A nightmarish defeat

Pakistan team needs to do some serious reinventing before the World Twenty20 to have a decent shot at the title

The last two Twenty20s of the series played between Pakistan and New Zealand were nothing short of a harrowing nightmare for the national team, exposing its extreme shortcomings right before the WorldTwenty20 to be held in March. After Pakistan recorded an impressive win in the opening game, the hosts came back strongly, handing out a mauling of the mightiest proportions.

New Zealand were playing a brand of cricket that is alien to the national team. Their batting line-up boasts of the likes of Martin Guptill, Colin Munro and Corey Anderson, who can smash to smithereens any attack on their day. Pakistan bore the brunt of Guptill’s and Anderson’s outstanding batting, while captain Kane Willamson also toyed with the visitors’ bowling, which consisted of the best talent that the national team can currently assemble. Mohammad Amir’s return to international cricket provided him with scant success — one wicket in three games. He must have realised that in five years, the Twenty20 game has progressed a lot, with batsmen becoming more adventurous and daring than ever. But daring and adventurous are not the words that can describe Pakistan’s batting line-up that looked hopelessly out of depth. Ahmed Shehzad and Sohaib Maqsood were woeful, while Mohammad Hafeez finally scored a half-century in the first game after more than two years of struggle in the format, but couldn’t do much subsequently. Umar Akmal produced a fine innings in Hamilton, but that effort unfortunately seemed more of a flash in the pan.

The team management has clearly failed to understand the importance of giving Akmal substantial opportunities of batting out the majority of the 20 overs, stubbornly keeping him tied to the number five and six positions in the order. The national team falls short of international batting standards in the Twenty20 format. The only big-hitter in the playing-eleven is the captain himself, who these days only appears capable of playing flashy innings of 20-odd and has perhaps lost the desire or ability to bat in the top order. The national team surely has its work cut out for itself. It needs to do some serious reinventing before the World Twenty20 to have a decent shot at the title, which at the moment appears to be far out of its reach.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2016.

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