The Pakistan cricket team has ended their ICC Champions Trophy. They have repeated what had happened in the 2013 edition of the tournament, where they didn’t win a match in the group stage. Following a washout in the Pakistan vs. Bangladesh match, the Men in Green ended without a victory once again.
Hosting their first ICC event since the 1996 ODI World Cup, Pakistan has been humiliated at home. The losses weren’t close either. New Zealand beat them by 60 runs, and India thrashed them, winning by 6 wickets with 45 balls to spare. Naturally, Pakistan’s captain, Mohammad Rizwan, was asked about the forgettable campaign.
Rizwan offers excuses after horror Champions Trophy campaign
The wicketkeeper proceeded to offer an absence excuse. Talking about how they missed out on Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub and how much their absence was felt. Just moments after, he backtracked and said he won’t offer any excuses.
“It has been raining in the last few days. You can’t do anything about it. (On the campaign as a whole) You can learn from your mistakes. Hopefully, we can do better on our next tour. We are going to New Zealand. Hopefully, we can do well there. (On injuries to Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman) When the guy who performed so well in Australia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe gets injured, the team gets disturbed. But that cannot be an excuse. We need a lot of awareness and professionalism. It was a disappointing campaign. We were here to represent the nation. We have disappointed the nation. We will learn from our mistakes and come back better,” Rizwan told Ramiz Raja after the match.
What Rizwan said was nothing but hogwash. Because Pakistan wasn’t the only team to lose a player. Almost every team was missing players due to injury. Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh, Anrich Nortje, Josh Hazlewood, Jacob Bethell, and others missed the entire ICC Champions Trophy.
