After Pakistan’s exit from the Asia Cup 2023 Super 4 stage, there have been rumours of a dressing room bust-up between captain Babar Azam and star pacer Shaheen Afridi. Pakistan were on the receiving end of a 228-run hammering at the hands of India, while their narrow defeat to Sri Lanka subsequently was enough for their elimination from the race for the final.
Babar Azam and Co. finished last on the Super 4 points table courtesy of their inferior net run rate and amidst the rumours of the dressing room rift, former Pakistan cricketer Moin Khan has dropped another bombshell take taking up ‘no unity’ in the team.
Moin spoke to Geo TV offering his take on how he felt Babar Azam was left alone on the field, the captain didn’t get any support from players such as Mohammad Rizwan and vice-captain Shadab Khan.
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“We saw in the entire tournament, I’ve commented about it earlier as well… no player walked towards Babar. Neither Rizwan came to him, nor even the vice-captain was coming to him. No one was going to him. It felt everyone was scattered, there was no unity,” said Moin.
As per reports in Pakistani media, Babar had a discussion with his teammates after the defeat to Sri Lanka, urging the senior players to step up, however, the situation became volatile when Shaheen interrupted the 28-year-old.
Moin meanwhile addressed the rumours of the dressing room rift and stated that even if there are some differences in the team, they need to be rectified before the upcoming ICC ODI World Cup 2023.
“You can rectify it before the World Cup. If there are differences and you sort them out before the big event, it helps in uniting the team even more. But of course, it’s not good for the team that dressing room arguments are come out in media,” said Khan.
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“If I’m the captain, and you don’t perform well, I’ll take your name, look at you in the eye, but calmly tell you that we have a lot of expectations from you and we back you, but you need to perform better,” the former wicketkeeper added.
“But if I’m talking about you while not paying much attention to you, you’d feel offended. You’d think I’m making fun of you in front of others. Everyone has an ego. Man management is very important for Babar as well,” the 51-year-old stated further.
Naseem Shah has reportedly suffered a shoulder injury which could rule out the 20-year-old from the upcoming ICC ODI World Cup. Haris Rauf’s fitness has also been a key area of concern for Babar, and with the rumours of a dressing room bust, following their Asia Cup elimination, it is hardly the ideal preparation going into the ODI World Cup in India for Pakistan.
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