“It’s not like we have Lionel Messi on the bench”: Ramiz Raja on criticism of Pakistan’s batting unit.
A lot of criticism has been levelled at the Pakistan cricket team recently, particularly in light of the way they were defeated by Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup 2022 final.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, the openers, have been consistently effective, but the middle order appears to be in a precarious position.
Similar to the previous T20 World Cup, there have also been discussions about adding an experienced player like Shoaib Malik to the squad.
Ramiz Raja, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), responded to the question with quite an unusual viewpoint.
Pakistan hasn’t been at its best leading up to the T20 World Cup 2022.
Pakistan lost to England at home in a 7-match T20I series, finishing with a 3-4 record, after failing to win the Asia Cup.
The tri-series, which also features Bangladesh and New Zealand, appears to be going well for Babar Azam’s team.
Pakistan won against New Zealand and Bangladesh in their first two games of the series. Regarding the team’s middle order, there are still open questions.
Ramiz Raja was questioned about the state of circumstances at the moment and Pakistan’s plans for dealing with it while speaking to Geo News.
Raj said, perhaps sarcastically, that Pakistan does not have Lionel Messi on the bench and a “raddi” player is playing in his place.
“We did it in the last T20 World Cup (selecting Shoaib Malik). I don’t have any problem doing it again. My philosophy is simple: you should have consistency in selection. You need a strong captain as well. We don’t have Lionel Messi sitting on our bench, and it is not like we have selected really bad players. We have limited options,” Ramiz said on the Pakistani channel.
“To increase options and the talent pool, we are working on our junior leagues; at this point in time, it’s a bit of a hit and miss, but my philosophy is to make the captain strong. You should give him the options on which players to give a chance to,” he added.
