WI vs PAK: Babar Azam reflects on dropped catches at the crucial stages in first Test

Pakistan ended up on the losing side in what was an epic first Test match versus West Indies in Kingston. The home side, in the end, held their nerve better and won by the barest of margins by one wicket. But the Men in Green have themselves to blame for the loss as they could not set a target of above 200 in the fourth innings to West Indies.

In the bowling too, Pakistan had reduced West Indies to 114 for seven in a chase of 168 but dropped a few catches while closing out the innings, which in the end came about to haunt them, as Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales stitched an invaluable 17 runs for the 10th wicket. Skipper Babar Azam felt the two drop catches of Roach by Mohammad Rizwan and Hasan Ali was the reason for the bitter loss.

"When you drop catches in clutch phases, the course of the match changes. We got two chances but couldn't avail of them which, is why we lost the match. That said, we did pull off a few good catches, so you took good catches but dropped a few, so you lost the match,” he said after the match.

The Pakistani skipper further opined lack of partnerships in the batting department too was one of the factors for the team not posting a good score in both the innings of the Test match. "If I am to look back on how we performed throughout the match, the partnership Azhar bhai and I put up in the first innings - it was a good one and gave us the momentum but, we relinquished it when we got out," he said.