If America wins against India or Ireland then Pakistan is out: Babar’s team has zero points in Group-A, Team India is at number one

What Pakistan feared, happened. After America, India also defeated them in the group stage. With two consecutive defeats, Pakistan’s hopes of reaching the next round of the T20 World Cup are almost over. The team’s remaining hopes are now pinned on Ireland and India. If any of these teams loses to America, Babar Azam’s team will get a ticket to return home from the first round.

Why would it be a surprise if Pakistan is out?
Because Pakistan is the team that has qualified for the knockout round of T20 World Cup the most number of times, i.e. 6 times. More than India, Australia, England and West Indies. Pakistan has played 3 finals since 2007. The team became champion in 2009, while it was runner-up in 2007 and 2022. Pakistan has also won 2 ODI tournaments of ICC.

How Pakistan’s problems increased after losing to India
Pakistan was defeated by America in the first match. The American team won the match in the super over. On the other hand, India won by 6 runs over Pakistan despite scoring 119 runs on the New York ground.

With Sunday’s result, India has reached first place and America has reached second place in the points table of Group-A. Both have 4 points each. On the other hand, Pakistan has no points even after 2 matches and the team is at fourth place. Pakistan will now play its last 2 group matches against Canada and Ireland.

Ireland can also make an upset
Ireland had defeated Pakistan in T-20 by 5 wickets just last month. Ireland had also caused an upset by defeating Pakistan in the 2007 ODI World Cup. The team had also achieved the feat of defeating champion England in the group stage in the last T-20 World Cup.

Not only this, Ireland’s name is associated with defeating big teams. The team has defeated top teams like England, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup. On the other hand, Pakistan has lost to smaller teams like Zimbabwe and USA in the T20 World Cup. This means that the Pakistan team cannot take Ireland lightly either.

Even winning against Canada will not be of any benefit
Pakistan’s next match will be against Canada on June 11 in New York. Even if Pakistan wins this match, it will have to defeat Ireland to keep its hopes of reaching the Super-8 alive. Pakistan’s team can be eliminated even after winning both these matches. Even if America loses its last two matches, it will still have a chance to stay ahead of Pakistan on the basis of better net run rate.

This means that Pakistan will have to win both its last matches by a big margin and also pray that America does not win any more matches from here.

America became the biggest problem for Pakistan
Only the top 2 teams from the points table of Group A will advance to the next round. India has strengthened its claim for a spot by defeating Ireland and Pakistan. The team has 2 matches against Canada and America. India has a very high chance of winning both the matches.

On the other hand, America has 2 matches remaining against India and Ireland. If America wins even one of these matches, the team will gain 6 points and eliminate Pakistan from the race.

Pakistan needs the support of India and Ireland
If Pakistan has to qualify even in this situation, then all its hopes are now pinned on India and Ireland. If both of them defeat America, then only the team will be able to qualify with 4 points. Because if America loses both the matches, it will stop at 4 points. However, for this also Pakistan will have to keep its run rate better than America. America will face India on June 12 and Ireland on June 14.

Pakistan is in bad form since the last World Cup
Pakistan lost its form after losing the T20 World Cup final in 2022. The team played 28 matches after this, won only 9 and lost 17. During this, 2 matches were also inconclusive. That is, the team’s win percentage was only 32%. Just before the World Cup, Pakistan was also defeated by Ireland and England in 3 T20s.

Why has Pakistan’s condition become so bad?
In 2023, Pakistan played 11 T20 matches, winning only 4. Then in the ODI World Cup too, the team was eliminated from the group stage. After this, the team’s white ball captain Babar Azam left the captaincy. Shaheen Shah Afridi became the new captain, from here the bad condition of the team started.

Under Shaheen’s captaincy, Pakistan lost the 5 T20 series in New Zealand by 4-1. From here the criticism of Shaheen started, he could make his team Lahore Qalandars win only one match out of 10 in the Pakistan Super League. Whereas Peshawar Zalmi captained by Babar Azam reached the playoffs.

After criticism and poor performance, Shaheen also left the captaincy of Pakistan. Babar was once again made the captain of the white ball team. However, the results did not change and Pakistan lost the T20 series to New Zealand at home. With the same form, the team is now playing the World Cup and the team is almost out of the group stage.

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Graphics: Mahesh Verma