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ICC World Cup 2023: Can Pakistan bounce back after the humiliating defeat to India?

It needs to be seen which Pakistan team turns up on Friday — the one who can beat any team or the one who press the panic button

Published: Thu 19 Oct 2023, 10:02 PM

Updated: Fri 20 Oct 2023, 8:49 AM

  • By
  • Anis Sajan

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Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi plays football during a practice session. — AFP

Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi plays football during a practice session. — AFP

Why does everyone say that Pakistan is an unpredictable side? It is because one day they are a very good side and suddenly the next day they are flat.

That's what Pakistan showed when they chased down 344 against Sri Lanka quite easily in Hyderabad and were looking good to compete against India at 155/2 in 29 overs.


That’s when the wheels came off and Pakistan collapsed like a pack of cards after the dismissal of Babar Azam, losing eight wickets for 36 runs to get bowled out for 191.

That India chased down the target will almost 20 overs to spare must have really hurt Pakistan.

Lifting the team morale after such a demoralising loss to their arch-rivals will be the main task for captain Babar Azam.

The silver lining was Babar got a fifty and looked pretty good. But the flip side was he could not carry on to make a big one in a big match — something Virat Kohli, the player he admires the most, does repeatedly in international cricket.

Pakistan play Australia in Bangalore who too looked poor in their two losses to India and South Africa but came back well against Sri Lanka to win their first game of the World Cup.

Spinner Adam Zampa seemed to have regained his form with a four-wicket haul against Sri Lanka.

The Bangalore track is generally full of runs and Australia will hope their top-order fires as the middle order is suspect.

Pakistan's record against Australia in ODIs is poor, with a 34-69 win-loss record.

They have lost to Australia in the 2015 and 2019 World Cup as well and don’t play generally well against the five-time world champions.

So it needs to be seen which Pakistan team turns up on Friday — the one who can beat any team or the one who press the panic button.



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