The Pakistan cricket team's early exit from the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 has brought them under intense scrutiny. Both cricket fans and past players criticised the squad for not making it to the Super 8 level.

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Pakistan's campaign began on a poor note, with successive losses. They were surprised to lose their first match to the United States, led by captain Patel. The situation worsened when Pakistan faced their arch-rivals, India. The highly anticipated match ended in a comprehensive victory for India, further dampening Pakistan's hopes in the tournament.

In their third encounter, Pakistan defeated Canada. Despite the victory, the damage had been done, and Pakistan's chances of moving on to the Super 8 round remained bleak.

Former cricketer and renowned commentator Ramiz Raja shared his thoughts on Pakistan's performance in a recent video posted on his YouTube channel

"For Pakistan, this World Cup started on a disaster note and ended at the same note. If you’re dependent on other teams or are relying on weather forecast, the team will never proceed to the finals or at least to the next stage of the tournament. There are some fundamentals of cricket that you are required to follow and these are never going to change,” Ramiz said

“There isn’t any strong point in the tournament, Naseem Shah I believe performed well as a bowler because he’s naturally a hard-length bowler and his batting was also good against India. I guess overall Naseem Shah is the player who performed really well as a bowler as well as a batter. Rest of the players were just fine," Raja said.

"Several players are added in the team who perform like a dead beat and just to reinforce that decision you’re sending those players repeatedly because you don’t have any replacement. Leadership is not valued in this team, you are not letting them take any decision for the team. Retired players are added in the team because they have experience that is required in the World Cup regardless of their attitude towards the captain.

"Until and unless you take decisions based on merit and cricketing sense, it is impossible for this team to rise again. Looking for sacrificial lambs to save your place is not the way you run cricket."

Furthermore, Raja focused on the team's batting and bowling performances against the United States, India, and Canada.

"In the first match against the USA, the team made so many mistakes, against India as well, the team was not able to score 100 even. Also, in their face-off with Canada, the crowd expected Pakistan to end the game within 14 overs, but the team didn’t take any lesson from the previous matches. They should have bowled at hard-length at this pitch, but fast-bowlers failed to do so. Pakistan did well in bowling against India and in its clash against Canada, bowling was good but the batting was so so,” he said.