The current PCB Charmain, Mohsin Naqvi stated in a press interaction after Pakistan’s disappointing loss against arch-rivals India in the recently concluded 2024 T20 World Cup, that the Pakistan Cricket Team needs a major surgery.
Well to perform a major surgery, the surgeon has to be a great one too. But by judging PCB’s history, it is highly unlikely that the surgery will actually be a successful one.
As always, the major surgery will include scapegoating the players rather than the whole structure of the sport within the country.
It was earlier reported that Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen might be dropped from the home Test series against Bangladesh which shows that the surgery is nothing but a portrayal of power. This is like performing surgery without considering a patient’s prior medical history, allergies etc.
One of the major surgeries that is required is to change the timidness of Pakistan, particularly in the T20 format. Let’s have a look at some major areas of improvement:
Since 2021, Pakistan has had a set opening pair of Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam. At first everything was on point, however, as time passed, T20 cricket evolved and Pakistan needed to adapt more quickly. Soon the Riz-Bar opening pair was a liability for Pakistan.
Most of the teams had at max 1 anchor at the top and the rest of the team played around it, however, Pakistan had these two at least, there were often other anchors around them as well like Shan Masood and Shoaib Malik.
However, there can be a reason for this safe mindset behind Pakistan’s T20 team. Historically we have been a side that has been prone to top-order collapses.
Imagine waking up at 3 AM, barely being able to open your eyes, and the first thing you see is Pakistan has lost 4 wickets and has scored just 1 run.
Among Pakistani T20I batters who have opened in a minimum of 10 innings, Babar and Rizwan are the only batters with an average of more than 30 and no one has a very high strike rate as well to show some powerplay strikers.
In the recently concluded 2024 T20 World Cup, Pakistan’s batting unit failed, which can be the main reason behind the early exit from the tournament.
In comparison to the previous tournaments since 2021, in the 2021 World Cup, Pakistan’s top order scored the majority of the runs while in the succeeding tournaments, both Asia Cup and the World Cup, middle order batters like Shadab, Nawaz and Iftikhar won Pakistan some key games.
If we look at this tournament’s batting from Pakistan, they lacked in all phases:
The problem here is the resistance to change in the way of playing and mindset. Over the years Pakistan’s top-order batters mostly Rizwan and Babar have not shown any eagerness to improve that, especially at the international level.
It is quite foolish to expect them to change the way they play despite some great examples of how players have changed their games and improved, the latest being Rohit Sharma, who is on the wrong end of the 30s and has switched from an anchor to someone who doesn’t shy away from striking the ball hard in ODIs or T20Is.
To be blamed for the lack of intent at the later stages are also to an extent these two as due to their style, there are very few balls left for batters below them and thus lack of chances for them.
Since the 2021 T20 World Cup, no Pakistani batter has a better strike rate than Mohammad Haris while batting in the top 3, still, he did not get a nod for this T20 World Cup.
There is no better option than him for a top-order attacking role in Pakistan’s lineup.
Another player that fits this role is Saim Ayub, even though his recent form has been quite underwhelming in T20Is, he is the kind of player you need to back through thick and thin. With his natural flamboyance, he is surely one of a kind and has already performed in various situations and conditions.
The position of a number 3 batter is also not fixed right now, with two attacking batters up top, we can put an anchor but someone more flexible in terms of attacking compared to Riz-Bar and knows how to play spin.
Both Abdullah Shafique and Usman Khan have only gotten out against spin in this period once, and have their average above 100, but not only that, they both can keep the scorecard going against not only just spinners. They both strike at over 150 against pace as well as spin.
This middle order that played in the T20 World Cup has three main players, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Azam Khan. Iftikhar played only 2 games, and Azam played only 1, hence, practically, there wasn’t a middle order due to poor squad construction.
Pakistan’s middle order had stepped up in the previous tournaments since 2021, it was the same Iftikhar Ahmed who had two fifties against India and South Africa in the previous T20 World Cup. It was the same Shadab Khan who scored a crucial 20 in the last T20 World Cup’s final and a fifty in virtual knock out against South Africa as well as the best batter against Afghanistan in the Super 8s of the Asia Cup.
Shadab was backed in this World Cup and he came good with the batting as well, his knock against the USA was probably our best batting knock in this tournament. However, Iftikhar is probably staring at the end of the barrel in terms of his cricket.
The problem, however, is that the role Ifti covers in the team right now is not an easy one, so it is difficult to find a ready replacement for him.
If we look back towards PSL, all local players have already been used and discarded by our system that lacks the patience for a number 6 and 7 batter. Among players that have played 100+ balls since 2021 in PSL, only Irfan Khan Niazi is the new face there, with the 3rd highest strike rate after Iftikhar and Azam.
Now onto Azam Khan, he debuted in international cricket in 2021, and since then he has only batted in 13 games. The series against Ireland was his first full series for Pakistan, before that, he was dropped after one or two bad games.
That is not how you groom lower-order batters in T20Is. You need to be patient with lower-order batters, especially in this format.
Here is an example of how three of the best lower-order batters in this format fared after 13 T20I innings:
All of them had a better RPI than Azam but they also had a lower strike rate than Azam which is more important in this role than average or RPI.
Miller and Russell had to play in 8 and 10 series/tournaments to get to 13 innings while Pollard and Azam featured in 7 in their first 13 innings.
Azam Khan is still one of the best Pakistan has in this role of a lower-order batter that can play at 4 or 5.
The middle order, in comparison with the top order, needs to be more flexible in terms of matchups and situations, the Pakistan team has not been proactive in that. For example, Shaheen Afridi has a very good record against spin in PSL and in T20Is in the limited opportunities he has had, however, he has not been used as a low-value wicket against spin much.
About the Author: Zaid Babar Khan
Data geek, Cricket fanatic, Haris Rauf and Lahore Qalandars fan and an article writer