NEW DELHI: Former Pakistan captains lamented that their team made no improvement in the last four years, from the 2019 World Cup to the ongoing edition, after they found themselves in similar situations of failing to progress into the knockout stages due to inferior net run rate.
Pakistan must defeat England in Kolkata by an almost unthinkable 287 runs in order to move up to the No. 4 semifinal slot on net run-rate, ahead of New Zealand. The Pakistani team, which has only advanced to one World Cup semifinal (in 2011) after losing to Australia in the championship game in 1999, was in a similar situation at the 2019 World Cup. In order to eliminate the Black Caps from the semifinals, it had to defeat Bangladesh by over 300 runs in the final league game, but it was unable to accomplish that.
