Pakistan VS England: What went wrong for Pakistan after their famous victory over India in the Asia Cup?
Pakistan as a team has been sailing well in all the mega-tournaments lately, be it the T20 World Cup 2021, or Asia cup 2022. While the team has reached the semi-finals or finals in both tournaments, certain aspects remain an area of concern for them in the upcoming World cup
Follow all of today's Cricket matches on our Live Match Centre
Mohammad RizwanA concern that's creating a pattern now.
In contrast to India's struggle with the bowling unit, Pakistan's primary concern lies in the batting department. After defeating India in the Super 4 match of the Asia Cup, Pakistan was seen to be struggling to even chase small targets and defend the targets that are too low to be supported with the best bowling attack.
India's defeat against Pakistan exposed India's fragile death-over bowling, where Pakistan chased 182 run targets as the Indian pace attack failed to take crucial wickets. However, in their next match against Afghanistan, though they defeated Afghanistan, it came by a margin of just one wicket while chasing a tiny target of 130 in 20 overs.
Subsequently, they lost the penultimate and Asia Cup final to Sri Lanka. In the penultimate match, they got bundled on a low score of 122, which their bowlers failed to defend, and they lost the finals by 23 runs while chasing a decent target of 171.
Does Pakistan's batting rely on chance rather than skills?
Pakistan looked like a disjointed unit of some out-of-form batting behemoths, with only Mohammad Rizwan and bowlers doing their job consistently for the team. Skipper Babar Azam is also undergoing a lean patch with the willow. He is either playing too defensive or losing wickets early on, failing to capitalize on the momentum. This also made him slip from number 1 to 4th in recent ICC T20I rankings.
Apart from openers, Haider Ali, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, and Shadab Khan in the middle overs haven't proved consistent yet. Most of the time, there is a collapse with one batter struggling to find partnership from the other end. Power-hitting capabilities of the lower-order look to be a matter of chance rather than a skill on which the team can rely.
Continuing to batting blunders in Asia Cup, for a 7-match T20I series, they lost to England, failing to defend 159 runs. England's bowlers were stunning as they restricted Pakistan to 159 on the flat surface of Karachi, where batters usually find aid. This again was the highlight of the central concerning area of the Men in Green ahead of ICC Men's T20 World Cup.