- Babar Azam laments his winless home campaign.
- Pakistan have now lost eight consecutive home Tests.
- Babar acknowledged that he had not anticipated the season.
Babar Azam, the captain of Pakistan, is upset by the team’s winless home campaign but would not put the blame for their poor run on player injuries or unresponsive pitches.
Following a 3-0 rout at the hands of England last month, Pakistan twice came back from the verge of defeat to force a 0-0 tie in the two-Test series against New Zealand.
The fact that they have now lost eight consecutive home tests has ended their chances of competing in the World Test Championship final, and Babar acknowledged that he had not anticipated the season to proceed in this direction.
“The Test season hasn’t gone according to expectations,” Babar told a news conference after Pakistan narrowly avoided a third successive home series defeat.
“It’s not an excuse but some of our players were unfit which disturbed our combination.”
Their bowling squad took a hit in particular.
Shaheen Afridi, a leader in pace, is still out with a knee ailment, and fellow quicks Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah missed much of the series against England due to aches and pains.
Babar claimed that the too-batter-friendly pitches utilized in the series against England and New Zealand did not help their case either.
“Of course there’s talk about the pitches, but conditions are different at every venue.
“We give our input on pitches, but you get the pitches you get, and after that you have to execute your plans. You can’t just complain about losing a match because of pitches.
“We prepared them according to our plans, but results didn’t go our way.”
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