"Restructure with very serious intent" - Former India cricketer's message to Pakistan after ignominious 2025 Champions Trophy exit

Former India batter Wasim Jaffer reckons that Pakistan need to restructure the way they play white-ball cricket following their group-stage exit in the 2025 Champions Trophy. Jaffer opined that Pakistan have been playing old-fashioned cricket for a while in limited-overs formats and stated that the team should view the disastrous Champions Trophy performance as an eye opener.

Pakistan are hosting the ongoing edition of the Champions Trophy, with India playing their matches in Dubai in a hybrid format. They were, however, knocked out of the tournament following losses to New Zealand and India.

Discussing Pakistan's poor performance in the yet another ICC event, Jaffer opined that the time has come for their cricket board to take some strict measures. Speaking on ESPNcricinfo, he commented:

"It's been happening for a while. Even the 50-over World Cup was a disappointing affair. The T20 World Cup was also disappointing for them. They need to restructure and think about how they are going to play that positive brand of cricket. They made a good effort of signing Gary Kirsten, Jason Gillespie, but they resigned within few months.

Jaffer also criticized former captain and senior batter Babar Azam for his snail-paced half-century in Pakistan's opening match against the Kiwis. He stated:

"The way Babar batted against New Zealand - very slow 50 in the context of the game. Only 20-25 runs in powerplay. Straightaway after 50, he plays a shot, which he was not playing. A message needs to be given to play positive brand of cricket. They need to be strict about it. Their cricket has come downhill. They need to restructure it with very serious intent.

Before the Champions Trophy, Pakistan failed to qualify for the knockout stage of the 2023 ODI World Cup in India and the 2024 T20 World Cup held in the West Indies and the USA as well.

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"It was disappointing for us" - Pakistan captain reacts to team's early exit from 2025 Champions Trophy

Pakistan finished last in Group A after their match against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi was abandoned without the toss being held. While both Bangladesh and Pakistan finished with one point each, the former ended with a better net run rate. Reflecting on Pakistan's exit, skipper Mohammad Rizwan said (via IANS):

"We wanted to do well and perform well in front of our nation. The expectations are very high. We didn't perform well, and it was disappointing for us. You can learn from your mistakes. We have made mistakes in the last few games. Hopefully, we can learn from these.”

“We are next going to New Zealand, and hopefully we can perform there and the mistakes that we made against New Zealand here in Pakistan, we can learn from that. And we will do better in New Zealand,” the keeper-batter added.

Pakistan are scheduled to play five T20I and three ODIs during their white-ball tour of New Zealand from March 16 to April 5.