The performance of Pakistan national cricket team has not been good in recent years. The country’s top-ranked all-rounder Shadab Khan mentioned in a podcast that the Pakistan cricket team’s obsession with India matches could be the reason for their downfall.
In most of the multinational events in recent times, the Pakistan cricket team started their campaign on a promising note but could not convert the momentum into a trophy-winning journey.
Shadab Khan raised questions on the mentality of Pakistan cricket team in the World Cup
Spin-bowling allrounder Shadab Khan, who has represented the national cricket team in several ICC World Cups and other multi-national events, felt that due to lack of focus, he failed to convert his hard-earned momentum into trophy-winning moments.
Khan talked about the mentality of the team when they went to play in the World Cup. The 27-year-old mentioned that when a team goes to play in the World Cup, the team’s aim should be to win every match in the competition and not any particular match.
It was different for Pakistan when they took part in the title race. Shadab Khan indicated that instead of focusing on the entire event, he mostly focused his attention on his fixtures against arch-rivals India.
“If you go to play in the World Cup, you want to win the whole World Cup. If you go to play against India, you don’t want to lose. So we add a lot of things to that,” the spin bowling all-rounder said in a podcast.
Even after the match with India in 2026, Pakistan had a chance to perform well in the World Cup.
He further explained that losing a match against India is always a big deal for them, but still, since there were many other teams in the tournament, Pakistan can move ahead by performing well in the matches against different teams.
“If you lose a match against India, you lose the whole World Cup. You performed well, you performed badly, that’s all. Even though I thought we still had a chance of winning the World Cup,” he said.
In February this year, Shadab Khan made headlines when he hit back at former cricketers who criticized the national team for their defeat by India by a margin of 61 runs in the T20 World Cup 2026. Former Pakistani cricketers like Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Yousuf were among the former cricketers who lashed out against the national team.
Shadab Khan rekindles his rift with Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Yousuf
Shadab said that they all have their legends, but for him the Pakistan combination in ’90 was very special.
“But obviously, all these things changed because of one Indian match. My aim was to say that, okay, we all have legends. I don’t think there can be a better team than 90. Like they were individual performers. If you talk about 99, I don’t think there has ever been a bigger team than that on paper. I don’t think there can be a bigger team than 99 in the future,” he said in the same podcast.
India’s passion ruined Pakistan’s World Cup
Shadab Khan: The aim is to win the World Cup, not just defeat India. But after losing to India, people behave as if the World Cup is over. We still had a chance, but that one loss changed everything. pic.twitter.com/1QDUOcQQky
— Sam (@cricsam02) July 19, 2026
