The Pakistan cricket team suffered an embarrassing defeat against India. India toyed with Pakistan‘s bowling unit as quite comfortably chased down the target of 128 runs inside 16 overs. The Men in Green lacked options to tackle India’s powerful batting in a crunch match. Let’s look at the 3 key reasons for Pakistan’s loss against India.
Salman Ali Agha’s poor run continues
Salman Ali Agha had come to bat when Pakistan was in a precarious position at 45-3 in 7.4 overs. The skipper looked in two minds whether to attack or defend & went into the shell by playing a string of dot balls. Salman Ali Agha had a forgettable outing who managing a paltry 3 runs in 12 balls, as it is often said that the captain should lead by example, irrespective of any batting position.
Salman Ali Agha against the UAE was dismissed on a golden duck as he failed to dispatch the juicy full toss into the stands. It somewhat looks like the burden of captaincy has started to affect his game. With no Babar Azam & Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Ali Agha heavily depends on Fakhar Zaman to don the role of senior player, who also has been struggling with his shot selection.
Weak lower middle order of Pakistan
Pakistan was reduced to 64-5 in 12.4 overs. There was a ray of hope that Mohammad Nawaz & Faheem Ashraf would take the team out of a muddle. Faheem Ashraf & Mohammad Nawaz became the victims of spin bowling who were bamboozled by a foxy variation by Kuldeep Yadav & Varun Chakaravarthy. Faheem Ashraf was dismissed on 11 runs in 14 balls, in which he struck 1 four & Mohammad Nawaz was back in the pavilion with a golden duck.
It would be quite astonishing, but Pakistan needs Shadab Khan in the setup, who is more than a handy batter and a crafty spin bowler. The Men in Green undoubtedly have the potential and talent, but they are faltering consistently as the middle order & lower middle order need to take responsibility rather than being overly dependent on the top order to do the bulk of scoring every single time.
Mind-boggling decision of Pakistan to rest Haris Rauf
Head coach Mike Hesson & skipper Salman Ali Agha went with an unchanged playing 11. Pakistan had a thin chance of winning the match when the target was 128, which undoubtedly was way below par, but it had something for the bowlers to win the match. Shaheen Afridi was taken to cleaners in the very first over by Abhishek Sharma.
Haris Rauf, who has raw pace, could have taken early wickets in the powerplay overs. It was quite shocking to see Pakistan rest their star fast bowler in a high-voltage match. Earlier against Oman, we can say it was a tactical decision by Mike Hesson & Salman Ali Agha, but not including an ace fast bowler was suicidal & Pakistan suffered massively with that decision.
What lies ahead for Pakistan
Pakistan needs to quickly pull up its socks and, as quickly as possible, forget this defeat. The only positive for Pakistan was Sahibzada Farhan’s 40-run knock, but he accumulated 44 balls, which is way too much in T20Is. Pakistan, as we all know, is very much mercurial, and potentially they will face India in the Super 4 stage on Sunday, 21st September.
Pakistan needs to deliver a knock-out punch first to the UAE on 17th September and register a dominant win, just like Oman, but perform as a team rather than individual brilliance. It’s high time that skipper Salman Ali Agha plays a mature knock & we should not term Pakistan’s batting unit inexperienced, as players have played more than 20+ T20Is, which is ample to shine in T20I cricket.
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