Pakistan's Decline After Historic Win Against India
In Dubai, on a warm October night in 2021, Pakistan finally broke the one World Cup barrier that had haunted them for decades. They didn’t just beat India. They thrashed them by 10 wickets.
Babar Azam walked off unbeaten on 68. Mohammad Rizwan finished with 79 not out. A target of 152 vanished without the loss of a wicket. It was ruthless, clinical, and celebrated across Pakistan as a generational moment.
For Mohammad Yousuf, that night was also the beginning of the rot.
‘That match damaged us a lot’
Speaking on Samaa TV, the former batting great did not dress his words up.
“That match which we won against India in 2021, that damaged us a lot,” Yousuf said. In his eyes, the historic victory did more than rewrite a rivalry statistic. It rewired the dressing room.
“After that victory, players started to think that they had achieved something big. They couldn’t understand what they had to do next,” he explained. The win, instead of becoming a launchpad, became a comfort zone.
Yousuf’s criticism went beyond results. He focused on attitude.
“When you are performing well, you should stay humble. If you behave with your collar raised, and get disrespectful, problems will arrive. And a lot of them have arrived in Pakistan cricket,” he said.
For him, that raised collar has defined much of what followed.
Captaincy scramble and a lost dressing room
Yousuf did not stop at mindset. He went straight at the power struggle he believes has dragged Pakistan down.
“Everyone in the team was trying to become the captain of the Pakistan team,” he said. In his view, ambition shifted from performance to position. Responsibility with the bat and ball took a back seat to the race for the armband.
“The consequences are still hurting Pakistan cricket,” he added, pointing to a pattern rather than a blip. ODI World Cups, T20 World Cups, Asia Cups, Champions Trophy – in Yousuf’s assessment, the cricket has been “terrible” across the board.
He highlighted how the Pakistan Cricket Board kept trying to fix things around the players.
“The PCB has been supporting you throughout. So many coaches have come and gone, so many things have changed just to try and help the Pakistan team. But no player has stood up and taken responsibility. Eventually, PCB had to take a step that it did. I back what PCB did.”
The message was blunt: the problem is inside the dressing room, not just in the boardroom.
England tour collapse and PCB’s drastic call
Yousuf’s comments arrive at a time when Pakistan’s Test side is reeling in England.
They were hammered in the first two Tests. At Headingley, they lost by an innings and 103 runs. At Lord’s, the margin was 194 runs. Two heavy defeats, one bruised squad, and a World Test Championship table that makes grim reading.
Pakistan sit ninth. Last place. “They are ninth because there are only nine teams in the table,” Yousuf pointed out, underlining the embarrassment as much as the statistic.
The PCB responded with one of the most dramatic mid-series shake-ups in recent memory. Seven players – Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Khurram Shahzad, Aamir Jamal and Muhammad Awais Jafar – were sent home with one Test still to play.
Head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and assistant coach Umar Gul were removed. Seven replacements came in, five of them uncapped. The move sent shockwaves through the series and raised eyebrows across the cricket world.
Yousuf, though, had no issue with the timing or the severity.
Asked whether the board was right to act with one Test still left, he replied: “Yes, there is no issue with when PCB have taken action. The Pakistan team is ninth in the World Test Championship standings… Pakistan ka naam kharab ho raha hai (Pakistan’s reputation is getting ruined). So when that’s happening, the board has to take some steps to improve.”
He also hinted that the decision may not have been purely about form. “Something” inside the dressing room, he suggested, could have triggered the clear-out, though he did not reveal details.
Not just one bad tour
For Yousuf, to blame the England debacle alone would be to ignore the pattern.
“I don’t see an issue with the PCB reaction. Because the team has been playing terrible cricket. It’s not just this one series against England,” he said.
He acknowledged that Pakistan reached the T20 World Cup final in 2022 and an Asia Cup final, but he used those highs to sharpen his point.
“We played in the T20 World Cup final in 2022 and played in an Asia Cup final as well, but since those finals, just look at the performances coming out of this Pakistan team,” he said.
The slide has been broad and relentless. Across formats, Pakistan have struggled to string together convincing cricket. Earlier this year, they were swept 2-0 by Bangladesh, their second 0-2 defeat to the same opposition after the 2024 home series. For a team that once prided itself on unpredictable brilliance, the predictability now lies in disappointment.
Leadership, selection, direction – all of it sits under the microscope. Yet Yousuf keeps circling back to that night in Dubai, to the moment that was supposed to change everything.
Pakistan finally beat India by 10 wickets in a World Cup. In Yousuf’s telling, the real test was never that chase of 152. It was what came after – and that, he believes, is the contest this team has been losing ever since.
