23 October – Chennai – Pakistan Captain Babar Azam post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
How will you summarize today’s match and where do you see the campaign after today’s defeat? Should we leave hope or is there still hope?
[Babar Azam:]
Yes, absolutely. This loss was very hard as a team. And the batting and our plan was to total 280-290. And when we achieved that, I think we were not up to the mark in bowling and fielding. You have to bowl well and field well. In the middle overs, the spinners didn’t bowl as they should have. They didn’t put pressure on them. When you bowl well, and you bowl for 3-4 overs, the pressure comes on the other team. I congratulate their team for the way they played. They played outstandingly.
[Reporter:]
Your emotions are telling us that you are sad just like the whole nation is sad. What message would you give to the crores [millions] of people in Pakistan who are following this team? The question from this team is incomplete, do they have any expectations? And the additional burden of the captaincy, is it affecting your individual performance? What do you think about the team’s incomplete performance and the captain’s extra weight?
[Babar Azam:]
You never know. It’s cricket. Anything can happen. We will try to play our best cricket till the end. There are a lot of matches left, we will try to win all the matches. We will try to overcome our mistakes.
As far as captaincy is concerned, I don’t have much pressure on me or on my batting. I try to give my best in batting. I am 100% and I have been doing that. During fielding, I think about captaincy and during batting I just think about the batting. How I should run and how I should run for the team.
[Reporter:]
Babar, we all have a great pride about our bowling line. This is the world’s number one bowling line. But we conceded 300 plus in this World Cup twice. We couldn’t defend in front of Afghanistan’s 282. So, what was the problem with this bowling line? Did the number one bowling line became less impactful because of Nasim’s absence? And the fielding efforts were also looking very clueless. Was it taken for granted? Or was it a complicit effort? What exactly were you feeling?
[Babar Azam:]
We are missing Nasim a lot. But apart from that, our bowling lineup is one of the best. But I think we are not able to click. Sometimes we do well in bowling, we don’t do well in batting. When we do well in batting, we don’t do it in fielding.
In fielding, whenever you do fielding, it is only with attitude. And I don’t see any attitude from the team. You need to put in extra effort and be fit. You should focus on the ball, not on other thoughts and when the ball comes, as a fielder you have to be proactive so I think we are lagging a little bit as a fielding unit.
[Reporter:]
You just talked about attitude and that you are not able to click. So, why are you not able to click? This is also a question that even in the Bengaluru match, the ball was being bowled in such spots where batsmen can cut or drive openly. Even today, the same thing was repeated and the bad fielding made it worse. So, what is the reason for not clicking? Why is there no attitude?
[Babar Azam:]
There is attitude in bowling, as I said, in fielding. You are not able to execute – because sometimes what you want to do is not happening. Sometimes what you want to hit the length is not happening. And when you get boundary in that, you try to wrap up as soon as possible, give as less runs as possible. In that you keep making mistakes back-to-back. So, there is pressure. I think because of that pressure we are not able to apply what we have learned.
And I think… Look, when we came here, I saw that the margin of error is very low for bowlers. If you bowl a little bit away from the wicket, you will get hit on that ball. So, we are lacking there a little bit. We are not able to bowl within the stumps.
And for the spinner, we bowl 4 good balls and then 2 balls that we get boundary or some runs. Because you get less margin.
If you bowl consistently at one place, then there will be pressure. So that thing is on one side, and on both sides that thing is missing.
[Reporter:]
The match against India is such that if you win, then you get a lot of confidence. Do you think that after India’s defeat, Pakistan is still under pressure? Is it so?
[Babar Azam:]
No, I don’t think so. It’s not like that. We have seen Australia’s match we had scored almost three hundred. In the bowling, we finished well. We started badly in bowling, but we finished up well. But I don’t think we have anything to lose. Every team is a new match, and we try to give our best.
[Reporter:]
Do you think the target you put on board was sufficient enough to defend on this wicket?
[Babar Azam:]
I think yes, we 10-15 run short because against quality spinners, one of the best quality spinners they have and we just try to play normal cricket till 40 overs and then we have a charge in the last 10 overs. And then we will do that in the last 10 overs.
But yes, we had a target of 280 to 290.
[Reporter:]
We have seen that our bowlers are not able to take wickets and make impact in the last three matches. Are we over trying in nets or are we trying to do different variations due to which we are not able to control the flow of runs? Which means, whichever bowler you have, he is giving a score of 6 or 7 in every over. If we talk about spinners, Usama Mir is also off colour today. His fielding was also very loose and our other bowlers also didn’t bowl on the line. So, what is the reason? What do you think? Are we over trying or not planning in that way? Are we not targeting batsmen? Are we not looking at their weakness?
[Babar Azam:]
I think we are over trying in the match. In practice we are up to the mark. But in the match when you have good runs on the ball, we move away from our target. And when you get hit there, you try to finish it in the minimum. But this is not an excuse. As a professional you have to do this that we execute the plan given to you so that is not being executed
[Reporter:]
Babar obviously team must be very disappointed at this point so as a captain what message will you give them in the dressing room so that they can bounce back and regain confidence
[Babar Azam:]
I hope we learn from this loss. It will hurt us a lot. We will try to talk about positive things. But we will also talk about the things we did not do well. How we will do it in the future. Because every match is with a different team. We will have to go with a different planning. We will have to go with a different plan and a different mindset so we will try to bring a positive vibe in the team
[Reporter:]
There is a campaign going on against you on social media are you taking any effect from that? Is there any pressure from that?
[Babar Azam:]
Sir, I don’t even know what is going on, I don’t even watch it.