New Delhi : Pakistan is almost out of the race for the semi-finals of the 2023 Cricket World Cup, as its next match will be against England. Pakistan will only progress to the semi-finals if they beat England by 287 runs in their final league game. This math applies if Pakistan bats first. If the Pakistan team bowls first and starts chasing the target, then it has to reach the target in 16 balls. That means whatever target England sets for Pakistan must be achieved with 284 balls remaining. Of the total 300 balls in the match, only 284 need to be kept; this target is only possible by a miracle. The Pakistan cricket team could not put up a credible performance in this entire World Cup. During this time, the Pakistan cricket team has remained in the news more for controversies than for its matches. The Pakistan team management said during the World Cup that the players were not given beef to eat, which led to a drop in performance.

The Pakistani team is having a tough time at the current World Cup. Just a few days ago, the Pakistan cricket team was ranked number one. They went into the World Cup as favourites, but within about two weeks, the Pakistan team completely collapsed.
The level of disgrace Pakistan has experienced in the World Cup so far has rarely befallen a team in such a major tournament. Pakistani cricket lovers would have tolerated the defeat against India, but the defeat against Afghanistan had triggered massive criticism at home in Pakistan.

This begs the question: why did the Pakistan team perform so badly? Just two months ago, during the preparations for the Asia Cup 2023, Pakistan was the number one ODI team in the world. All the big Pakistani names were loudly claiming in the debates on TV channels that Babar’s team would beat India. Pakistan had beaten India in the 2021 T20 World Cup, while Australia had given a tough fight in the T20 World Cup, so their morale was at its peak.

When the Indian team traveled to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup, the first match was against hosts Pakistan on September 2. The match was not completed due to rain, but the Indian team was seen capitulating to the storming balls of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Naseem Shah. Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Shreyas Iyer had returned to the pavilion within 66 runs of each other. Here, Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya scored half-centuries to take India to 266 runs. However, the match was suspended due to rain and was later declared a draw. After the first match, the Pakistan cricket fraternity, especially former cricketers, journalists, and even politicians, mocked India, claiming that the Indian team was weak and unable to play against Pakistan’s fast bowling.

However, what happened in the next match shook the whole of Pakistan. Rohit Sharma hit four fours and four sixes in his innings of 56 runs, while Shubman Gill sent the ball out of the boundary 10 times for 4 runs in his innings of 58 runs.

Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 122 runs, while KL Rahul scored an unbeaten 111 runs. On the day, all Pakistani batsmen conceded defeat to the Indian bowlers. The day of September 10 at Premadasa Stadium and that 228-run defeat to India gave Pakistan such a shock that they could not recover from it. From then on, the decline of the Pakistani team began. The Pakistan team came to India as favourites and lost both their two practice matches against New Zealand and Australia. After that, there were two easy matches for Pakistan in the World Cup.

Despite this, Pakistan struggled to win against the Netherlands, a team with players who only do part-time jobs, while winning with great difficulty against Sri Lanka. When the Pakistan team reached Ahmedabad to take on India, they were unable to accept the truth that they were weak. India bowled out Pakistan by 191 runs and won the match, losing three wickets. Apart from this, Pakistan cricket coach Mickey Arthur made absurd allegations and said that the Dil Dil Pakistan songs were not being played in the stadium, which is why the team was unable to perform on the field.

Later, Australia also defeated Pakistan. This was not the beginning of the decline of Pakistan cricket; it was definitely the bone of discord in Pakistan cricket.