Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah remained optimistic as Afghanistan looked to be cruising towards an unprecedented victory in the Cricket World Cup 2023 match on Monday. Naseem, who missed out on a spot in Pakistan's World Cup squad due to an injury, remained an ardent fan of the team, cheering for them from back home. As things looked tough for Pakistan at Chepauk, Naseem took to X (formerly Twitter), suggesting his team would still emerge victorious. But, what eventually happened on the field was the opposite.
"Believe me, Pakistan will win from here. Any doubts?," Naseem had posted despite seeing Afghanistan getting off to a resounding start against Babar Azam's men.
As the Afghans secured an 8-wicket win, the social media world erupted, with many trolling Naseem for his tweet.
In the press conference after the match, Pakistan captain Babar Azam spoke about his team's underperformance in the tournament so far. He said that the team is missing Naseem Shah.
"We are missing Nasim a lot. But apart from that, our bowling lineup is one of the best. But I think we are not able to click. Sometimes we do well in bowling, we don't do well in batting. When we do well in batting, we don't do it in fielding.
In fielding, whenever you do fielding, it is only with attitude. And I don't see any attitude from the team. You need to put in extra effort and be fit. You should focus on the ball, not on other thoughts and when the ball comes, as a fielder you have to be proactive so I think we are lagging a little bit as a fielding unit," Babar told reporters.
Despite the loss, Babar is hoping to instill positive change in the team and hope that his team gives its all in the remaining matches.
"I hope we learn from this loss. It will hurt us a lot. We will try to talk about positive things. But we will also talk about the things we did not do well. How we will do it in the future. Because every match is with a different team. We will have to go with a different planning. We will have to go with a different plan and a different mindset so we will try to bring a positive vibe in the team," he further said.