Pakistan cricket team got ravaged in all the 3 departments against India. The Men in Green looked off-color after winning the toss as there was hardly any intent shown by the batters & bowlers. The Mohammad Rizwan-led side couldn’t defend a below-par 242 runs as India hunted down it with more than 7 overs left. Let’s look at what were the reasons for Pakistan’s ignominous defeat:
(1) Babar Azam & Imam-ul-Haq fail to convert their starts
Babar Azam who was slowly getting into the groove and looked ominous was undone by Hardik Pandya who enticed him to play another cover drive but was duped and gave a catch to wicket-keeper KL Rahul. Babar Azam scored 23 runs in 26 balls but out of those runs, 20 runs came via boundaries (*fours) where he allowed India’s pacers to get their eye in on a bit sluggish track.
The run out of Imam-ul-Haq was shocking as he stepped down the track and wanted to steal a single from mid-on where Axar Patel was there. Axar Patel had all the 3 stumps to aim and made no mistake and sent by Imam. Babar & Imam did half of the hard work and then threw their wicket away as Pakistan’s score was 52-2 in 10 overs.
(2) Mohammad Rizwan’s defensive mindset
Saud Shakeel & Mohammad Rizwan again rewind the clock of 1990s & 2000s by playing defensive cricket just like when Pakistan played against New Zealand in opener. Mohammad Rizwan in particular looed as if he was quite happy to play a string of dot balls. The left hand-right hand combination makes life harder for bowlers but Mohammad Rizwan had other ideas which weren’t fruitful that much.
Skipper Rohit Sharma was quite happy to rotate Jadeja, Axar & Kuldeep as the boundaries were dried. In the 34th over, Mohammad Rizwan stepped down the track on bowling of Axar but completely missed a middle stump delivery and was bowled. Rizwan scored 46 runs in 77 balls with only 3 fours and a strike rate of 59.74 which is not acceptable in modern cricket.
Pakistan in their innings played 152 dot deliveries which is no less than a crime. If we look against New Zealand, they had played 162 dot balls which is less than that. The likes of Salman Agha & Tayyab Tahir couldn’t read the variations of Jadeja & Kuldeep. Apart from Saud Shakeel (*62 runs in 76 balls) & Khushdil Shah (*38 runs in 39 balls), there was hardly anything for Pakistani fans to smile.
(3) Sloppy fielding & casual captaincy
A target of 242 wasn’t going to be an absolute cake walk for India. Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf & Naseem Shah are termed to be a world class bowling attack but Rohit Sharma & Shubman Gill didn’t allow the pacers to settle. Rohit Sharma was quite ferocious in his approach and those effortless pull shot big hit was a treat to watch. Rohit though was undone by Shaheen Afridi when he bowled an inswinging yorker to bowl him but Rohit got India to a flyer with 31 runs in 5 overs with he scoring 3 fours and 1 six.
Shubman Gill in the 11th over was dropped by Khushdil Shah at mid wicket as he couldn’t grip the ball on the bowling of Haris Rauf. At that time, India’s score was 67-1 in 10.4 overs and Gill’s score was 35. The dropped catch hurt Pakistan a lot as not only Shubman Gill scored 46 runs but India’s score was 100 at the time of Gill’s dismissal.
Despite the surface assisting spin bowlers, Mohammad Rizwan didn’t introduce Salman Agha till 31st over. Abrar Ahmed was given a very long spell of 7 overs in which he got the wicket of Shubman Gill but the decision to make fast bowlers with him backfired badly. Khushdil Shah wasn’t that threatening with his left arm off breaks.
Quite easily Virat Kohli & Shreyas Iyer were rotating the strike as the close in fielders weren’t putting an extra effort to save a single. Despite Pakistan playing in their adopted home venue, they couldn’t read the wicket properly. There was just one premier spinner in the squad, with the help of part-time spinners, beating a world class batting line up especially when Virat Kohli is in it doesn’t happen often who continued his dominance over Pakistan by strucking a calm & composed ton showcasing how to bat in middle overs phase.
End of the road for Pakistan?
Pakistan now are languishing at the bottom of Group A with 2 defeats from 2 matches. Their NRR is -1.087 and now they have a mathematical chance that they will qualify for Semi Final, that will only happen when Bangladesh beat New Zealand and if that doesn’t happen, the hosts would be out of tournament without playing their last league fixture against Bangladesh on 27th February.
Head coach Aaqib Javed who is also a part of the selection panel should be questioned for their out of box ideology of selecting a squad which doesn’t have ample experience in the lower-middle order. Mohammad Rizwan during post match presentation, admitted the fact that the journey of Pakistan in tournament is over but it was the same case in ICC T20 WC 2024 where they couldn’t qualify for second round and again whole sale changes happened. Perhaps, the mindset needs to be changed of Pakistan cricket rather than changing captains, players, management & chairpersons every now and then.