The former Primer Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has blamed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and its chief, Mohsin Naqvi, for questioning their poor performances in various aspects of the team after their shocking and embarrassing defeat during the opening game of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan didn’t enjoy the first of the two Tests, as they were handed a 10-wicket defeat to the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side, which is their first loss of the format against this respective country. The struggle of the bowlers and then the fall of their batters on the fifth day was the biggest reason behind their downfall.
Imran Khan, the former captain of the national side, spoke from the central jail- Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, highlighted the consistency of coming up with disappointing performances of the team in the recent past, and pinned the blame on the current administrations.
“Cricket is the only sport the entire nation watches with great interest on TV, but even that has been destroyed by powerful quarters who brought in an unqualified, favored official to maintain their control.” He said as quoted by his ‘X’ account (formerly known as Twitter).
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“For the first time, we (Pakistan) didn’t make it to the top four in the World Cup or the top eight in T20. And yesterday, we faced an embarrassing defeat against Bangladesh, setting a new low. Just two-and-a-half years ago, this team had defeated India by ten wickets.” The 71-year-old veteran, Imran Khan, expressed. “What has happened in these two-and-a-half years that we lost to Bangladesh by ten wickets? The blame for all of this collapse falls on one institution.”
Under the captaincy of Babar Azam, they made a group-stage exit from the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA) after some of their peculiar performances.
Imran Khan accuses Mohsin Naqvi of Pakistan’s string of poor performances
The Lahore-born all-rounder, Imran Khan, has questioned the qualification of Mohsin Naqvi for his position as he felt some of the decisions taken by the administrations of the PCB have affected their team’s performances across formats.
“Mohsin Naqvi owns property worth five million dollars in Dubai under his wife’s name. He was involved in the wheat procurement scandal and was behind the most fraudulent election in our country. What are his qualifications? Under him, the law-and-order situation across the country is deteriorating.” The world-cup-winning captain, Imran Khan, for the Green Brigade, remarked.
With the defeat, the home side now has lost five of their last nine red-ball games at home, besides drawing four more encounters, which shows how much they have struggled in the longest format of the game at home recently.
It was a very surprising decision from the team management to go with an all-pace attack, as they left out their spinner not only from the playing eleven but also from the squad. They struggled with the bat at the start of the first innings before making a comeback thanks to the runs coming from the bat of the middle-order batters.
The pitch has changed hardly during the five days, which never allowed the bowlers to get much assistance off the surface. The Bangladesh batters kept on marking partnerships consistently and gained a valuable lead from their only innings. Their spinners came in action for the last day and shared seven wickets between themselves to roll over the home side for a paltry score at the end.
Now, the Shan Masood-led side needs to back their skills and come up with a better performance to deny a series defeat against Bangladesh.