World Cup 2019: Sarfaraz Ahmed avoids answering a journalist’s question over Pakistan’s decline since CT 2017

Pakistan have been more or less knocked out of the 2019 World Cup as they face an improbable situation to qualify for the semi-finals. They will have to beat Bangladesh by a margin of more than 300 runs at least which looks practically impossible. But Pakistan are themselves to blame for this situation as they lost by a huge margin against the Windies and then fell short against Australia, the match which they should’ve won.

Many had expected Pakistan to replicate their Champions Trophy 2017 heroics but this time they are not even qualifying for the semi-finals. Rather the Men in Green entered into the tournament losing 5-0 to Australia and 4-0 to England respectively and the selectors had to recall the experienced Wahab Riaz back into the side to make an impact.

After almost getting eliminated from the tournament, some tough questions are started to pop up and Sarfaraz Ahmed faced one such query from the reporter in the pre-match conference. The journalist questioned if Pakistan cricket started to go downhill after winning the Champions Trophy a couple of years. “Did Pakistan’s downfall start after the Champions Trophy win,” the journalist asked. Sarfaraz, however, wasn’t impressed with it and avoided answering and said, “Next question, please.”

Pakistan’s form since CT 2017

Well, the journalist was absolutely spot on with his question as Pakistan hasn’t really played to the potential since CT 2017. While the whitewash at the hands of Australia at home could be ignored as a lot of players were rested, the team never won consistently barring a 5-0 win against Zimbabwe.

Pakistan, since the Champions Trophy triumph until now, has won only 19 ODIs out of 45 they played and at one stage, were also on a losing streak. Nevertheless, the team would like to end their campaign on a high by defeating Bangladesh. However, even this task won’t be an easy one for them as Pakistan last beat the Tigers back in 2014 in the 50-over format.