Pakistan’s White Ball captain Mohammad Rizwan acknowledged the team’s shortcomings after the winning ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 campaign, which expressed his determination to address the issue ahead of his upcoming tour of New Zealand.
Defending champion Pakistan endured a disappointing tournament, suffered consecutive defeats against New Zealand and India, and the final group stage fixture against Bangladesh was abandoned without the ball being wrapped in Rawalpindi.
As a result, the host remained at the bottom of Group A and did not win by just one point.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Lizwan acknowledged the team’s struggles, including the poor Trination Home ODI series leading up to the Champions Trophy.
“The results have been disappointing over the last few weeks. I wanted to perform in front of my hometown today, but unfortunately I couldn’t live up to their expectations,” Lizwan said.
The wicketkeeper batsman highlighted the importance of learning and improving from recent mistakes ahead of Pakistan’s Whiteball Series in New Zealand next month.
“You can learn from your mistakes. We have analyzed the errors in this tournament and the Tri-Nation series. By the will of Allah, Almighty, we will tackle them. We have made some mistakes against them here, so we hope we can perform better in New Zealand,” he added.
Rizwan also addressed the impact of the injury to young opener Saim Ayub, disrupting the team’s preparations, but not an excuse for their poor performance.
“When a player who has worked well in a recent series gets injured, the team feels a natural impact,” Lizwan said. “But as a leader, you need to move forward. This is no excuse. You learn from this experience.”
When asked about the strength of Pakistan’s bench, Rizwan highlighted the need for professionalism and game recognition to compete with the top teams around the world, pointing out the Champions Cup tournament.
“If you want to rank it among the best teams, you need to improve in several areas, such as professionalism and game recognition,” he said. “It’s a shame. We have to play for the nation and accept that we didn’t play. The fans are upset, and so are us. Inshaallah, we will learn from these mistakes and improve in future tournaments.”