Veteran Indian keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik and renowned commentator Harsha Bhogle left no stone unturned in taking a dig at Pakistan cricket team and PCB amid their 2023 World Cup struggles. Karthik believes the reason Pakistan cricket is struggling due to playing a second-string New Zealand side earlier this year and won it convincingly.
After starting the 2023 World Cup with a couple of wins, Pakistan have crashed to four consecutive losses and are on the brink of elimination. The 1992 World Cup winners were also stunned by Afghanistan as they chased the target of 283 in Chennai in a canter. Their other three losses came against India, Australia, and South Africa.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Karthik recalled that Pakistan played a series against the Kiwis when most of the first-choice players were playing in the IPL. He believes Pakistan are struggling, having hardly against the best players.
"They played New Zealand when half of Kiwi players were in IPL. They have been playing some ordinary teams and not full-strength sides. And hence their ranking went to No. 1. But they struggled against New Zealand’s B team too. In the end they managed to win the series, but it was a convincing win. So you can see why they are struggling."
"Nothing more comical than the people running Pakistan cricket right now" - Harsha Bhogle
Meanwhile, Harsha Bhogle commented that it's been hard to figure out who is calling the shots within the PCB as the top management keep on changing. He said:
"There is nothing more comical than the people running Pakistan cricket right now. Zaka Ashraf wants to change what Najam Sethi did. Najam Sethi wants to change what Ramiz Raja did. Najam Sethi runs PCB on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Zaka Ashraf runs PCB on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. And on Sunday, it is a debate on what it should be the next week."
Pakistan will need to win 3 of their remaining matches of the 2023 World Cup to stand a chance of reaching the semi-finals.
