Mohammad Rizwan breaks silence on Pakistan team politics, says ‘same team…’

Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan spoke to the media in Peshawar about his team’s early exit from the Americas T20 World Cup. Pakistan lost to first-time hosts USA and arch-rivals India in the group stage. The players were heavily criticised, with some former players calling for the entire squad to be sacked. There were also rumours of groupism within the team, which had a negative impact on the dressing room environment.

Rizwan admitted that while the fans’ criticism was valid, he dismissed rumours of politics and groupism within the team as “outside gossip”.

“People say there is politics and divisions within the team. If there are divisions, we have lost games before. This is just gossip from outside. This team reached finals, semi-finals but has never won a trophy,” Rizwan told a news conference in Peshawar.

“The criticism the team faced was justified and we deserved it as we did not live up to expectations. Players who cannot face criticism will not be able to achieve success. We are disappointed with our performance in the T20 World Cup. There were many reasons why we lost. When a team loses, you cannot say that both bowling and batting were good,” he added.

According to reports, Babar Azam His original intention of returning to the captaincy was to unite the team, but he was unable to do so due to the grouping.

Shaheen Afridi Frustrated at losing the captaincy and Babar not backing him when needed, Mohammad Rizwan was unhappy at not being considered for the captaincy.

However, multiple reliable sources have also confirmed that PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi will not appoint Babar Azam as the captain immediately as the Pakistan national team will play the next white-ball series in November.

(with PTI input)