ISLAMABAD: Pakistan skipper Babar Azam on Friday defended the cricket team’s performance against England, vowing to fix all mistakes ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup scheduled to begin on June 2.

England thrashed Pakistan by seven wickets at the Oval on Thursday in their last match before the race for the T20 World Cup title begins. Victory gave England a 2-0 win in a four-match T20 series with two games washed out without a ball bowled.

“I agree that we made mistakes in the middle overs during battling and bowling both,” Azam said at a press conference on Friday. “We will try and fix this as soon as possible.”

The skipper said it was important to take chances during high-scoring matches, adding that all team members would sit and discuss how they had read the situation wrong and succumbed to pressure after losing back-to-back wickets. 

“We need to settle down after losing wickets to gain momentum again.”

Babar admitted that the team was struggling throughout the middle overs and urged his teammates to step up and take responsibility for the loss. He said though the team had collapsed during batting and bowling, their confidence remained high as they got to learn new things after facing a series loss. 

When asked if the team was selected on merit, Azam said no one was given an extra edge and all players were chosen after a thorough discussion between seven selection committee members.

“We have to back the players that got selected,” Azam said.

Azam assured that the cricket team was right on track and that winning and losing were part of the game. However, he accepted that even though all the players were performing well individually, they were “unable to click as a team.”

“We are performing individually but not as a team,” he concluded. “We are lagging here.”

The Pakistan team flew out to the United States earlier today, Friday, for the T20 World Cup series.