The Pakistan cricket team is in the firing line after a disastrous show on the fourth day of the first Test against England at Multan Cricket Stadium, which has seen fans turning into trolls on social media platforms. All out at just 220, the hosts are in a very vulnerable position as they go into the last day of the match.
When England made a record 823 runs thanks to Joe Root and Harry Brook, a lot was expected from the Pakistan team’s batting. But what came next was far from that; it was catastrophic. The team was all out at 82 in the second inning, and none of the top six batsmen could cross the 30-run mark. Pakistan’s test captain Babar Azam once again failed, scoring only 5 runs and continuing a series of poor performances that only fuelled more criticism.
People used social media, especially X and Instagram, to release their frustration in the form of memes and jokes. Some noted that the pitch is as flat as a highway, and yet Pakistan failed to make any big score. It went from teasing Babar Azam’s poor run of form where he hasn’t made a fifty in the last 17 matches to straight up making fun of the entire team.
The trolling rose to another level as fans equated the current state of the team to previous failures, some even sarcastically suggesting even flat pitches are unsafe for Pakistan batters. Some fans created memes that portrayed scenes of hopelessness among the fans, some of which even portrayed fans who had slept while Babar was batting, all in an attempt to depict the team’s performance as being boring.
It is now the turn of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to be under pressure as fans call for answers to this problem. The fans are now witnessing a series of poor performances, the latest being a series defeat to a team ranked below them.
