Yesterday was a very unfortunate day for cricket lovers in
Pakistan. Pakistan cricket team lost from English cricket team by a huge margin
of 67 runs in the decider t20 match. This poor performance by Pakistan is not
new, they have been playing this immature type of cricket since the start of
the Asia cup 2022. The team struggled against Sri Lanka in both matches, Afghanistan
at a time was thought to be the winner in a match were Pakistan had to chase
130 only. Then came this series with England and everybody knows what happened.
Following are the take aways which I noticed and are worth
mentioning for me at least being a staunch cricket follower
Babar
Azam:
Shoib Akhter has said this many a times that Babar no doubt
is a very talented player but that does not mean there is no room left for
improvement. Opposition has understood him and to get him out is very easy by
setting appropriate field and instigating him to play a shot in that area. What
babar and all of the Pakistani team needs to do is to bring unpredictability in
their shots, bringing variation in their shot selection and should focus on
scoring runs.
When we look at other teams they tend to destroy any field
plan set to trap them, England did that almost 4 times in this series alone.
Pakistani team on the other hand has become predictable in the depth of the
match that they will face trouble when they are 2 down or 3 down.
Muhammad
Rizwan:
I personally do not
like him as a player. He is one trick pony. He can only play deep square leg
shots and beyond that he struggles. He consumes almost 10 overs just to score
70 to 80 runs. Almost nothing is left for the middle order to do experiments
and determine their areas of expertise. That’s one main
reason for the collapse of middle order of Pakistan, it always gets exposed in
a panic condition where almost 15 overs had gone and runs had been falling
short by 50 to 60 while playing first or the equation is 100 runs on 30 balls while chasing. In that condition one cannot expect from Asif to come and do magic
as well as retain his wicket. No that is not the case sir.
Middle
Order:
The sole responsibility cannot be put on the shoulders of
openers as middle order has almost never showed any courage or intention to
play in a sensible way. Yesterday I do not know what Khushdil and Shan Masood
were doing. I literally cannot comprehend the game plan behind 41 runs on 42
balls in partnership in the chase of 210 that too in a t20 match. Khushdil
scored 27 on 25 thanks to second last ball six which saved him from title of a
test match innings, and immediately after hitting a six he got out. I mean no
sense of responsibility, no ball judgement, no class no nothing at all just
random shots and getting out. Former English player Naseer Hussain said it
rightly that Pakistan’s middle order whenever hits a six on one ball the next
ball could be seen in the air for out. That’s complete picture of Pakistani
middle order expressed in one sentence.
Bowling:
Cricket has become a game, the rules of which supports the batsman
more , so it’s an unfortunate thing to a bowler in cricket and that too in a
t20 match where games are by default high scoring. In such a case bowlers
cannot be blamed much. Haris Rauf put an excellent show yesterday and
throughout the series. He is a game changer and can be relied on,other bowlers
has his talent and expertise to learn from and should learn from him as soon as
possible.
Fielding:
It is said that catches win matches. Yesterday Pakistani
team and Captain Babar dropped so many catches that I totally lost the record
of it. When in a batter oriented game you cannot support or aid your bowlers
with fielding and catches and in batting you cannot score, how can you imagine
you will win the match? The next team will not tolerate that huge number of
mistakes in a single match and they will rip you apart and that’s exactly what
England did yesterday and Sri Lanka did in two matches it played against
Pakistan in Asia cup.
Scoring
trend:
Pakistan playing first or second in most of the cases has
failed to meet the required run rate for t20 matches, in yesterday’s contest
alone Pakistan was struggling to cross even 140. Against Sri Lanka in Asia Cup
final similar picture was crafted. So it’s not just a matter of fate and luck,
it has become kind of a trend adopted by Pakistani team. The major role here is
played by the batting coach Muhammad Yousaf, about whom it is
famous that he need ed at least 200 balls to settle down in a match, after that if
you manage to take his wicket he does not regret it, he feel satisfied with his
performance. In his times he had one of the slowest strike rate and irony is
that he is the batting coach of a t20 team. I think the results are not astonishing
keeping in mind the source of inspiration and coaching of Pakistani batters.
Solution:
There are a number of solutions which are
enumerated as follows
·
In a TV interview Wasim
Akram asked Muhammad Yousaf if the players can hit even 180 let alone 360. I
think these players cannot even hit 30 degree as opposition set field so tight
to trap them i.e. Asif hit an off leg wide ball towards his strong area i.e.
deep mid-on and got out. So the plan should be to train players to use crease
in all possible ways and select their shots according to the position of ball
and not according to their strong areas, which we saw failed terribly in match
yesterday.
·
Babar should start
performing otherwise he must step down as a captain voluntarily or even take
rest from international cricket and work on his strategies before making any
comeback, if not he should at least listen to others as well now and should
come out of this bubble of I am number one and I need not listen to anybody
·
The team should have
players on the basis of talent and performance and not on the basis of
friendship and personal liking, if any player despite thousand differences is
performing well, he should be a part of the team.
·
There should be a strategy
where no player should face all the balls or maximum balls leaving other
batters under pressure. Pakistan team should revamp its patterns and strategies
if it wants to stay relevant in this format of the game, otherwise they will be
equal to Zimbabwe in no time as the cricket has become very brutal and it
cannot see anything but performance and number of wins which is a hard nut to
crack when there are giants like Australia, England, India and South Africa.
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