Is Pakistan’s T20 approach troublesome?

A 3 week long tournament culminated on 11th September 2022 when an underdog team, Sri Lanka, defeated one of the favorite teams of the tournament, Pakistan. Pakistan made a remarkable comeback in the Asia cup after losing their first match against arch rivals India. Team Green won back-to-back 3 matches against Hong Kong, India and Afghanistan before Sri Lanka arrested its progress in the last match of the Super 4 round. Sri Lanka had its own plans. The team strategy reflected on the field by individual brilliance and team work highlighted by top-class fielding won the islanders their 6th Asia cup. In doing so they debunked the myth that toss would win you this year’s Asia cup. So, credit goes to Sri Lankans for their excellent comeback in cricket.

Now let’s shed some light on the performance of team Pakistan: Our batting line up, captaincy, team strategy and, most importantly, our bowling which was praised by everyone in the Asia cup. Talking about our batting, it is fair to say that we are struggling in the batting department and if we do not seriously reconsider our batting line-up and approach, this struggle will continue to kick us in the bum going into the T20 World Cup.

If Dubai pitch is to be used as a sample to gauge Pakistani batters’ ability to play bounce and pace than there is more trouble heading their way come the T20 World Cup in Australia. Our middle order was woefully clueless against the short deliveries and it won’t get any easier in Australia with its fast-paced tracks.

Keeping in mind that our main players like Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman are struggling, we would need technically strong attacking batters in our middle order who can cope well with the rising deliveries and they should be given the license to play attacking cricket. Players like Haider Ali, Sohaib Maqsood, Shan Masood and even Abdullah Shafique could play a huge role. The importance of Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafique is that they can also play as openers and even in the middle order. Shan Masood is currently in the form of his life, playing exceptionally well in all formats which makes him a deserving candidate to secure a place in our team. Moreover, Azam Khan can fill in the boots for Rizwan if in any circumstance he is not available to play and he can be utilized in our lower order as a power hitter. All in all, what can be said about our batting lineup is that we need strong hitters who have the ability to put pressure on the opposite team and not on themselves by ‘tuk-tuking’ their way throughout the innings. Our openers should make use of the power play rather than try build up innings and change gears at the very end. Changing gears at the very end not only increases the pressure on the batters but it also provides the opponents with easy wickets as the batters get desperate in their attempts to clear the boundary.

Moving on to captaincy and the team strategy, it can be fairly said that no defensive captain has won tournaments even with an excellent team. Babar, as good as a player he is, was unable to think fast enough in the field. Bowling Iftikhar for three over’s in the final and our best bowler of the tournament Nawaz for only one was a shocking move. His over reliance on specific players and then not giving chances to new players have cost us important matches. Examples can be seen of Asif, Iftikhar and Hassan Ali. Hassan Ali last year was in very poor form. However, Babar kept giving him preference over many other fast bowlers until Hassan dropped a catch in the semi final against Australia and lost us the match. Asif Ali had a poor PSL and has been given many chances since 2018. He keeps failing and failing but our captain and also our management thinks of him as a match winner, which he undoubtedly is but failed to prove in the countless chances he has been provided with. Babar needs to think different as a captain. He needs to be aggressive and not over rely on players, especially when you have many more players who are far better.

Looking at the positive side, our bowling line up and our all-rounders were a treat to watch. Nawaz and Shadab played better than our main batters. If it wasn’t for Nawaz we would have lost against India as well because Rizwan’s strike rate in that match was also below par. On the other hand, Shadab played a crucial role against Afghanistan and kept Pakistan in the match. If it wasn’t for Shadab’s fast 30 odd runs Pakistan would also have lost that match. Our bowlers were excellent. From Naseem Shah to Shahnawaz Dahani all of the pacers were brilliant. Hasnain’s change in action only made him more lethal as the boy was seen throwing rockets towards the batters. Haris Rauf’s bowling in the death and also with the new ball has improved since his debut. It was refreshing to see him taking over the role of Shaheen Afridi as the leader of our pace attack. We also have Shaheen and Wasim Jr in the dugout and if they get fit for the world cup Pakistan would have tough time deciding whom to play. Pakistan’s bowling department is stacked and our pacers are certainly drooling over the thought of running riots in Australia with their extra ‘pacey’ deliveries in the grounds of Australia.

See you in Australia for the T20 World Cup, Shaheens. Good luck.