Babar Azam extends US stay as team departs after T20 World Cup exit mharis

With the Pakistan team crashing out of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024, the national side’s skipper Babar Azam along with five other players have decided to extend their stay in the United States as the rest of the team prepares to leave for home.

Other than the captain, who will leave for Pakistan on June 22, players staying behind include Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan, and Azam Khan.

Amir will leave for England in a couple of days where is set to join the Derbyshire country cricket club. Whereas, coach Gary Kirsten will also be heading home after the team failed to qualify for the Super 8 stage of the tournament.

The rest of the squad will depart from Miami at night today and will fly off to their respective cities on different flights via Dubai and reach Pakistan on the morning of June 19.

A day earlier, Babar said that he was ready to step down as Pakistan’s white-ball captain after the Green Shirts’ disastrous performance in the mega event which saw them only winning against Canada and Ireland after suffering back-to-back losses against the World Cup debutants the US and arch-rivals India.

Reflecting on the team’s performance during a post-match press conference in Florida after the Ireland match, the skipper said: “We did not perform well as a team, it isn’t because of one person that we lost; we could not click as a team”.

“For now, I haven’t decided on it [captaincy] yet. However, if the board wants, I can step down […] If the PCB chairman thinks there’s a need for surgery, we’ll talk about it,” the star batter said.

His remarks came as last week sources told Geo News that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to review the players’ central contracts owing to the team’s below-par performance.

The sources added that  players with poor performances are expected to be demoted with regards to their central contracts in the first phase after senior board officials and PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi held consultations over the matter.