File photo of R Ashwin© BCCI/Sportzpics
Pakistan cricket team is having the worst nightmare of its life. The 1992 World Cup champions are constantly facing severe criticism from both fans and former cricketers, for their back-to-back poor performances. The story began from the league stage elimination at the ODI World Cup in 2023 to the shocking group stage loss at the T20 World Cup 2024. The struggles of Pakistan are still on as they recently lost the two-match Test series 0-2 against Bangladesh, adding another loss at their home soil.
These losses have sparked numerous changes in the team's leadership as after the debacle at the ODI World Cup, all-format skipper Babar Azam resigned from the captaincy and pacer Shaheen Afridi was appointed as the white-ball captain while Shan Masood is still leading the team in Tests.
Shaheen was removed from the captaincy after a 2-0 loss in a four-match T20I series against England and Babar was again handed over the white-ball captaincy in March this year. However, Babar's second stint could not last long as he once again stepped down from his duties recently, in order to focus on his batting.
Commenting on the whole situation, veteran India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin stated that this continuous change of captaincy has led to Pakistan's dismal show in all the matches.
“I am speaking the truth when I say that the current state of Pakistan cricket and the phase they are going through makes me feel a little sorry. Because some of the most exceptional cricketers have played for Pakistan, and it was such a great team. If you look at it from a cricketer's perspective, this is a proud cricketing nation. And where are they lacking in skill? They have so many skilled players,” said Ashwin in a video going viral on social media.
Ashwin you beauty! The man talks cricket without any partiality. #PakistanCricket pic.twitter.com/VQ4rKsGjfn
— Syed Ali Imran (@syedaliimran) October 4, 2024
"And sometimes, their whole musical chairs situation is truly something. The music keeps playing, and they just think about grabbing a chair; that's how it feels. In the 2023 World Cup, they lost, and then Babar (Azam) resigned. Then (Shaheen) Afridi was made captain, but Babar was reinstated for limited overs, and Shan Masood was made the Test captain. And look at the situation now – Pakistan hasn't won a Test match at home. I mean, they haven't won a Test match for a long time, maybe around 1000 days. It's been almost 3 years," he added.
Ashwin also stated that one of the biggest problems with Pakistan is that their players are more focused on individual goals rather than the team.
“What would I think as a cricketer? Should I focus on my game or on the team? Every cricketer will be so unstable inside the dressing room that he will start thinking about himself and will think less about the team,” said Ashwin.