Babar Azam comes up with heartfelt reply to questions on feeling pressure due to captaincy

Pakistan lost their third game of the ODI World Cup 2023 on Monday. Babar Azam was under immense pressure after Afghanistan stunned the cricketing world to post an 8-wicket win in Chennai.

Countless Pakistani experts and journalists have called Babar Azam out after the team’s poor performances. This latest loss has put the Pakistani chances on the brink of leaving them in huge trouble.

The Men in Green have faced a difficult run of four games to make it to the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup 2023. They face South Africa on Friday before taking on Bangladesh on the 31st of October. This will be followed by games against New Zealand and England.

Babar Azam speaks on captaincy pressure

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam had to face a plethora of questions from the media after the loss on Monday. One of the questions that the 29-year-old was asked if he felt the burden and pressure of captaincy started to affect his performance. 

The 29-year-old said “As far as captaincy is concerned, I don't have much pressure on me or on my batting. I try to give my best in batting. I am 100% and I have been doing that. During fielding, I think about captaincy and during batting I just think about the batting. How I should run and how I should run for the team."

When asked about the likely chances of Pakistan making the final four Babar Azam didn’t give out much. “You never know. It's cricket. Anything can happen. We will try to play our best cricket till the end. There are a lot of matches left, we will try to win all the matches. We will try to overcome our mistakes”

Babar Azam won the toss and chose to bat first and saw his side post 282 on the board. The skipper top scored with 74 runs while Abdullah Shafique scored yet another half-century. Noor Ahmed finished with 3 wickets with the ball for the Afghanistan side.

Chasing 283 to win Rahmanullah Gurbaz began with 65 while Ibrahim Zadran scored 87. Rahmat Shah scored yet another half-century as Hasmatullah Shahidi hit the winning runs. There were massive celebrations in the stands as well as Kabul after Afghanistan won its 2nd game of the ODI World Cup 2023 tournament.