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Former Pakistan Captain Shows Solidarity With Babar Amidst Brewing Tensions

image-lmmzvftyHafeez has backed Babar to lead the team [Twitter]

The Pakistan Cricket team has come under immense fire following their embarrassing Asia Cup exit earlier this week. The Pakistani skipper Babar Azam has unfortunately found himself at the receiving end of widespread criticism originating from the fans and former cricketing stalwarts from Pakistan.

It all began going downhill for the Men in Green when they went down to their arch-rivals India in the Super 4 fixture by a whopping margin of 228 runs. The colossal defeat dented Pakistan’s morale and self-confidence as a team. From there on, things turned from bad to worse as Sri Lanka snatched a narrow one-run victory to knock Pakistan out of the Asia Cup final.

Following their exit from the ongoing Asia Cup edition, Babar and his men have been receiving a lot of flak for their poor show in the tournament. Moreover, some disturbing visuals about a heated confrontation among several Pakistani players within the dressing room have also surfaced recently.

In the backdrop of widespread criticism, former Pakistani skipper Mohammad Hafeez has sided with Babar Azam insisting that the captain often takes the entire blame for all the defeats while most players evade criticism. Speaking about his side's humiliating defeat against India, Hafeez insisted that it wasn't Babar's responsibility alone to score 228 runs, nor did he concede as many.

“228 runs naa toh akele kaptaan ne karne the, naa hi usne akele khaaye . The players are responsible for that failure, and the management is responsible. I heard a statement that we hadn't lost a match in past three months... I couldn't understand that. 3 months of success doesn't give you the license to lose this badly. I understand that it hurts because we lost that way to India, the margin of defeat was big.”

The 42-year-old believes that Pakistan failed to regroup as a team following their humiliating defeat against India and as a result, they went down to Sri Lanka in a heartbreaking fashion.

With the Asia Cup out of the way, the Men In Green will be seen in action as they look to take on Netherlands in their first World Cup encounter starting on October 6.