Dubai, 24 February (HS): Pakistan’s difficulties have increased further in the Champions Trophy 2025. After suffering a six-wicket defeat against India on Sunday, Pakistani captain Mohammad Rizwan admitted that his team’s journey is almost over. He said, At the moment, we can say that it is over. This is the truth.

However, Pakistan is not yet officially out of the tournament. It will need some favorable results in other matches before its last league match against Bangladesh. In particular, it will hope for Bangladesh’s unexpected victory over New Zealand.

Rizwan said that he does not like to move forward by depending on someone else’s performance. He clarified, As a captain, I don’t like it. If you can win, do so. If you can’t, don’t worry about it. If you are sitting in someone else’s shadow, I don’t care about it.

India took the field with three spinners in this match, while Pakistan gave a chance to only one specialist spinner Abrar Ahmed. Clarifying this decision, Rizwan said, You cannot say that we made a mistake by choosing only one spinner. The Indian team has Kuldeep Yadav as a frontline spinner, while Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel are all-rounders. We also had Salman Ali Agha and Khushdil Shah, who have bowled well in the past.

Rizwan admitted that Pakistan’s middle order did not live up to expectations. He said, Our plan was to score 270-280 runs, as both the pitch and the outfield were slow. If we had scored 280 runs, maybe the result would have been different.

For Pakistan, their qualification hopes depend on defeating Bangladesh in their final group match on Thursday. Additionally, they need a favorable result from the India vs New Zealand Match.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar