Pakistan Head Coach Gary Kirsten has said that Pakistan?s defeat against India in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup fixture from a position of ascendency was a disappointing loss as they could not get across the line from the position they had got into.
Speaking during the post-match press conference after losing to India at the Nassau cricket stadium, he said it was disappointing that Pakistan were placed at 72-2 with 6-7 overs remaining but we faltered as we lost wickets at regular intervals and fell agonizingly short by 6 runs.
Pakistan sent the Indian team packing for 119 runs in 19 overs and needed 120 runs to record their first win against the arch rivals at the World Cup 2024 but Pakistan lost the advantage and could only score 113-7 in the 20 overs. Responding to the reasons behind Pakistan’s shocking defeat, the head coach held both the batsmen and the bowlers responsible for the defeat. Pakistan (0) are yet to play against Ireland and Canada and victories by big margins may ensure their presence as the “poor decision making at important phases of the game in the Pakistan innings cost us the match,” he said to a question, adding that Rizwan played a very good knock. He said with 80 runs in the pocket and run a ball not required, the middle order wilted and we lost the script.
With two defeats from two matches, Kirsten was of the view Pakistan team was yet to play two matches and was not out of the tournament
With the talk centered on Nassau cricket stadium pitch as a dangerous one, Kirsten disagreed with the idea of a small total put up by India, adding that taking the character of the surface into consideration we knew it was good total, adding that “I think it was not dangerous, the odd one rose while it generally kept low and the fairly slow outfield made run scoring difficult. I would have said 140 was a good total on the pitch but the India did no put up the total and in difficult to score for both sides it is sometimes fun to have games like this and not having time like not always about getting 230 and 240 runs games but sometimes you can have an entertaining game on a 120 chase.”
On responsibility for the loss, Gary Kirsten said “everyone is responsible for the poor performance against India, we accept the loss as the team has not done well and take the heat,” adding that we will do whatever we can to rectify this defeat. I have been here for twelve days, it is a new journey me understanding the players who can win games for Pakistan
On Babar’s captaincy, Kirsten said Babar captained really well today, adding that he marshalled his bowlers very well, spread them across very well and his bowling changes were spot on. On Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan’s performance, the head coach said these boys have played the T20I cricket for many many years for Pakistan, adding that it was up to them to decide how they are going to take the game forward Kirsten lavished praise on the bowlers for very good bowling display, adding that the bowlers bowled really well except for the 10-15 runs they leaked towards the end of the innings it was time to executing better as bowlers and batsmen I knew it was a good total
On his assessment of the loss and performance of the cricketers, he said he had joined the team merely twelve days back and he was looking into the environment and what the issues were.
“These guys are playing for their country for many many years and that is why there are many disappointed faces in the dressing room the most important thing for me is to see every international growing and developing as a player and what the demands of international competition are the game is changing every year now and if you are not up to it, you are not improving you are going to find out somewhere,” the Head Coach responded.
About the message to the batsmen at the water break during Pakistan innings, he said the message from all of us was look for the odd boundary and try to capitalize on loose balls and get as many ones as possible. He said the things were under control then we lost wickets and stopped scoring runs. We were on the track by the 15th over and then lost the plot.
On Pakistan’s bowling performance, Kirsten said he was excited for the bowling performance, adding that we checked the stats of Pakistan bowling in the past 15 matches between overs 10-20 and they are up with the best in the world. On the bowling performance against India, he said we are a difficult side to contend with if we bowl like this, however, he was critical of the batsmen and wanted them to take responsibility. He said Imad Wasim was promoted up the batting order in order to have left and right hand combination, adding that the plan was to ward off India spin bowlers.
