Before the India-Pakistan Asia Cup game, a group of journalists, who in turn had seen the best of Pakistan cricket, were having a discussion on their peak period and downfall. Yours truly, who was some metres away from that assemblage, could hear names such as Salim Malik, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Saeed Anwar, Wasim Akram and many more. It transported the writer back in time to a bygone era. It also made you wonder about their current state – How far have they fallen?
A few years back, Pakistan were at least competitive in the shortest format. They made it to the semifinal of the 2021 T20 World Cup and then the summit clash of the 2022 version of the tournament.
For a moment return to current times, and you will notice that they are on a slippery slope even in the T20 format; ranked a lowly 8th. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, Pakistan suffered an embarrassing defeat to the USA, alongside losing four bilateral series in a row this year. The losing streak was finally snapped when they pipped the West Indies.
The crux of the present-day Pakistan batting unit is that they don’t have either Mohammad Rizwan or Babar Azam. The two mainstays of their line-up have strike rates in the range of 120 to 130. Just that those batters who have replaced the duo – the likes of Sahibzada Farhan and Hasan Nawaz – are still raw.
Farhan showed some promise by tonking Jasprit Bumrah for a six or two in the Pakistan-India fixture while Nawaz already has a hundred to his name. But on a slow surface in Dubai, the pair didn’t have the answers versus the formidable Indian spin troika. Even Salman Agha, the captain, and Fakhar Zaman, the experienced hand, didn’t have much of a clue.
To have a better understanding of their frailties, pore through Pakistan’s lame batting effort against India. Grappling to pick the length. Not able to play late or rather use the depth of the crease. Playing a lot of dots and then attempting an agricultural hoick without any conviction. In a broader sense, these are the basics of the game that a batter should learn at a junior level. It isn’t exactly the role of a head coach of a senior national side to rectify it. Somewhere it points to lack of a structure with regard to their grassroots cricket.
At the peak of their prowess, Pakistan had enough arsenal in the pace as well as spin departments. Pakistan are still producing a few promising pacemen, but a sizeable portion of those bowlers seem to lack fitness. Shaheen Afridi isn’t the same bowler that he used to be before the knee injury. Despite being a part of international cricket for seven years, he has still not developed a potent away-going delivery while bowling to a right-hander. Naseem Shah, his pace colleague, has also been laid low by injuries and is out of the T20I set-up.
Even in the lower rungs of Pakistan cricket, one can observe that their pacers have been constantly hit by injuries. Consider the case of Arshal Iqbal. A few years ago, the well-built pace bowler seemed to have the potential to consistently usher in the heavy ball. He too has had to wade through a knee problem for more than 15 months. The same can be said about Wasim jnr – back injury – and Ihsanullah – elbow injury.
When a host of your fast bowlers continue to sustain injuries, and more importantly, take longer than expected to recover, question marks have to be raised about the overall system in place, including the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.
In none of the formats, Pakistan are ranked higher than five in the ICC rankings. Even in ODIs, Pakistan recently lost a series to the West Indies.
Logic says that it would take more than just incremental improvements for Pakistan to find a way out of the quagmire. For the time being, though, their focus would be to traverse through the group phase and Super 4 of the ongoing Asia Cup.
In that context, there used to be a narrative floating around in the 1990s that Pakistan were unpredictable, and they could gain momentum at any point of time in a tournament. It would take a brave man to believe in that axiom and bet on the present Pakistan side of do something similar in the Asia Cup.
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