Babar Azam’s captaincy not a problem, shockingly claims Sanjay Manjrekar as he exposes Pakistan’s ‘deep-rooted issue

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar talked about the current situation of the Pakistan team after their exit from the T20 World Cup 2024. He said that removing Babar Azam as the captain of the team or changing players in the team won’t solve the problem. 

Pakistan have been eliminated from the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. They have displayed a torrid performance in the ongoing tournament which has led to their early exit from the tournament. This was the third time when they got eliminated from the league stage of the tournament. 

Pakistan started off the tournament with a horrible loss against the United States of America. The Babar Azam-led side looked clueless with the bat and ball in the game against the associate nation and went on to lose the game in the super over as they failed to score 18 runs. 

After that, Pakistan were involved in a clash with arch-rivals India. They looked favourites to win the game as they dominated the game for most of the match but couldn’t finish the game as India held their nerves and won the game by 6 runs to hand Babar Azam-led side their second loss. 

Two losses in the two games dented Pakistan’s chances to qualify for the Super 8 stage of the tournament. They were dependent on Ireland to beat the United States of America but the washout in that game meant curtains for the Babar Azam-led side in the tournament as they fell short of points. 

Sanjay Manjrekar feels that the problem of Pakistan Cricket is deep-rooted. He believes that they don’t have good-quality players adding that a change in leadership won’t change anything. Speaking to Star Sports, he explained: 

“It’s not a problem that can be solved by a change of leadership or player selection, drop a few players, get a new one and suddenly Pakistan is back at the top. The problem is deep-rooted. I don’t think they’re getting players of exceptional quality or ability and in the end, it has to be about ability, isn’t it? You can’t say that they played badly and yes, the exhibition wasn’t great.”

It wasn’t one of the stronger teams – Sanjay Manjrekar on Pakistan 

Sanjay Manjrekar claimed that many didn’t back Pakistan to be the top-four team in the tournament because they didn’t have quality players. He added that with the way they played in the league stage, they didn’t deserve to play the Super 8. He elaborated: 

“Were we expecting Pakistan to reach the final four? No. It wasn’t one of the stronger teams, so from that standpoint, not making a Super 8 is a bit of a shocker and they, I mean, that happened because they lost to the USA. The way they played they didn’t deserve to get in the Super 8 after that performance.” 

Pakistan will be taking on Ireland in their last game of the tournament. The match will be played on Sunday (16th June) in Florida.