Where Pakistan stands after Two-Day International debacle?

See, it is not that Pakistan always suffers like that. It was a special day for the worst reason which is losing to your bitter rivals India by the heaviest margin in terms of runs between them. And it is better that this team got to show a mirror a ground reality before the World Cup.

 

All those talks about Pakistan being number one should be put on hold after what happened today. Babar Azam, the captain, made the first mistake, which is why the toss and the captain’s decision matter. This pitch was nowhere promising for bowling and he chose to bowl first.

 

Had Babar chosen to bat, I have full confidence that the same top 3 batsmen (Imam, Fakhar, and Babar) would have made Pakistan hit 300+. What Indian bowlers did in reply to our batting, imagine the wrath our pace trio of Shaheen, Naseem, and Haris would have brought.

 

The next mistake was by our own bowlers. They were neither clever nor bowled on length like they did in the group game. The team went delusional that Shaheen would have just another killer spell and game set. In fact, our fast bowlers bowled plenty of short pitches as compared to Indian bowling who focused to bowl fuller lengths. 

 

The third mistake that I consider is a SIN and needs to be avoided at any cost is the lack of F***ING INTENT. Observe, Rohit and Shubman went for a kill from the start followed by Kohli and Rahul who actually made a comeback.

In reply, what was our intent? The openers started exactly how they have been starting for some time, SLOW! Chasing 357, Fakhar and Babar faced 10 balls each to score their first runs. Yes, every single Indian bowler was on target but where was our aggression? The body language was missing. The wickets began to tumble and no one tried to smack anyone. Pakistan hit only 8 fours throughout the inning whereas Shubman alone hit 10 fours in the first 18 overs.

 

The fourth mistake, in fact, is not a mistake but a problem that we are unfortunately handicapped with, shockingly our SPIN DEPT! I don’t remember when Pakistan ever ran out of spinning threats like now. It is horrendous that our spin attack is Shadab–Iftikhar–Nawaz–Agha and none of them can contribute at least 2 wickets regularly. We somehow need to finish max 15 overs from them and this is where the opponent will lose their shoulders and hit us at a run-rate between 7 and 8, and cover the inning runs.

And Shadab is our leading spinner, in fact an all-rounder whose stats are not really helping as a strong case for the position. After 63 ODIs, Shadab has taken only 82 wickets at 32.53 and has scored only 731 runs from 38 innings. 

 

Another disappointing case of a player that I have been of concern for a while is Mohammad Rizwan. No offense, I know he is a senior player and has done a lot for us but in T20Is. I refuse to accept that he is our no.4 batsman. His keeping has been average and is responsible for wasting like half of DRS, but the runs that he is scoring, HE either move to lower-order or start opening and play like he does in the shorter format.

 

Now what? Well I am not in favor of shuffling the squad when the World Cup is happening in a few weeks unless somehow sadly gets injured. But the XI can be changed for good.

 

I am running out of patience on Fakhar. I mean seriously Fakhar-Imam is the most dynamic pairing STATS-WISE but is not the case anymore. That is Rohit-Gill now. Fakhar’s early dismissal is putting pressure on Imam and this needs to stop.

 

Two other batsmen that have not been tried and we have ran out of time on them are Haris and Saud Shakeel. Babar could have played them against Afghanistan in 3 ODIs.

 

So in my opinion, this is how I feel the XI should be from now on:

01. Imam

02. Rizwan

03. Babar

04. Iftikhar

05. Saud/Haris

06. Agha

07. Shadab

08. Faheem/Mir (depening on pitch)

09. Shaheen

10. Rauf

11. Naseem

A pace trio of Shaheen, Naseem, and Rauf, and a spin duo Shadab and Agha, with either a fast-bowling all-rounder Faheem Ashraf or a spinner Usama Mir our 6th option depending on the pitch, plus 1 part-time in Iftikhar. We have 7 bowling options. And two keeping options in Rizwan and Haris plus both can switch their batting positions if demands. One of Saud or Haris must compulsorily play in the XI to boost their batting. Iftikhar at 4 is a MUST. If he stays at least 10 overs, he can manage to build the inning.

I will say this again, one bad day doesn’t mean we are a bad team. The team has to learn from the mistakes instead of repeating it again. I wish my team good luck for the upcoming matches.