Mohammad Yousuf on Pakistan's Cricket Crisis: Lessons from Dubai 2021

For most of Pakistan, that night in Dubai was a dream finally delivered. For Mohammad Yousuf, it was the start of a nightmare.

The former Pakistan batting great believes the country’s current cricket crisis can be traced back, not to a painful defeat, but to one of its most cherished wins: the 10-wicket thrashing of India at the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Pakistan had never beaten India in a World Cup before that evening. Babar Azam’s calm, unbeaten 68 and Mohammad Rizwan’s authoritative 79 not out powered a flawless chase of 152 without the loss of a single wicket. It felt like a generational moment, a psychological barrier shattered under the Dubai lights.

For Yousuf, it also flipped a dangerous switch.

‘Collar raised, respect lost’

Speaking on Samaa TV, Yousuf did not dress his words up.

“That match which we won against India in 2021, that damaged us a lot,” he said. In his view, the players treated that victory as an arrival point, not a platform. “After that victory, players started to think that they had achieved something big. They couldn’t understand what they had to do next.”

The issue, as he sees it, was not skill. It was 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.”

Yousuf’s criticism goes beyond scoreboards and standings. He believes something in the dressing room culture shifted after Dubai: a sense of entitlement creeping in where hunger and humility once lived.

From chasing runs to chasing the captaincy

The former middle-order mainstay did not stop at mentality. He turned the spotlight on a familiar fault line in Pakistan cricket: the captaincy.

“Everyone in the team was trying to become the captain of the Pakistan team,” Yousuf said. In his eyes, the armband became an obsession, overshadowing the basic responsibility of consistent performance.

The fallout, he argued, is written across Pakistan’s recent record. “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.”

Coaches have rotated in and out. Structures have shifted. The Pakistan Cricket Board has tried to reset and rebuild. Yet, Yousuf insists, “no player has stood up and taken responsibility.”

So when the PCB finally swung the axe in England, he backed them. “Eventually, PCB had to take a step that it did. I back what PCB did.”

England tour unravels, PCB reacts mid-series

The timing of Yousuf’s comments is no coincidence. Pakistan are in turmoil in England, and the scorelines tell a brutal story.

• An innings and 103-run defeat at Headingley.
• A 194-run loss at Lord’s.
• Two heavy blows, one after another.

With one Test still to play, the PCB ripped up the script. Seven players – Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Khurram Shahzad, Aamir Jamal and Muhammad Awais Jafar – were sent back home mid-tour. Head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and assistant coach Umar Gul were removed. Seven replacements were called up, including five uncapped players.

It was a dramatic intervention that split opinion. Yousuf, though, had no hesitation.

“Yes, there is no issue with when PCB have taken action,” he said when asked if the board was right to move with one Test still remaining. He pointed to the World Test Championship table as a blunt reality check: Pakistan sit ninth. “They are ninth because there are only nine teams in the table.”

Then came the line that cuts to the heart of his anger. “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.”

Yousuf even hinted that the decision to send seven players home may have roots beyond the numbers on the field, suggesting something may have unfolded inside the dressing room to force the PCB’s hand.

‘It’s not just this one series’

Yousuf refuses to let the debate be confined to a single tour. For him, England is only the latest chapter.

“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 did reach the T20 World Cup final in 2022 and an Asia Cup final as well. Those runs, though, have not masked the broader decline in his eyes. “Since those finals, just look at the performances coming out of this Pakistan team,” he added, pointing to a pattern rather than a blip.

The numbers back up his concern. Pakistan have struggled across formats. They were swept 2-0 by Bangladesh earlier this year, their second 0-2 defeat to the same opposition after the 2024 home series. Questions now hang over leadership, selection, and the direction of the entire set-up.

A famous night, a lingering cost

Many in Pakistan still remember that Dubai night as pure joy: Babar and Rizwan walking off unbeaten, India stunned, history finally rewritten.

Yousuf remembers it too. But when he looks at Pakistan’s fractured Test side, the revolving door of coaches, the captaincy tussles and the timid cricket on big stages, he sees a different legacy.

For him, the root of the current malaise goes back to that World Cup win over India – a victory that lifted a nation, and, in his view, lifted collars a little too high.

The question now is stark: can Pakistan rediscover the hunger that made that night possible, without letting it destroy them again?