‘For now, it’s over’: Rizwan concedes Pakistan’s Champions Trophy fate

February 24, 2025

Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan conceded that his team's campaign in the Champions Trophy has ended with Sunday's six-wicket defeat against India.
"For now, we can say that it's over. This is the truth," the Pakistan captain said.
Pakistan, having lost their first two league games, are not exactly out of the tournament yet. They need a couple of favourable results from two other games before the last league fixture against Bangladesh on February 27. An immediate requirement for them is an unlikely Bangladesh win over New Zealand on Monday.
"As a captain, I honestly don't like this. If you can win, then do it. If you can't, then don't worry about it. I don't care if you are sitting in someone else's shadow. I don't care if you are outside the tournament or in it. Yes, New Zealand has defeated us; India has defeated us. We accept it. We can play well; we can play badly. We can't say that we should stay on someone else's side. Allah has made this a chance, we can't say anything about it."
"In the next match, we'll see what Bangladesh does with New Zealand, what New Zealand does with India, and what we do. It's a long journey. Yes, we have hope and belief in Allah. Our dependence on the Champions Trophy has now come on other teams."
Rizwan stood by Pakistan's decision to field just one specialist spinner, Abrar Ahmed, dismissing any doubts. India, on the other hand, came into the tournament with four spinners and three of them were in the XI on Sunday.
"You can't say that we made a mistake by picking just one spinner. If you look at that Indian team also they have Kuldeep (Yadav) as the front-line spinner. (Ravindra) Jadeja and Axar Patel are all-rounders. We also have Salman Ali Agha and Khushdil Shah. They bowled very well in the past."
The Pakistan skipper also agreed that their middle-order did not fire.
"The middle-order was not good enough. Yesterday in our meeting we had discussed that on this pitch 270-280 runs would be enough. Because the outfield was slow and the pitch was slow. If we had scored 280, maybe the results would be different. Me (46) and Saud Shakeel (62) tried to build a partnership and took a lot of time. But after that, the shot selection was poor and that's where they got a chance to take our wickets. After that our middle-order couldn't take the pressure and we couldn't manage."
Pakistan were 151 for two at one stage, thanks to a 104-run third-wicket partnership between Rizwan and Saud. However, once they were separated, the team lost momentum and were eventually bowled out for 241.

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‘For now, it’s over’: Rizwan concedes Pakistan’s Champions Trophy fate

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