped smiling.”

After losing to India in the Asia Cup, Pakistan faced another crushing defeat to India in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Soon after, Pakistan's chances of qualifying were all but destroyed with a defeat to Afghanistan. Imam said that these defeats had a deep impact on his comrades.

Imam said- “I remember the picture after the Afghanistan match. Where I was sitting, where Babar was, Haris (Rauf) and Shaheen (Afridi) were sitting in front of me and one of them was crying bitterly. Shadab (Khan) was sitting in a corner.”

Imam further said- “The collapse started right from the match with India and after the defeat to Afghanistan, it was the end for us.”

Pakistan failed to qualify for the World Cup semi-finals, resulting in Babar Azam stepping down as captain. Despite being reinstated after six months, Pakistan's poor performance in white-ball cricket continued, leading to their exit from the T20 World Cup 2024 during the group stage. Due to this ultimately Babar had to resign from the captaincy forever. Since then, Pakistan has bounced back under Mohammad Rizwan with consecutive ODI series wins in Australia and South Africa.