Babar Azam & Dawid Malan speak ahead of England v Pakistan

Babar Azam & Dawid Malan speak ahead of England v Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

[Reporter:]

Heading into the final game of this campaign, what are your reflections really? It's been a pretty productive one for yourself, but you haven't got what you came for.

[Dawid Malan:]

Yeah, we haven't. You can talk about your personal form or runs or wickets, whatever it is but at the end of the day you want the team to do well and to win games of cricket and as a collective, we haven't been good enough and the proof is in the pudding, if you want to put it that way. We're seventh on the log, which isn't where we'd like to be at this stage of the tournament. We'd have hoped to come here pushing for a semi-final spot and preparing for that, but we just haven't been good enough.

[Reporter:]

Can you tell us about the sense of disappointment? This is a team that's gone deep in tournaments and been there at those big moments and you're going to be heading home while those big moments are playing out here in India. It's an unusual feeling for this team over the last few years.

[Dawid Malan:]

Yeah, I think there's massive disappointment and regret from us all that we haven't been able to perform as well as we would have as a team. We'd have loved to have been here at the business end and replicating what that fantastic team did in 2019 and what we did in the 2021-22 World Cup, I can't remember, 2020 World Cup, but it just hasn't been and I think as a group reflecting on it, we're extremely disappointed with that.

[Reporter:]

And just from a personal level, because your form is good, this team in all likelihood will begin the process of breaking up and some new blood will be brought in, can you tell us where you're at personally you haven't played as much international cricket or one-day cricket as some of the guys have. You know where's your motivation and hunger to be part of whatever that next chapter looks like?

[Dawid Malan:]

Yeah, I guess I'm in a unique situation being the second oldest in this team. I don't know what my future holds whether that be my choice or the team's choice. After this tournament probably, I have a bit of reflection time and see where I'm at and see what the future holds for me. Tomorrow could be the last game of cricket for England for me and it could still be the start of another journey. Who knows? We'll only find out when the dust settles.

[Reporter:]

But if it was your choice, wearing the shirt still means a lot to you?

[Dawid Malan:]

Yeah, definitely. Playing for England means everything for me. I've made no secret of that, I've always wanted to be part of this team and play for England for as long as I can but ultimately you get to a stage where you have to look a little bit further ahead and what's best for maybe the team and what's best for everything else so you know I guess there's decisions to be made over the next couple of days when the dust has settled and yeah, we'll see where we end up.

[Reporter:]

Just further on that, where do you feel you are in terms of physical and skill-wise when it comes to cricket? Do you think you've peaked or do you think you can actually be even better than you are at the moment?

[Dawid Malan:]

I guess from a physical side - the body's quite sore. I've got to admit it's been quite long. When you're winning games of cricket it doesn't feel as sore when you're losing it, you know it starts to feel a bit heavy, but from a batting point of view I feel like I'm playing as well as I've ever played. I don't think you know I'm getting worse if you want to put it that way yeah, I've had some quiet moments in the last year or so where I haven't scored as many runs that I've liked but when I have played well, I feel like I'm still as good as I've ever been, and I guess that desire to keep scoring as many runs as I can is always there it's just whether it's just whether you know the body can stay with that.

[Reporter:]

And if there is a rebuild after this, as it's likely to be, do you think you would have something to contribute to a rebuild?

[Dawid Malan:]

Yeah, if that's what they want, if they want experience around someone who's played quite a bit and played in the way that the team wants to play you know I'd love to still be around and do it but you know as I said when you get to this stage of being the second oldest it's usually them that go first regardless of results and that's part and parcel of the game.

[Reporter:]

The end for England, did you expect that sort of disaster end for England and what do you say about the match against Afghanistan?

And another question is this, Harry Brook, he played here in India, but he didn't live up to your expectation.

[Dawid Malan:]

No, I don’t think any of us did, to be honest I think we’re probably as shocked as everyone else that we’ve not lived up to the standard that we wanted to live up to and win games of cricket. For whatever reason we just haven't been good enough and we need to hold our hands up and take responsibility for that.

I saw Mo (Moeen Ali) said something that we hadn't seen it coming. You know, we'd still been playing good cricket as a team leading up to this. So, I don't think it was anything that was sort of showing over the last year or something like that. We just haven't performed as a group. The Afghanistan game, that was disappointing. I think if we look back and we reflect on that game we probably let them get maybe 30 runs too many and then with a bat we just didn't have any meaningful partnerships to be able to combat their spinners on that wicket which was disappointing because you know when you're chasing 280 or something even against a really good bowling attack you feel like you're in the game and same with when we played against Australia we felt like we were in the game and we just didn't get over the line which has probably been a hallmark of our performances this this tournament we haven't stayed in games long enough to win them. Which has always been a strength of this team is that someone's been there and done the hard yards to put us in a winning position so yeah, I hope that answers your question.

Harry Brook, yeah, he's a young player, I really feel for him. I feel like there's been so much pressure put on his shoulders, almost as if he was the saviour of English cricket. The poor kid is still learning his way and he's still trying to find his feet in international cricket and learn his game and hopefully he learns from this as well and from all the pressure that's been put on his shoulders and he can find a way to keep getting better because I think he's an exceptional talent and I can see him playing and I hope he plays 100 games for England across all formats of the game. And with anything, when you fail, no matter who you are, the quicker you learn from that, the better. Harry is one of the quickest learners I've seen as a young player and hopefully he can keep learning and hit those heights that we all know he's capable of achieving.

[Reporter:]

Tomorrow the defending champions will be up against the team who came into the World Cup as the number one side or probably the second number. So, what does that tell you about the sport in four years, how things can change, how do you look at this?

[Dawid Malan:]

Yeah, definitely. The sport changes quickly. It has a way of biting you in the backside. It creeps up on you quite quickly. And I guess, especially from our point of view, as I've said earlier, we're so disappointed in the fact that we are here playing against Pakistan at Eden Gardens and we're not in the race for it. It's disappointing. But we still have a lot to play for, we still have champions' trophies, I don't know if we have actually qualified for that or not yet, but we still need to put in a good performance and leave with a bit of pride, because it's hurting.

[Reporter:]

Considering that lots of English players are playing here in the Indian Premier League, you know our conditions, wicket very well. Considering that, we were expecting at least semi-final for England - last year’s champion, what is the three reasons?

[Dawid Malan:]

Three reasons?

Oh, I'm going to have to think now, you put me under pressure. Gosh, three reasons. Not enough runs, not enough wickets, whatever else.

Yeah, I think that's probably been the most disappointing thing for us, is that a lot of our players have had a lot of experience of playing in India and in the subcontinent. And, I guess, if you're looking in the hole, we've probably had a lot of our really big players struggle at the same time, which very rarely happens in a team. Usually, everyone sort of dovetails each other. And you have guys that are sort of putting a performance, you look at a trophy in general probably three or four contributions from a from a player in a trophy or in a franchise whatever you want to put it is a good performance and I guess we just haven't been consistent enough in putting in match-winning performances as individuals and that's all of us involved in that. I have no other third reason for it.

[Reporter:]

Obviously with the performances you start questioning your own performances in the last five games with the losses and also there is focus from outside from the fans from the press. So, in that situation what's the kind of mindset that you have within the team? There is always a threat that you will slip into desperation, so how do you guard against it? How do you focus on the cricket?

[Dawid Malan:]

Yeah, look, our message has always been the same. I know there's been a lot said in the press when players stand up here and we sort of say a couple of things that might come across quite differently but the message has always been the same we've always approached the game the same way we've always taken the positive option the positive option varies from different conditions to different conditions.

The boys have still believed and stayed true to that, even though it doesn't look like that always. Ultimately, you can talk as much as you want and you can put as much stuff into practice as you want. When you're out in the middle, you have to find a way of doing it. Yeah, I hope that answers your question.

[Reporter:]

Do you think the campaign is over or will we go after this big target? And when you look back, what is the defeat that has influenced the Pakistan campaign?

[Babar Azam:]

I think there is one match left. You never know. Its cricket - we will try to finish on a good note and then see.

I think the South African match cost us and we should have won that match, but unfortunately, we didn't win that because of which we are at this stage.

[Reporter:]

It's a difficult situation, but it’s said that we should have hope. How hopeful are you? What mistakes have you made in this tournament? Is it the ball or the fielding?

[Babar Azam:]

Look, there should be hope at all times. At any stage, at any work you do, you should have positive hope and I firmly believe in that.

You cannot say that it is the fault of bowling, fielding, or batting. As a team we could not execute. We cannot say that we got so many runs in bowling or lost runs in fielding. As a team we did not execute the plan or play as per the demand – that includes bowling, batting, and fielding.

We will try to learn from this, because the faster you learn from big events you know where you have made mistakes. I have seen that the margin of error is very low here. Because when you give even a little room to any team, they take the match from you. This is the specialty of World Cup. It's a high-intensity game. You have a match against every team, so they are high-intensity games. So, I think the whole team should learn from the mistakes.

[Reporter:]

Four years ago, the situation was similar to this. You needed 300+ against Bangladesh and today you need around 288. I get the impression from your talks that you haven't thought about the 200 margin or about the net run rate - that we might go for an all-out aggression. What will be Pakistan's strategy tomorrow? Do you think that you will play on ‘do or die’ strategy and try to post the first batting scoreboard that we can achieve it?

[Babar Azam:]

No, it’s not like that that this matter is not in the back of the mind. It's in our mind and we will try to do it. We will try to execute our plans and how we will go tomorrow and how we will achieve the target.

We can't just go in and start firing blindly – we want that but with proper planning, how we want to play the first 10 overs, then the next 20 – how we have to achieve that target.

There are a lot of things in this, like partnership, which player will stay in the pitch for how long. If you ask me, I would say if Fakhar is in the match for 20 or 30 overs, we can achieve that. Then follow up with Rizwan, Iftikhar. We can do this and we have planned for this.

[Reporter:]

The World Cup is still a match away. But, with regards to your captaincy, can't a cricketer like you play the role that Virat Kohli is playing in the Indian team? To prolong your career and focus more on cricket? Because sometimes it feels like this burden hurts your individual performance?

[Babar Azam:]

I have been captaining my team for the last three years and I have never felt this way.

It’s just because I have not performed the way I should have in the World Cup, that’s why people are saying that I am under pressure. I am under no pressure. I have been doing this for the last 2.5 or 3 years. I was the one who was performing and I was the one who was the captain. I was applying the same thing.

It depends how you take such thing. Everyone has their own point of view, their own way of thinking. Everyone is saying something different. He should be like this, or like that. If someone has to give me advice, everyone has my number. It is easy to give advice on TV. If you want to give me some advice, you can message me.

I don't think I was under any pressure or felt any different because of this. I try to give my best in the field during the fielding. During batting, I think about how I should make runs and make the team win.

[Reporter:]

The way the team has been performing, some decisions were being made in Lahore as well. Do you understand that some decisions were being made which affected the team's performance. And regarding the captaincy, will you make a decision regarding your captaincy or will the Pakistan cricket board have to make a decision?

[Babar Azam:]

I have no idea what decisions you are talking about. The decisions we make here, regarding selections of players - are the decision of the coaches and the captain. We go with the best combination of conditions and situations. Sometimes we have succeeded and sometimes we haven't.

About the captaincy – as I said, once we go back to Pakistan or after this match, we will see what happens. But right now, I am not focusing on this, my focus is on the next match.

[Reporter:]

From, let's say, 99 to now it's a long time, but there's been a slump in performance of Pakistan in World Cup. Now, does it point to a deeper problem in the country's cricket, or is it just some reason or the other you're not being able to do well in a major tournament. Because this has now continued for a long time. And for a team of Pakistan's ability, that does seem like a little bit of odd thing. Why do you think that's happening?

[Babar Azam:]

Do you think we have lost all World Cups since 1999? If you look in the T20 World Cup, we are playing in the Asia Cup [2022 final], we played in the semifinal, we played in the final in Australia [T20 World Cup 2022]. It not that we are not playing well in the World Cups, we are not able to finish well, we are executing, we are dominating. We have played good cricket and we have played positive cricket against different teams. But that doesn't mean that we haven't played good cricket since then. It's not like that.

Because we haven’t done well in this World Cup or the last World Cup, you can't say that we haven’t done well since 99, we have dominated and we were number one in one day. Yes, we are not able to finish well. We will work on that and finish well.

[Reporter:]

One thing from the Indian fans' perspective is - if they wanted any particular batsman of Pakistan to shine, it was you. Now, you haven't done badly, I mean, there's a 40-plus average and 282 runs. Personally, at a personal level, what would be an ideal situation for you, in terms of run getting or scoring as per the situation in finishing matches.

[Babar Azam:]

To be honest – first I got a lot of love from India, a lot of support. Not only me, the entire team. Of course, I was not able to get a good finish. My goal was to get a good finish in the batting. I didn't have a goal to score 50 or 100. The main thing was to make the win the team. The performance that helps the team, not my individual performance. I played slow, I played fast, depending on the situation. I play according to the situation and according to what my team need.

What is my plan? What is the team requiring from me? What am I requiring from the team? And we execute the plan accordingly. Sometimes you play slow and sometimes you play fast. Sometimes the conditions don't favour you to play fluently.

Sometimes you have to try and hang-in, fight it out and take the game deep. There are three phases here. You get runs with the new ball. When you come in the middle, you have to struggle a little. But it is not that you get these same things in every venue.

You get different situations in different venues.

We came here for the first time, we didn't have the awareness of how to take it, but we adapted as soon as possible in practice, that we will have to face it like this. So, we faced this thing, we took it and planned accordingly that how do we bat here.

Because as I said, in the middle and end you get runs. In the middle overs when the ball is old you struggle a bit – as a batsman.

That’s it, I wanted to give a good performance here, I had high expectations but I couldn’t perform as per expectations. I accept that.

But the finish, as you said, I try to have a good finish.

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