Aaqib Javed on Pakistan’s T20 World Cup exit – Have to move past ‘scapegoating people’

Pakistan men’s national team selector Aaqib Javed mounted into a passionate defence of his record with the team over the past 18 months, saying the fans and media needed to let go of the “urge to scapegoat” people after poor results. Two weeks after Pakistan were knocked out of the T20 World Cup, the fourth successive ICC men’s tournament for them without a last-four berth, Aaqib said Pakistan missed out only on net run rate and it “wasn’t so big an issue to suggest Pakistan cricket had been destroyed” because of it.

Aaqib spoke at a press conference in Lahore, unusual in itself because it was convened by all members of the men’s selection committee when there was no squad to announce. It was, instead, an opportunity to push back against criticism of the team and the selection committee. To present a united front, a statement from the PCB soon after the press conference ended revealed Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB Chair, had met the members of the selection committee “expressing full confidence” in them. It further stated that they had been told not to “worry about criticism that is made merely for the sake of criticism”.

The selection committee, it appears, did not need to be told twice, with Aaqib playing up the positive results the team secured in bilateral series, while insisting he felt Pakistan cricket had turned a corner in the 18 months he was involved with the team.

“In our setup whenever a team loses, there is always a demand to punish someone,” he said. “It happened at the previous World Cup, then the Champions Trophy, and the Asia Cup. Whenever we lose, we’ll go over the top, demanding the whole team or coach or selectors be changed. The way we change coaches and selectors never happens anywhere else in world cricket. We’ll have to move past scapegoating people.”

As if to illustrate the point, Misbah-ul-Haq and Sarfaraz Ahmed were also present for the first time, having officially been announced as selection committee members last week. Aleem Dar resigned from the panel following the T20 World Cup, while Azhar Ali departed late last year. There have been frequent arrivals in and departures from the selection panel, with Aaqib largely the only constant since being appointed in October 2024.

Aaqib went through those results, almost series by series. “Overall, if I view the Pakistan team since I’ve come here, we beat England in a Test series, which no one even dreamed of. We won an ODI series in Australia after 27 [22] years. We then beat South Africa 3-0 in South Africa [in ODIs], which no one has ever done. We let the Centurion Test slip through our fingers, and should have won it.

“Then came the Champions Trophy, which I admit was a disaster. Until then, the team’s performance was going well. Here, we beat South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia, which suggested that we were going to do well in the T20 World Cup. Did you not have expectations that this team would do well? I certainly did.”

Pakistan exited the Champions Trophy 2025, the first ICC event they hosted in nearly three decades, after just five days and two games, losing to New Zealand in the tournament opener and then to India. They ended up finishing bottom of their group.

Aaqib acknowledged that the defeats against India – who have now beaten Pakistan in each of their last nine games – were painful, but said defeats to India in big events were not new for the Pakistan team.

“The India-Pakistan match is important for us, but we have never [once] beaten India in a World Cup. It is 8-0 [8-1 in T20 World Cups]. The best captains from 1975 onwards have played them, including players from all generations, and we’ve never beaten India, the result is 8-0 [8-1]. Set that aside.

“We qualified for the second round, and we lost only one game against England. Did anything else happen? It was not possible to win by that margin against Sri Lanka which we required. We lost just one game, and only missed out due to net run rate. It’s not so big an issue to say our cricket has been destroyed.”

The selection committee’s next task comes after the end of the PSL 2026, with two Tests against Bangladesh in May. The team is currently in Bangladesh, where Pakistan selected a young squad with six potential debutants, four of whom have already been handed their first ODI caps. The series is currently level at 1-1.

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