PAK poor start to WC preparations, lossed to New Zealand by 5 wickets in their first warm-up match

 

'Against India, players are scared. I'm pretty sure there were dressing room issues': PAK makes explosive claim

Pakistan suffered a big defeat in their opening warm-up match against New Zealand earlier this week. The team made a huge score of 345/5, but the Kiwis achieved the target with six overs remaining and five wickets in hand. Barring Pakistan's openers, batsmen including Mohammad Rizwan (103 retired first), Babar Azam (80), and Saud Shakeel (75) scored important runs in the middle, but the bowling attack without Shaheen Afridi failed to thwart New Zealand's batting order.

New Zealand achieved the target in 43.4 overs with the contributions of Ravindra (97), Williamson (54), Daryl Mitchell (59 retired hurt) and Mark Chapman (65*). Although it was not an official ODI, Pakistan's poor form in this format continued with a defeat to the Kiwis; The team bounced back from two consecutive defeats against India and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup and was soon eliminated from the continental tournament following rumors of arguments in the dressing room.

Babar also admitted that there are differences of opinion but there is no such argument, but former Pakistan wicketkeeper Moin Khan believes that the Pakistan team looks 'scattered'.

“I saw this 100%. The players look scattered, they were hesitant in even giving suggestions to Babar, whether it was Rizwan, Shadab or Shaheen. It was visible that the team wasn't gelled up. There were no discussions, and even if there were suggestions and Babar was following them, they weren't working,” Moin told Cricket Pakistan.

The wicketkeeper also felt that many Pakistani players looked "scared" against India and as a result did not contribute to their potential.

“Another thing was, against India, players are scared. And those who really are scared that their suggestions won't work... that's fear. As a cricketer, you have to play on your potential and you should contribute 100%. It's okay if your suggestions go wrong, it happens. But your body language shows whether you want to win, and that wasn't visibl. And I'm pretty there were some issues in dressing room. And I know, in professional environment, there are differences but you have to end them to perform better. You have to move on,” said Moin.

Pakistan will play another warm-up match against Australia on October 3 before starting their campaign in the tournament against Netherlands on October 6.