Back-to-back defeats have Pakistan on the brink of elimination from the ongoing T20 World Cup. In order to keep themselves afloat in the competition, Babar Azam and Co. must first defeat Canada in New York on Tuesday.

Thereafter, they need to beat Ireland in their final group-stage clash in Lauderhill next Sunday.

Now, winning both their remaining games in group A will also not be enough as with a poor net run rate (-0.150), they have to win these games by a big margin. And then hope the United States — who shocked Pakistan in their opener last week — lose both their clashes against India and Ireland.

Expecting India to lose even one of their remaining group-phase games (against US and Canada) would be a little too much. But, for Pakistan at present, there’s no other way out than to play out of their skins.

Their batting has to come good in the first place and the experienced players in the line-up — Babar, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman and Iftikhar Ahmed — must raise their game.

“These guys are all international players and they’re aware that when they’re not performing at their best, there’s going to be pressure put on them,” Pakistan’s white-ball coach Gary Kirsten said after the loss on Sunday.

“But, a lot of these guys have played a lot of T20 cricket around the world over many, many years and it’s really up to them to decide how they’re going to take their games forward. Players have got to take responsibility when that opportunity comes.”