Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afraidi, center, celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Bangladesh's Litton Das, right, during the Asia Cup cricket match between Pakistan and Bangladesh in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary) Before their departure to Hambantota, where they played Afghanistan in a three-match series in the second-half of August, Pakistan had played only eight ODIs the whole of 2023. Even for a team known to be unpredictable, Pakistan came as a sort of unknown. The eight ODIs that they had played all came against the same opponent, New Zealand, who had taken a depleted side sans those featuring in the IPL for five of those matches. So in terms of build up to the World Cup, Pakistan has been worse than India.
Yet, the Babar Azam-led team, which is ranked No 1 in ICC rankings, would go into the World Cup as one of the favourites to reach the semifinals and beyond. If you had any doubt, they are already firing warning shots in the Asia Cup, where they look the team to beat. Despite all the low-key preparations they have had, Pakistan, unlike India, have a settled core of players, who are growing from strength-to-strength. That has been the biggest difference between the sides.
Peaking perfectly
Their bowling has always looked formidable and can blow away any opponent across conditions. But batting has been their weakest link, but is beginning to take shape just in time for the World Cup. With a top-three of Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam, all Pakistan wanted was their middle-order to bring stability, which Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Agha Salman have started to provide.
Bowling, still, could be the talking point at the World Cup. Apart from having three out-and-out fast bowlers, who prefer to attack from the word go and are varied, they have a leg-spinner quite capable with the bat, and a left-arm spinner to go with Iftikhar and Salman, who can deliver handy off-breaks. If it were to India’s head coach Rahul Dravid, he may well use the four letter word starting with S to describe this Pakistan attack, as he did in the last Asia Cup.
Golden template
It is becoming a template these days. If Shaheen Shah Afridi doesn’t strike with the new ball, Naseem Shah would. If you manage to overcome both, Haris Rauf will knock you over. Beyond the trio, there is all-rounder Faheem Ashraf, who isn’t as quick as them, but whose seam movement reminds of Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood and can inflict damage here and there.
On Wednesday, in the Super 4 match against Bangladesh, their attack was once again on the money as a depleted side struggled in conditions that looked perfect for batting. Babar is making most of his resourceful bowling unit. With the new ball he has the left and right-arm variety of Afridi and Shah, who both hit the in-between length, where batsmen are caught in two minds, whether to go forward or backward. Worse, they could move the ball both ways. Bangladesh started off by gifting Mehidy Hasan Miraz to Shah and from there on, barring Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, others hardly put up a fight.
Like they did in their outing against India in Pallekele in the washout fixture last Saturday, it was the new ball that did the trick as Bangladesh lost the wickets of Mehidy, Litton Das, Mohammad Naim and Towhid Hridoy inside the first powerplay. It is hard to recover from such blows, not least when there is Rauf, who can clock 150 kmph , and Shadab Khan in the mix, who for a leg-spinner has an economy just a tad over 5.
Shakib and Rahim resisted for a while, for twenty overs precisely, stitching together 100 runs. But never did they take full control of the innings. Once skipper Shakib perished, the lower-order wasn’t going to trouble Pakistan.
A target of 194 at the Gaddafi Stadium, where it is difficult to defend under lights, was made to look easier by an in-form batting line-up. With no scoreboard pressure, Pakistan started cautiously, before losing Zaman just before the end of first powerplay. Even though Babar didn’t last long, it provided another opportunity for Pakistan to test the middle-order. And Rizwan, once again proved his mettle, doing what he knows best. He is a master of ticking scoreboards and with Imam, a similar accumulator for company, the left-right duo got down to the business without taking risks until the target got to a point where it became only an academic interest. The only blot was Imam couldn’t hang around till they got home as Pakistan finished their home leg with a resounding win.
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
5 min read
