MIAMI: When Imad Wasim lost his way to the press-conference room at Broward Park, it was, in a way, metaphorical. That’s exactly how his team Pakistan went about in this World Cup – losing two matches against the United States and India, both from winning positions.
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A win against Canada was not enough and even before they play Ireland at Broward Park here, their fate had been sealed.
“It’s definitely the lowest point for Pakistan in my career,” Imad, who has been playing for the country for quite a decade now, said.
The allrounder, who has played under quite a few coaches and has experienced the fluctuating fortunes of the nation on the field, feels that in Pakistan, a change of personnel won’t really make for a big change.
“It has to be the mindset. We have to change the mindset. We are playing our cricket, we cannot be scared to lose all the time. The game is changing and we will have to deal with it. As far as I am concerned, playing fire with fire is the way to go,” Imad said, looking extremely disappointed.
Constant questions kept coming up about what exactly went wrong, but the player, who had come back from retirement to play this tournament, didn’t want to single out anybody for the early exit.
“When a team wins, it is a collective effort. When the team loses, it is also a collective effort. There is no point blaming one person for the debacle,” Imad said.
Pakistan have been on a downward curve for a while now. While they had crashed out of the ODI World Cup in India a few months ago after losing to Afghanistan, the defeat to USA here was definitely one bitter pill to swallow. “Yes, you can say that the loss to the USA was unacceptable. We should not have lost,” Imad, who missed that game due to an injury, said.
But the discussions seemed to surround more on the defeat to India, a game which Pakistan controlled for most parts, only to lose in the last five overs. Imad, too, was held responsible for the defeat, because he could not translate his form in franchise cricket and failed to get big runs off Axar Patel in the 16th over.
“Yes, I am sorry I couldn’t do it. They bowled really well as well, but it’s true that we should have won that game,” the 35-year-old said.
