Iftikhar Ahmed opens up on Pakistan’s failures in World Cup 2023

Pakistan all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed aka Ifti-mania opened up on the national team’s below-par performance in the recently concluded ICC World Cup 2023, ARY News reported.

While talking to the ARY News programme ‘Bouncer’, Iftikhar Ahmed admitted that the Pakistani team had failed to perform in all sections, calling it a ‘collective failure’.

Ahmed said that a single player could not be blamed for the bad performance of the entire team in the ICC World Cup 2023. “It was the collective failure of the entire team. We failed in all three sections including bowling, batting and fielding.”

He told ARY News, “Top teams and players were present in the World Cup, but we did not play like other teams. Our performance was not good and we failed to play like a strong team.”

Ahmed admitted that the morale of the team was damaged after being defeated by India which affected the collective performance in other important matches as well.

Commenting on the Pakistan-Australia match, the all-rounder said that Pakistan could win the match. “It was me and Mohammad Rizwan who planned to play a long inning. However, the entire batting line-up was shaken after the fall of my wicket and we lost the match.”

Pakistan cricket team, led by Babar Azam, had a below-par performance in the World Cup 2023 – which was later won by Australia.

The team suffered five losses, the most in their World Cup history, including their first defeat against Afghanistan in ODIs also their first against South Africa in World Cups this century.

Pakistan failed to qualify for the semifinals as they finished fifth in the standings with eight points.

Later, a series of change was witnessed across the team’s management structure, which started with the resignation of Babar Azam as captain and also saw Mohammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz assume coaching duties and chief selector’s position, respectively.

After Babar’s resignation, the PCB named new captains for Test and T20I cricket with Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi taking the realm of respective formats.

Furthermore, former pacer Sohail Tanveer was named the head of the junior selection committee, while legendary batter Mohammad Yousuf was given the responsibility of coaching Pakistan’s U19 team.