New Delhi: Their loss to India in the T20 World Cup has hurt Pakistanis real bad and they are now blaming the entire system—from General Asim Munir to PM Shehbaz Sharif—not just the playing 11, which has usually been the case in the past. They are seeing the team’s failure as the failure of Pakistan as a nation.
Perhaps the best response came from Shoaib Akhtar, capturing the mood of the nation: “I think I should have a template text “Disappointed & hurt” automatically set to be posted.”
In its editorial, post the loss, Dawn wrote, “What happened in the NY match was hard to understand, except that India fought like tigers and Pakistan lacked conviction and class in their batting.”
An X user wrote, “Only one thing can stop team Pakistan from chasing the target and winning the match, and that is team Pakistan itself”. Another said “My new team is Australia (At least they know how to not play with people’s mental health)”
One X user from Karachi went so far as to say that she’s embracing her Indian ancestry and rejecting the Pakistan team.
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Pakistanis have now ‘sworn on their dead forefathers to never watch this team again’ and are applauding the team for teaching them what ‘a heartbreak looks like’.
Even former Pakistan President Arif Alvi is dejected. “Nothing is working. Why do I hope that cricket will?” he asked.
With this loss, Pakistan is on the brink of elimination after India defended a mere 119 runs in New York on Sunday.
The thrill of Sunday’s encounter was explained by one X user who wrote, “I’ve lived five different lives in this Pakistan inning”.
The reactions came from a spectrum of people. Singer Asim Azhar expressed his disappointment by saying ‘goodbye forever’, asking if the team loves disappointing the fans. Former English cricketer Micheal Vaughn had a simple explanation for their performance–“Pakistan just don’t believe they can win…Simple as that…”
Heartbroken fans are now calling for a complete boycott. One X user wrote, “I will simply be boycotting Pakistan cricket till we hire administrators and managers that aren’t political appointees, this is the only little thing I can do because this whole system is destined to fail, like the country.”
Pakistanis called for “wholesale changes”. “This is actually good for Pakistan cricket. This team and this administration would have rode on the back of an India win for two more years. A defeat like this doesn’t just happen. It is caused by poor strategy, insecurity and poor team spirit,” an X user said.
Pakistani actor Anoushey Ashraf also added her two cents on the defeat saying that the performance ‘is a wake-up call’.
In a long Instagram post, she wrote, “Lets not blame the boys. Their performance is a clear reflection of who we are as a nation today. unstable, disorganized and walking on eggshells all the time. the whole system is responsible for this..a win would have been a bandaid on a wound that runs wayyyy deeper”.
Also read: Pakistanis see ‘Amriki sazish’ in T20 World Cup loss to USA
Justice for Naseem
Pakistan may have lost the match but Naseem Shah’s effort won everyone’s heart. Unable to lead his team to a victory, Shah broke down on the field and even Indian captain Rohit Sharma was seen consoling him.
Soon Pakistan had something new to focus on: #JusticeforNaseem.
“Lanat (shame) on all those who made Naseem Shah cry!!!!” one X user wrote.
Another said, “There was no intent to win except Naseem. All must be sacked and Naseem must be made captain and Pakistan should take a fresh start!
Once again, the Pakistan Army was not far from being blamed. One PTI user shared a picture of Babar Azam, Azam Khan and others with Asim Munir with the caption: “All of them have led to this condition of Pakistan”.
Journalist Hamid Mir too joined in to say that all the players should be called back with a screenshot from the GeoNews bulletin, which had a headline on how batters led to a disastrous loss.
If there was one person who was trolled worse, it was the Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif himself who had earlier tweeted his best wishes to the team.
One user replied asking why the PM was tweeting when he had banned X himself; another asked if he was using VPN.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)