Amid all the outside noise, Babar Azam praises the Indian hospitality at the ODI World Cup 2023

Pakistan is playing their last league match today against England at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and given their slim qualification chances, it’s going to be their last match in the ODI World Cup 2023 and India.

Pakistan’s journey in this World Cup has been one of ups and downs. After winning their first two matches of the World Cup including a historic chase of 345 runs against Sri Lanka between saw a steep slide in their campaign where they lost 4 consecutive matches against India, Australia, Afghanistan, and South Africa.

Convincing victories against Bangladesh and New Zealand brought them back in the tournament but New Zealand’s thumping victory against Sri Lanka in their last match sealed Pakistan’s fate in the tournament. Though Pakistan is yet to officially go out of the tournament the writing is on the wall for them.

Babar gave a heartfelt press conference before the England game addressing the hard question from the media regarding his performance and his future as Pakistan team’s captain. But the highlight of the press conference was Babar Azam’s take on the hospitality he and the Pakistan team got in India.

I got a lot of love from India, a lot of support: Babar Azam

Though he was not much amused by his performance in the tournament he was all praises for the love and affection he got during his stay in India. Amid all the criticisms doing the rounds in Pakistan media regarding the organization and treatment of the Pakistan team in the World Cup, Babar’s kind must have put them all to rest.

He said, “To be honest - first I got a lot of love from India, a lot of support. Not only me but the entire team. Of course, I was not able to get a good finish. My goal was to get a good finish in the batting. I didn't have a goal to score 50 or 100. The main thing was to make the winning team. The performance that helps the team, not my performance. I played slow, I played fast, depending on the situation. I play according to the situation and according to what my team needs," Babar said in a pre-match press conference.

He further added, "We came here for the first time, we didn't have the awareness of how to take it, but we adapted as soon as possible in practice, that we will have to face it like this. So, we faced this thing, we took it and planned accordingly how do we bat here. Because as I said, in the middle and end you get runs. In the middle overs when the ball is old, you struggle a bit - as a batsman.”