Shadab's batting has lately evolved over time & simultaneously his bowling has regressed.
It's high time management should really elucidate his role in team.
You can't play him as an all-rounder when he can't even get a wicket.
As a specialist batter that should be contested.
Quality knock from Shadab Khan, being the only standout batter for Pakistan in this precarious situation.
Somehow if manages this herculean task of getting his team over the line, that would really accrue his chances of going for the World Cup.
For the sake of survival, we’ve annihilated our cricket.
Whatever is happening today with our cricket revolves only around protection of bunch of people, who don’t want their power to be compromised.
Even our skipper wants to keep his place intact, hence not opting for any brave calls.
We've circumscribed the role of wicket-keepers only to the extent, where the keepers are judged on the basis of their skills to gather the ball cleanly and complete the chances created.
Whereas, the most pivotal thing should be their acumen and game awareness, along with those skills.
That's what had made MS Dhoni, a great keeper. Pakistan should recalibrate the benchmark of labeling anyone as a good wicket-keeper.
In acknowledging Sameer Minhas' batting brilliance, we haven't really lauded the prowess of Farhan Yousaf, considering the crisis of middle order batters in Pakistan.
He needs to be nourished & taken care of to represent Pakistan in the longer run.
Outrageous hitting from Fakhar Zaman to get to his hundred, with 11 fours and 6 sixes, while opening the innings & it corroborates further about his best playing position.
Babar and Fakhar duo could’ve been more productive pair for Pakistan and for Babar himself, which Babar wasted himself.
Even if Pakistan goes through a transition in the T20Is & construct a team primarily of youngsters, Shan Masood could still be a replacement in the middle order & a captain, concomitantly, if the team has no potential candidate.
We as a cricketing nation, haven't been able to acknowledge the significance of available resources.
You can have the best template in the world for winning, but it ends with how effective you are with your copious resources.
Pakistan fails to grip that the template which works for other teams is because of their talent potency & Pakistan is bereft of such talented resources at the backend, the department which calls for investment.
What’s happening in today’s game might be good for entertainment purposes, but it mars the quality of cricket.
If nothing less, this template of cricket will be major deterrent for any youngster who dreams of carrying his cricketing career as a bowler & that’s no entertainment.
The day Pakistan starts understanding the basic difference in the dynamics of each format, a lot of their problems could be sorted out.
Dropping players on the basis of their lousy performance in a different format, to the format which yields the maximum efficacy out of them, no wonder why Pakistan's cricket has nosedived in a recent time.
As for experimentation, there should be certain grounds to strategize that. Bangladesh is one of those teams who yield the maximum out of their home ground conditions & debuting your young guns there, when you don't even back them after fluffing, nowhere sounds to be a tenable strategy. Augmenting this with Pakistan's cricketing culture, a lot of those players won't even get a chance in the near future.
Pakistan cricket is at absolute mayhem & this will continue to exacerbate, until the system is run by people who have a great cricketing acumen, the aspect where Pakistan has suffered the most.
Pakistan’s surreal performance so far has reminded me of the golden words of Harsha Bhogle!
“Every time you make Pakistan the favourites, they find a way to lose. You tell them, you got no chance, your backs are out of the wall, you’re finished, you’re out & they’ll come back & they’ll play Wow cricket.”
Apart from a drop catch, Pakistan has been supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in the field.
And those who have seen Rahat Ali dropping Shane Watson & Hassan Ali dropping Wade, would understand how exuberant it is, to witness Pakistan elevating in the field in major tournaments.
Babar Azam having an identical start to his innings just like the previous one.
Striking under 100 for his first 10 balls & his inveterate mindset could prove catastrophic for Pakistan in this campaign.
He has to be either benched or should be promoted ahead of Salman!
Hats off to Nepal!
They nearly pulled over this one, but even though they came marginally short, they should be proud of their valiance & the effort, they've put into this game.
It's just a matter of time that the associate nations make this their regular business.
The time you start celebrating the victories against the associate nations, out of your desperation, you must get that right, your cricket has nosedived.
And this is the gist of Pakistan's quality of cricket lately.
Pakistan is bereft of players that burnish under pressure. This has been the core problem for Pakistan.
They might have the prowess to do it in a normal game, but every time the pressure mounts, they succumb to the pressure.
For big tournaments, you need match-winners, who are mentally resilient.
So, the condition-centric preparation from Pakistan could prolly open up a can of worms for them.
They took the entire preparation time, playing on spin friendly tracks with the idea of emulating those performances in Lanka, but there's plenty of grass on the pitch, indicating a high-scoring game.
The rational perspective says that sports should never be weaponized for political scoring.
India has done it many times, they have done it again in the case of Mustafiz, but Pakistan should have opted to play the game within its spirit!
Play on the ground & win the game for your country.
Someone from the under-19 management must have to brief the nation, this circumspect approach of Pakistan, why they didn’t take their chances of getting the equation done for the semis, & simply tried to win the dead-rubber against India.
Babar has been perished & his place in the side is under peril!
Doesn’t feel the right man to play at 4, his utility in the side is getting inefficacious.
His struggle against the spinners is getting protracted & Zampa has him for the 5th time.