Pakistan top-order failed to fire in unison for their team which ultimately led to a bitter defeat against New Zealand in Karachi on Wednesday.

Babar Azam (64 off 90), Mohammed Rizwan (3 off 14) and Saud Shakeel (6 off 19) were conservative in their approach which ultimately cost the match as the hots were bowled out for 260.

After the match, several former Pakistan players lashed out at the batters with former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, who was part of the side's World Cup-winning team in 1992, slammed the selection process and used the term ‘parchi’ (selected on reference) at certain players.

“Look, if you want me to be brutally honest, I can be. In our culture, we are like ‘these are our kids, don't criticise'. It's very normal here. But I think these are our best players. If there were someone better than them, they would've been selected. Here, we have this popular word called parchi. At this level, parchi doesn't work. It's very difficult to explain this to Pakistan people,” said Akram.

“We have 5-6 selectors. It's a complicated situation. The domestic structure has changed,” Akwram was quoted as saying by HT.

Despite the humiliating loss against New Zealand, Pakistan can still qualify but for that they need to first win both their remaining games. They would also hope that either India or Bangladesh lose two of their remaining three games in the Champions Trophy 2025.

Pakistan are hosting a major ICC event for the first time in 30 years. They co-hosted the World Cup with India and Sri Lanka in 1996. The men in green are the defending champion after it beat India in the final in England in 2017.

Pakistan squad for Champions Trophy 2025 : Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), Khushdil Shah, Salman Agha, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah

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