Pakistan’s nightmarish run in international cricket has once again drawn harsh criticism from its former cricketers. After failing to win a single match in the Champions Trophy at home, Pakistan travelled to New Zealand for a white-ball series with fresh faces and Salman Ali Agha as the captain of their T20I side. But unfortunately, there was no change in the results. They were drubbed 1-4 by a second-string New Zealand side, which was without many of their first-XI players who had flown to India to take part in IPL 2025.
A better performance was expected in the ODIs but nothing changed. Pakistan lost the first two matches of the series to slump to yet another meek defeat in a bilateral series, following which former cricketer Basit Ali expressed his disappointment. Basit said the team ‘betrayed’ Pakistan’s people. He also questioned the old-fashioned way of playing cricket.
“Pakistan team has betrayed us. I don’t know what era of cricket we are playing. Pakistan made a strong comeback after Mitchell’s dismissal but poor captaincy. This is not a Pakistan team; that’s all I can say,” Basit said on his YouTube channel.
Pakistan were at the receiving end of a relentless onslaught from Mitchell Hay in the first innings and then a scorching pace attack spearheaded by Ben Sears’s five-wicket haul. Pakistan was down and out at 65/6, but an inspired counterattacking knock from Faheem Ashraf (73) and Naseem Shah (51) raised a fainthope. Eventually, the constantly lingering scoreboard pressure and the bereft of wickets caused Pakistan to pack their bags on 208, succumbing to an emphatic 84-run defeat, giving away an unassailable 2-0 lead to the Kiwis.
Even though Pakistan enjoyed success with the ball in certain patches of the second ODI, they hardly had a session of dominance with the bat. Out of the top-six batters, including Babar Azam (1), Abdullah Shafique (1), Salman Agha (9), Mohammad Rizwan (5) and Imam-ul-Haq (3), only Tayyab Tahir (13) was able to hit the double-digit mark. At the same time, the rest settled for a single-digit score.
Slamming Pakistan’s top-order, Basit mockingly called the batters “Bradman” and added the team should return without playing the last match to save the fans from further embarrassment.
“The Bradmans from one to six were in single digits apart from Tayyab Tahir. I feel that instead of playing the third match, Pakistan should say, ‘You win, so let us go back to our home; we are homesick.’ This is New Zealand’s C team. I am surprised Naseem Shah didn’t play. Pakistan shouldn’t have scored 200-plus; we should have packed at 140,” he added.
With the series out of their grasp, Pakistan will now look to end the three-match affair positively, set to be played at Bay Oval on Saturday.