Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan acknowledged that young opener Saim Ayub’s injury affected the team’s preparations but insisted it was not an excuse for their poor performance in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
Pakistan’s final group-stage match against Bangladesh was washed out due to rain on Thursday, ending their campaign without a single victory. The Green Shirts had already suffered defeats against India and New Zealand, failing to register a win in the tournament.
Speaking after the match on Thursday, Rizwan admitted that the team fell short of the nation’s expectations, adding that Pakistan’s squad combination was disrupted due to injuries to Ayub and star batter Fakhar Zaman. However, he maintained that the team must move forward and learn from their mistakes.
“When a player who has performed exceptionally in the last two to three series gets injured, it does impact the team,” Rizwan said. “But as a leader, you have to look ahead. There are other players in the squad, and we must not use injuries as an excuse.”
The wicketkeeper-batter further admitted that the team’s overall performance had been disappointing in recent weeks but vowed to analyse their mistakes and work on improvements before the upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand next month.
“Our results over the past few weeks have been disappointing,” he said. “We wanted to perform well in front of our home crowd today, but unfortunately, we couldn’t. The nation has high expectations from us, and we failed to meet them.”
Rizwan said that the team had identified their shortcomings during the Champions Trophy and the recent tri-series and would work hard to address those issues before their next assignment.
“It’s frustrating. We are here for the entire nation, and we must accept that we haven’t performed well,” he added. “The public is disappointed, and so are we. InshaAllah, we will learn from our mistakes and come back stronger in future tournaments.”
