"You Are Going To Pay": Pakistan Coach Gary Kirsten's Blunt Take On T20 WC Loss Against India

Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten admitted that the team put more pressure on itself than was required in the T20 World Cup 2024 match against India. The mistakes the players made resulted in them paying a hefty price.

There were few positives to advocate as Pakistan suffered second successive defeat of the T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, going down to India by 6 wickets on Sunday. The result puts Pakistan's Super 8 qualification chances in jeopardy, and the team's head coach Gary Kirsten admitted that the players put more pressure on themselves than they should have. Jasprit Bumrah's miserly three-wicket haul which applied pressure on Pakistan batters and a counter-attacking, match-saving knock by Rishabh Pant powered India to a narrow win at a packed Nassau County Stadium which keeps India's World Cup dreams alive with two more group stage games to go.

Speaking about the performance after the game in a post-match press conference, Kirsten said, "Pretty much spot-on (about players putting excessive pressure on themselves). These guys are all international players and they are aware that when they are not performing at their best there is going to be pressure put on them. That is understandable, but a lot of these guys have played a lot of T20 cricket around the world over many, many years and it is really up to them to decide how they are going to take their games forward."

On the playing surface at Nassau County Stadium, Kirsten said that it was not dangerous by any stretch except an oddball rising sharply.

"It generally kept a little bit lower. I think we were able to score for both batting sides and also a fairly slow outfield, so it was never going to be a big total. I would have said 140 would have been a really good score on that pitch. So, India did not get that so I thought we had the game. We knew it was going to be tight but sometimes it is fun seeing games like that as well. It is not always about sixes and hitting, getting 230s and 240s. You can actually have a really entertaining game on a 120 chase. So, I do not think it is bad for the game," he added.

Kirsten said that the message to the team while chasing was to look for an odd boundary, punish the loose deliveries and rotate the strike well.