How can Pakistan fix its playing XI before it’s too late?

⏱ 7 minute read

Web desk: After a crushing defeat to India in their group stage match, the Pakistani team needs to make some quick changes to its playing XI if it wants to go deep into the tournament.

Pakistan looked all at sea in their much-anticipated encounter against their arch-rivals, India. They were handed a 7-wicket defeat when India chased down their meagre total of 128 runs.

But what is the issue with the Pakistani batting lineup that they keep setting low totals for their bowlers to defend?

Let’s start with the victory in the tri-series. In most of the matches, our batters failed to put up good scores, and bowlers had to rescue them.

In the Tri-series final, they only set 142 for Afghanistan. If it weren’t for Nawaz’s heroics, they would have lost the match.

But Pakistani management persisted with the batting lineup for the Asia Cup, and they disappointed in the first match against Oman.

A team they should have scored 200 runs against, they ended up with a score of only 160.

Performance against India

Pakistan’s batting lineup had a lot of question marks to its name before coming into this pressure match against one of the best bowling lineups in the world, and they got exposed badly.

Pakistan lost 2 early wickets as usual, and then Farhan and Fakhar dug them out of that hole. They were 42 for 2 at the end of the power play.

In the next 4 overs, they scored only 7 runs and lost 2 wickets. This is where India made its grip strong on the match.

They tied Pakistani batters down, refusing them easy singles. And when they went for big shots, they lost their wickets, and soon they were 97 for 8 in 18 overs.

The pitch wasn’t tricky to bat on because the tailender, Shaheen Shah Afridi, hit 4 sixes and scored 33 runs in 16 balls to take Pakistan to a somewhat respectable total.

There were no demons in the pitch, and Pakistani batters would have to question their shot selection.

The selection committee, too, will have to do some quick fixes if they are to qualify for the super fours, where they will be up against good bowling lineups.

Changes in the Batting Lineup

Pakistan has failed to put up good totals or chase down targets in most of their tournaments in the past few years.

They do not start well in the powerplay, play a lot of dot balls in the middle overs, and when it is time to charge in the final overs, they throw away their wickets.

And they have followed this template in this Asia Cup as well, and it was on display against India as well, where they played 63 dots.

Starting with the openers, they keep failing to give Pakistan a good start. Saim has got out on the first ball in both matches of the Asia Cup so far.

Farhan played a good innings yesterday, but he has not impressed before. Saim needs to take some time before he starts hitting.

You cannot just go for big shots from ball 1. They need to see off a couple of overs before they look for big shots, and for those, they need to look for loose balls to hit.

The numbers 3 and 4 are the biggest issues in the batting lineup. Fakhar was playing at 3 for the past several matches, and then they promoted Haris to number 3 and demoted Fakhar to 4.

But it hasn’t worked out well for them. In the past four series, Fakhar and Haris have failed terribly with the bat.

Both of them batted well only once, when Fakhar scored 77 against the UAE in the Tri-Series and Haris scored 66 in the first match of the Asia Cup against Oman.

Apart from these runs, they have failed miserably even against minnows.

Pakistani management and coaches have to take a bold step here and drop one of Fakhar or Haris.

They need to bring Hussain Talat into the team and play him at 5. He plays well against spin and can take the match deep.

What Pakistan lacks in the middle overs is accumulation of runs, and that will happen through milking the spinners for ones and twos with odd boundaries.

Dot balls build pressure, and when you go for big shots to release that pressure, you lose wickets. And wickets add more pressure, and it results in a vicious cycle where teams crumble and lose all their momentum.

The same thing is happening to Pakistani batters, and they have to counter that by playing sensible cricket in the middle overs and setting the match up for the finishers to finish strongly with the bat.

Agha Salman is in such a terrible form that if he were not the captain of the team, he would not have been slotted in the playing XI.

Among all the Pakistani batters who have batted this year, he has the slowest strike rate of all, i.e., 119. He is a good player against spin, but he has failed to impress.

After Pakistan got a pretty good start against India, he came in and scored just 3 of 12 balls. He failed in the previous match, scoring only 7 runs off 5 balls.

He needs to lead from the front, and for that, he needs runs under his belt, and that too quick runs.

Hassan Nawaz is batting too low in this lineup at 6. He is the batter in form, and he must bat at 4 after one of Fakhar/Haris.

Salman can slot at 5, and Talat at 6, who can go for big hits and can play the role of an anchor as well.

If Pakistan needs to finish their innings strongly, they need runs from their finishers. Nawaz and Faheem have been tasked with this duty, and they have done a pretty good job so far.

They couldn’t perform well against India, but let’s hope they come good in the upcoming matches.

Changes in the Bowling Lineup

Pakistan has gone in with a spin-heavy attack in the past few matches due to the UAE pitches being conducive to spin.

But playing just one genuine fast bowler is too big a risk, and they should change this bowling combination. Fast bowling has always been Pakistan’s strongest suit, and they must bring in one of Haris Rauf or Waseem Junior.

They are wicket-taking bowlers, and they need one of them with Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Saim has been bowling really well, and he is the highest wicket-taker from the Pakistani side with 5 wickets in 2 matches.

He took all three wickets against India as well. Nawaz has been in terrific form, and Abrar has been excellent as well. These 3 can give them 12 overs of spin.

If the captain wants more spin overs, they can continue playing Sufyan Muqeem, but this means they will have to drop Faheem, who can score some crucial runs.

So the better option would be that they drop Sufyan Muqeem and bring in Haris or Waseem.

In close matches, you need pacers to defend scores, and spinners have mostly failed at this job. So an extra pacer will be a good addition to the team.