Former England cricketer and well-known pundit Nasser Hussain has shared his thoughts about Pakistan’s chances of making it into the Semifinals of the ongoing ODI World Cup. Babar Azam-led side has been one of the most aggressive teams in world cricket and has frequently found itself on the verge of securing a semi-final ticket, depending on the results of other games.
The Pakistani cricket team, which is vying with other teams to get to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 semifinals, is unsure if it will place among the top four after the end of the league stage, as they might need few results to go in their favour to make into the semifinals of the showpiece event in India.
Speaking on Star Sports, Nasser Hussain feels that Pakistan has the habit of finding themselves in the same position in the ICC events more often than not and believes that the England side will beat the Men in Green in their final ODI World Cup, to give them no chance to qualify for the final four stages.
“Pakistan has got a habit of depending on others in every ICC tournament. Instead of depending on others, they should work on their game. They are left with two big games against NZ and Eng. I bet Eng will beat Pakistan. Pakistan has beaten the 7th, 8th, and 9th teams this World Cup. They should not get excited,” Nasser Hussain said.
Cricket fans often feel the same way about Pakistan’s inconsistent performance, which is reflected in Hussain’s commentary. Pakistan frequently performs admirably against lower-tier teams while having difficulty against more formidable opponents. Pakistan may find it challenging to guarantee its semi-final position without depending on other outcomes due to this inconsistency.
Pakistan’s dependence on the performance of other teams is not a recent development. Pakistan encountered a similar circumstance during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England.
The Men in Green struggled early in the group stage and were forced to rely on India’s outcome versus England in a pivotal league game to stay in the running for the semi-finals also the team had qualified for the semifinals of the 2022 T20 World Cup following South Africa’s defeat to the Netherlands.