Pakistan’s disappointing T20 World Cup campaign exposed their flaws as the team failed to advance to the semi-finals on Saturday.
Pakistan was proven to be behind the times in the rapid-fire format, from poor batting rates and the deployment of unfit all-rounders to captain Salman Agha, who was criticized for not being a T20 player.
According to former wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, Pakistan’s standards are far lower than those of the best teams, like India, the West Indies, South Africa, and England.
“Other teams have evolved to the demands of Twenty20 cricket, but neither our team nor our players meet those standards. It is like other teams are playing on the moon and we are on earth. We only beat smaller teams but lose to top teams,” AFP quoted Akmal as saying.
After defeating Australia 3-0 in a pre-tournament series, Pakistan had great expectations for the T20 World Cup. They had a quintet of spinners that ought to have worked well on Sri Lanka’s turning pitches, where they played every game.
However, their opening encounter against the Netherlands, gave them an unpleasant awakening as Faheem Ashraf’s 11-ball 29 helped them win by three wickets in the last over.
Agha crumbled in the pressure-cooker match against India, which only proceeded when the Pakistani government reversed its boycott a few days prior to the match, exactly like the majority of his predecessors in World Cups.
After winning the toss, Agha asked India to bat. Pakistan lost poorly as a result of the decision, conceding 175 and losing by 61 runs.
By the time opener Ishan Kishan struck his game-changing 77 and India were well on their way to a match-winning total, Agha mysteriously held back his main weapon and mystery spinner Usman Tariq till the eleventh over.
“How on earth did you bowl at a venue which was suited to batting first. After India scored 175 our batters failed to handle the pressure of a chase,” questioned former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali.
In the match against England, Tariq took a wicket in the first over but Agha removed him from the attack and captain Harry Brook smashed a match-winning hundred.
“It was weak captaincy from Agha. We were also not helped by head coach Mike Hesson, who has an obsession for bit-and-pieces all-rounders who were neither complete bowlers, nor good batters,” said Akmal.
Former Pakistan captain and batting great Javed Miandad claimed that the more he observed Twenty20 cricket, the more he realized that the game has become quite methodical and that Pakistan’s players are falling behind the other teams.
According to Miandad, the team’s performance against teams with better rankings is extremely concerning, and the Pakistan Cricket Board must act quickly to address the situation.
“You get one chance in two years’ time to leave an imprint of your country’s cricket excellence and you fail again. It is very disappointing to see all this,” PTI quoted Miandad as saying.
According to former captain Mohammad Yousuf, some players have been given too many chances to make a name for themselves in T20 cricket and have fallen short in important tournaments.
“It is time to move on and learn from our blunders,” he said.
According to former captain Moin Khan, Pakistan would never win an ICC event unless it can overcome teams rated higher.
“You can’t win a major tournament unless you have the capability to beat top teams. Unfortunately, we have made too many mistakes in selection and on the field. More importantly, our main players did not fire in the World Cup,” he lamented.
Pakistan’s weak batting was not improved by their desire on sticking with Babar Azam, who was out of form. The rhythm of the team was disrupted by the star batsman’s slow scoring at the number four spot.
Babar Azam was benched for Saturday’s final game against Sri Lanka, where Pakistan eventually reached a 200-run total, but it was too little, too late as New Zealand advanced to the semifinals on net run rate.
