Pakistan skipper Babar Azam found himself in an uncomfortable position in the T20 World Cup Final pre-match press conference.
Babar was asked about the benefits of playing in the IPL and whether he hopes Pakistani players will get a chance to play in IPL in the future. However, the Pakistan skipper didn’t answer the question.
Babar Azam completely ignores questions on IPL
In the pre-match press conference before the T20 World Cup Final, Babar Azam was asked plenty of questions regarding the Pakistan Team and he answered all of them. However, he found himself in a very uncomfortable position when a journalist asked him about IPL. Pakistan media manager intervened in between to handle the situation.
“Talk about the benefits of playing the IPL, is that something you feel would have helped you and your team, and is that something you have any hope for in the future?” asked the journalist. Pakistan’s media manager responded by saying, “We are taking questions on the World Cup final at the moment.”
— Cricket fan (@Cricketfan093) November 14, 2022
Pakistan players were part of the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League and since then the BCCI hasn’t allowed Pakistan players in the IPL for the last fourteen years due to government restrictions. The Indian Team to hasn’t traveled to Pakistan since 2008 as the two nations only compete against each other in ICC tournaments.
The Indian Premier League is the biggest cricket league globally and players from all other nations get a chance to experience tremendous pressure games in the cash-rich league. Players from Team England who is Pakistan’s opponent in the T20 World Cup Final, too have experience regularly playing in the IPL and most of them have played in the knockout games in IPL on a regular basis which helps them in absorbing pressure in such high voltage games.
England did prove to be the better team in the Final as they beat the Pakistan team by 5 wickets chasing a below-par total of 137 runs courtesy of a brilliant spell of 12-3 from Sam Curran who was awarded the player of the match trophy.