Team India hammered Pakistan in stunning fashion with a 61-run win over the noisy neighbours on Sunday in the Group A ICC T20 World Cup 2026 fixture at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo to extend their
domination over the side from across the border.
Following their lacklustre performance, former Pakistani players Mohamad Hafeez and Shaqlain Musthaq were seen in a heated argument over the side’s decline in recent years.
“Six managements have changed after you, but the players are the same. How many people do they need to give clarity regarding their roles?” Hafeez quizzed Saqlain, who is also the father-in-law of Shadab Khan.
“Look, Hafeez, I understand that when you change the support staff, in our culture, we are used to listening to our seniors. You respect your elders. And then you realize that if you don’t comply, a tag will be put on you. So you hand over your responsibility to someone else, and they start to make the move for you,” Saqlain explained.
Hafeez pointed to the core of the team and stressed on their need to develop their skills and execute the plans to perection if they stand a chance of improvement.
“The guys have already played more than 100 T20 matches for Pakistan. Out of them, I can show you six players who have each played 100 matches. That’s our core, right? Nothing wrong with the roles, they are just not executing, not developing their skills.”
Saqlain cited the constant chopping and changing in the squad has proved to be another issue and that the players need to live up to their potenial.
“That’s why I said earlier, maybe I seem lunatic, but these players have so much potential. They should be allowed to play according to their potential. Too much chopping and changing is one of the reasons why they are not performing well,” he added.
Saqlain touched up on how Hafeez spoke about the crucial junctures which witnessed the game slipping out of Pakistan’s hands and asked if those moments could have been handled better.
“You mentioned twice that in the first nine overs, the way Pakistan played, India took the match away from us. You’ve been a head coach, director of cricket, and captain. Would you say that the match was lost in those nine overs? Could you decide at that moment, or would the thought come later?”
Hafeez explained that Pakistan could have turned the tide in their favour had they brought spinner Usman Tariq into action earlier than he eventually did.
“We could have finished the match in the first nine overs. Because of bad tactics, our trump card [Usman Tariq], the one with the highest worry point, we brought in only in the 11th over. By then, the match was already done. And when they came to use it, there was no slip, and mid-on wasn’t up either,” Hafeez said.
“The 11 players we played today were fine because confidence was built with this same group. These players knew their roles, but they couldn’t execute their skills. Let’s blame the players now,” he added.
