[Watch] Pakistan captain Babar Azam celebrates his 29th birthday by cutting cake in team hotel in Bangalore

Pakistan captain Babar Azam celebrated his 29th birthday by cutting a cake with his teammates in the team hotel in Bangalore on Sunday (October 15). The players have left Ahmedabad and reached Bangalore to commence preparations for their upcoming match in the 2023 World Cup.

The Men in Green have made a decent start in the tournament, winning two out of their three games so far. They beat the Netherlands and Sri Lanka teams and then suffered a crushing loss against India.

On a personal level, Babar failed to score with the bat in the first two games. He then hit a half-century against India but ended up on the losing side as the rest of the line-up failed to deliver. It was also Babar's first fifty against India in ODI format.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) took to their official X (formerly Twitter) handle and shared a video to give fans a glimpse of Babar's birthday celebrations at the team hotel.

You can watch the birthday celebrations in the video below:

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"It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event"- Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur

Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur criticized ICC and BCCI after their thumping loss against India in the 2023 World Cup. He opined that the match felt like a bilateral contest organized by BCCI and not a World Cup held under the supervision of ICC.

At a post-match press conference, Arthur said:

“It didn't seem like an ICC event to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event. I didn't hear Dil Dil Pakistan coming through the microphones too often tonight.

He continued:

“So yes, that does play a role, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse because for us it was about living the moment, it was about the next ball and it was about how we were going to combat the Indian players tonight."

Do you agree with Mickey Arthur's views above? Let us know in the comments section below.