Just four days after the high of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) finale, where ‘everyone’ won, the national cricket team was routed in Bangladesh on Saturday. That the heavy defeat came against India in the first Asia Cup match, of course made the matters prodigiously worse.
The selectors had a significantly larger pool to select the Pakistani squad from, thanks to PSL, which unearthed a wide gamut of talent. And so, on paper, the team participating in the Asia Cup - which is being played in the T20 format for the first time - seems to be the strongest that Pakistan has put out in many a year.
And yet, there was an element of ‘same old, same old Pakistan’ against India and initially against UAE as well. (This piece is being scribed before Wednesday’s matchup against hosts Bangladesh, which could already have sealed Pakistan’s fate in the tournament by the time you read this).
Pakistan's batting and Afridi's captaincy need to significantly improve for the team to have any chance of beating top T20 teams
The Indian bowling attack, which by no means is world-beating, made Pakistani batsmen - every single one of them - look like amateurs, who had not picked up a bat for a few months at the very least, as Pakistan were bundled out for 83 in their first match after the PSL. The excuse presented by the skipper Shahid Afridi was that the team had just flown in and might have needed more time to get accustomed to conditions that were quite different from the UAE. While that might explain the batsmen’s technical struggles, it does not explain the horrendous shot-making decisions or the shambolic running between the wickets that virtually finished the match in the first half of the first innings.
It was Mohammed Amir whose fiery bowling spell helped Pakistan make a match of it. If anyone needed a reminder how good Amir is, they got it on Saturday. In the five years that he has been away from cricket, the 23-year-old hasn’t lost any of his skill or swing, but has added up to 10 km per hour in speed. With a couple more tournaments under his belt, Amir should become the most feared fast-bowler in the world, if he isn’t there already.
The Malik-Akmal partnership saw Pakistan through against UAE
Another revelation has been Mohammed Sami, who bowled well against India and UAE, to add to his contributions for the inaugural PSL champions Islamabad United. While the 35-year-old Sami might not have lost his pace, and might seem more consistent in his line and length than at any point in his 16-year long career, what he is yet to prove is consistency over a prolonged period of time. It’s when he gets hit around the park by top quality batsmen that he disappears.
Sami’s United fast-bowling partner Mohammed Irfan has also been impressive with the ball, making the Amir-Sami-Irfan trio quite potent as things stand. Wahab Riaz’s wayward bowling against India, coupled with his inconsistent displays for Pakistan of late - and the second half of PSL - mean that he has fallen to fourth choice as far as Pakistan’s fast-bowling pecking order is considered. This is virtually a year to the day he was being touted as one of the world’s best in the ODI World Cup, Down Under.
With Afridi along with Mohammad Nawaz (or Imad Wasim) and Shoaib Malik forming a pretty good spin trio as well, Pakistan look set to be going with three pacers in the upcoming World T20 in India as well.
Khurram Manzoor
But what about the batting? A lot was expected from Sharjeel Khan, who played the innings of the PSL during the playoff against Peshawar Zalmi. So far he hasn’t quite looked the batsman that was instrumental in United’s PSL triumph. Similarly Khurram Manzoor - who wasn’t picked by any of the PSL teams during the draft - has looked out of place at the international level, failing to display his domestic form at the biggest stage.
Mohammed Hafeez, who has lately been one of the more regular performers with the bat, continues to show his inability to perform in crunch situations. While his batting has improved considerably since his bowling ban, he still hasn’t established himself as a reliable top-order scorer for Pakistan.
Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal might have saved Pakistan from an embarrassing defeat against UAE, but neither can be trusted to be the cornerstone of Pakistan’s middle-order, something that’s become an even more glaring need since Misbah-ul-Haq’s retirement. While many had hoped - for the umpteenth time - that Akmal’s recent showings and performance in the PSL might finally help him come of age, he has disappointed everyone too many times for anyone to expect consistency from him, unless they actually see it with their eyes.
Afridi’s captaincy continues to be ordinary, and his statements about reconsidering his retirement in the lead up to two major T20 tournaments perfectly epitomise his egotism and imprudence as a player and a leader. For him to say that there aren’t any talented youngsters coming through - who might be blocked by Afridi’s presence in the team - virtually a couple of days after PSL, would have been discouraging for many budding limited-overs players back home.
Today’s game against Sri Lanka will finalise the two teams playing Sunday’s final, with the World T20 starting immediately after that. Pakistan’s batting and Afridi’s captaincy would need to improve by quite a few levels, for Pakistan to leave any mark on either tournament.
