Pakistan’s warm-up defeat against New Zealand leaves fans confused

Pakistan lost against New Zealand by five wickets in their first warm-up match of the ICC World Cup 2023 in Hyderabad, India, on Friday with the defeat leaving the fans muddled as they were unable to draw something out of today’s loss.

Pakistan scored 345 runs while batting first but they were not enough as the Black Caps successfully chased the target in just 43.4 overs.

Pakistani bowlers failed to perform up to the mark, and the overall performance of the Green Shirts made many question their favourite side’s underwhelming performance.

Shaheen Shah Afridi did not bowl and the exclusion of Naseem Shah made things more difficult for the already-struggling Pakistani side who finished fourth in the Asia Cup 2023, which was played earlier this month.

While some fans believe that not having Naseem during the World Cup will be a big blow for Babar Azam and his men, others believe that the batters need to play modern cricket and score big.

Another set of fanbase thinks that there is no need to overreact on today’s loss as this was just a warm-up match.

Here is how fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, reacted

The Green Shirts will play Australia on October 3 in their second warm-up match before they begin their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands on October 6.

Pakistan squad for ICC World Cup 2023

Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, M Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha.

Travelling reserves: Mohammad Haris, Abrar Ahmed, Zaman Khan.

Pakistan's schedule for the ICC World Cup 2023:

October 6 — vs Netherlands in Hyderabad

October 10 — vs Sri Lanka in Hyderabad

October 14 — vs India in Ahmedabad

October 20 — vs Australia in Bengaluru

October 23 — vs Afghanistan in Chennai

October 27 — vs South Africa in Chennai

October 31 — vs Bangladesh in Kolkata

November 4 — vs New Zealand Bengaluru (Day match)

November 11 — vs England in Kolkata

The day matches which will start at 10:00am Pakistan Standard Time (PST) while all other matches will be day-night fixtures starting at 01:30pm (PST).

If Pakistan qualify for the semi-finals, they will play in Kolkata.

If India qualify for the semi-finals, they will play in Mumbai unless playing against Pakistan, in which case they will play in Kolkata.

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