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Watch: 'No pointing fingers,' Babar Azam's heartfelt speech after Pakistan loses T20 semi-final

Captain tried to lift the mood of his teammates in the dressing room after the former champions were ousted by Australia

Published: Sat 13 Nov 2021, 11:23 AM

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Photo: Twitter

Photo: Twitter

Pakistan captain Babar Azam's leadership skills were on display throughout the ICC T20 World Cup and he rarely put a foot wrong in his team's spirited campaign, which ended on Thursday night after Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis batted brilliantly to take Australia to a 5-wicket win in the second semi-final in Dubai.

Pakistan dominated most parts of the match but a late blitz from Stoinis and Wade put paid to Babar and his team's hopes of reaching the summit clash.

Babar Azam tried to lift the mood in the dressing room after their loss and stressed it's important to not point fingers at each other and that the entire team failed to play up to its potential in the heartbreaking loss.

Pakistan skipper put up a brave front and asked his teammates to stay united in the face of defeat during a heartfelt speech in the dressing room, which was posted by Pakistan Cricket Board on its Twitter handle.

"Babar Azam, Saqlain Mushtaq and Matthew Hayden are proud. Babar Azam, Saqlain Mushtaq and Matthew Hayden are proud of their side despite a five-wicket defeat in #T20WorldCup semi-final," was the caption for the post.

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"First of all, I want to thank everyone from the (team) management. Everyone is pained and is thinking about where we went wrong and where we could have done better. Nobody will tell us this, we all know it. We have to learn from it. This unit of ours should not be broken. No one should point fingers at others. We have to accept that we haven't played well as a team. There should be no finger pointing. Everyone should look at the positives. We have lost, that is fine. It happens. We will learn from this and not repeat the mistakes in future. I am requesting all of you that this bond of ours should not break. This does not happen overnight and we should maintain this unity and not let one loss bother us.

"As a captain I received great response for the team. It was a great environment, like that of a family. Everyone put in a lot of effort and no one shied away from taking responsibility. This is what is expected from a team. The effort is in our hand and the result isn't. No one should feel sad or deflated. We should think about where we went wrong and how we can improve.

"These are the times when you should support each other and not pull anyone down. I shouldn't hear about anyone pulling a teammate down. Learn from this and enjoy. The pain will stay for a while but we have to overcome it. Wish you all the best," Babar said.

Babar conceded that the World Cup semi-final loss is hurting but urged his teammates to pick themselves up and focus on not repeating the mistakes in the future. Pakistan were unbeaten in the group stages, securing victories over arch-rivals India and eventual finalists New Zealand but they slipped in the semi-final against Australia.



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