Mohammad Yousuf on Pakistan’s Slide After Historic Win in Dubai

The night Pakistan had waited for finally arrived in Dubai in 2021. Under the lights at the T20 World Cup, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan walked off unbeaten, having dismantled India by 10 wickets and erased decades of World Cup hurt in a ruthless chase of 152.

For a generation of Pakistan fans, it was catharsis. For Mohammad Yousuf, it was the beginning of the end.

“That match which we won against India in 2021, that damaged us a lot,” the former batting great said on Samaa TV, cutting against the grain of the national memory. In his eyes, the historic win did more than rewrite a rivalry; it rewired a dressing room.

From landmark win to dangerous mindset

Pakistan had never beaten India in a World Cup before that night in Dubai. Babar’s composed 68 not out and Rizwan’s 79* turned a tense chase into a procession. The players were feted, the country erupted, and the team were hailed as standard-bearers of a new era.

Yousuf sees something else when he looks back.

“After that victory, players started to think that they had achieved something big,” he said. The problem, as he tells it, wasn’t the celebration. It was what came next — or rather, what didn’t.

“They couldn’t understand what they had to do next. 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.”

For Yousuf, the rot is as much about attitude as it is about results. The Dubai win, in his view, inflated egos, dulled hunger and created a sense of arrival in a team that had only just begun to climb.

A team obsessed with the captaincy

The issues, he insists, ran deeper than one famous victory. Inside the camp, he saw a different battle unfolding — not for runs or wickets, but for power.

“Everyone in the team was trying to become the captain of the Pakistan team,” Yousuf said. That scramble, he believes, dragged the focus away from performance and responsibility.

The consequences, he argues, are now written across Pakistan’s record in major events.

“Look at all the cricket Pakistan has played in the last four-five years, from ODI World Cups, T20 World Cups to Asia Cups and Champions Trophy. There has been terrible cricket,” he said. Coaches have come and gone, selection panels have shifted, structures have been tweaked.

“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.”

In Yousuf’s telling, the board kept rearranging the furniture. The players never fixed the foundation.

England tour meltdown and a brutal reset

His comments land at a fraught moment. Pakistan’s current tour of England has veered from concern to crisis.

At Headingley, they were crushed by an innings and 103 runs. At Lord’s, the margin ballooned to 194 runs. Two heavy defeats, one Test still to play, and a proud cricket nation watching its side unravel in the World Test Championship, where Pakistan sit ninth — last place in a nine-team table.

The Pakistan Cricket Board responded with a sledgehammer.

• 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 go.
• Head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and assistant coach Umar Gul were removed.
• Seven replacements were summoned, five of them uncapped, in the middle of an away series in England.

The move drew sharp scrutiny. Yousuf, though, saw no reason to flinch.

“Yes, there is no issue with when PCB have taken action,” he said when asked about the timing. For him, the table tells the story. “The Pakistan team is ninth in the World Test Championship standings. They are ninth because there are only nine teams in the table. 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 cull may not have been purely about form. Yousuf suggested something inside the dressing room could have triggered such a drastic mid-series overhaul, though he stopped short of detailing what that might be.

Years of drift, not one bad series

Yousuf is adamant this is not about a single failed tour. To him, England is just the latest chapter in a longer slide.

“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.

Pakistan did reach the T20 World Cup final in 2022. They also contested an Asia Cup final. Those runs, however, sit awkwardly alongside a broader pattern of inconsistency and underachievement.

“Since those finals, just look at the performances coming out of this Pakistan team,” Yousuf said.

The numbers back up his gloom. Across formats, Pakistan have stumbled. They were swept 2-0 by Bangladesh earlier this year, their second 0-2 series defeat to the same opposition after the 2024 home series. For a side that once prided itself on intimidating opponents with raw talent and volatility, being routinely outplayed by mid-tier teams has raised harsh questions about leadership, selection and direction.

The PCB has tried almost everything — new captains, new coaches, new combinations. Yousuf keeps circling back to the same origin point: that glittering, cathartic, career-defining night in Dubai.

What most of Pakistan celebrated as a breakthrough, he marks as the moment complacency crept in and collars went up.

If he is right, the real challenge for Pakistan cricket is not just tactical or technical. It is psychological. The team that finally conquered India on a World Cup stage may have to unlearn what that victory did to its collective ego before it can rise again.