Pakistan take on Australia in the third and final T20I against Australia today (Friday) to salvage something from the three-match series. While it is looking increasingly ominous for Pakistan, it could indeed have been even worse had the first T20I not been rained off.
Pakistan’s T20 form has spiraled downwards since the turn of the year, after becoming the number one ranked side in the format largely based on the performances last year. Pakistan were unbeaten in T20I series since 2016, before losses in South Africa, England and most recently against Sri Lanka at home last month.
The team’s plunge has many causes. These include the problems that the side carried with it even when it was the most dominant side in the format, and the ones that have crept inside the team more recently.
As far as the latter is concerned, Pakistan have completely lost control over the power play in both innings. When they bat, Babar Azam has no one with him who can stay long enough with him while scoring at a decent tempo. When they ball, the early wickets just aren’t coming.
Shadab Khan and Mohammed Rizwan
Even so, the longer term ailment for Pakistan cricket in the T20 format is what happens in the middle overs – again, with both bat and ball. It’s this period where the team goes pear-shaped.
When the side is batting, either it has batsmen that get out too quickly, or those who don’t score at a high enough strike rate. When they’re bowling, the wickets simply aren’t there in the middle overs, allowing the opposition to dominate and build the platform for a strong finish.
In the ongoing series for example, Haris Sohail perfectly epitomises Pakistan’s conundrum with the bat. He’s one of the side’s better performers with the bat, especially in the ODIs, and has now risen to be a permanent fixture across all three formats. But his identical dismissals in both T20Is were of a batsman who clearly isn’t at ease in the format. Your number three batsman shouldn’t be getting out trying the same premeditated slog in successive matches.
Mohammed Rizwan at number four does not have the power hitting ability to do well for the national team in the 20-over format. The much touted ‘power hitter’ Asif Ali at number five has now missed out on far too many occasions to give credence to question marks over him having the mental fortitude to succeed at the international level.
Iftikhar Ahmed
Similarly, Fakhar Zaman has completely lost his form with the bat and needs to be asked to go back into the domestic circuit and work his way back into the side. His partnership with Babar Azam was critical up top for Pakistan in the side’s dominant year in 2018.
With the ball, Pakistan clearly miss Hasan Ali’s wicket-taking ability in the middle overs. Perhaps even more critically, Shadab Khan being completely out of sorts is damaging the side. While he hasn’t got the same amount of flack as the batsmen over the side’s recent failures, Shadab’s completely anonymous showings in recent times have contributed just as much to the team’s recent slide.
Asif Ali
Babar Azam
Watching Babar Azam cut a frustrated figure in his first stint as captain wasn’t an encouraging sight. Misbah-ul-Haq needs to ask him to keep the negative gestures in check, and allow himself to grow into his role as the skipper. Perhaps one of the few positives for Pakistan in the first two matches was the fact that Babar Azam’s batting remains unscathed despite the additional burden of captaincy.
The other obvious positive in recent times is Iftikhar Ahmed, who has sealed his position in the lower middle order. Pakistan now need better performances at numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 with the bat, between Babar and Iftikhar – which of course is the bulk of the batting lineup.
