Denying the undeniable

No one acknowledged the fact that the series against England didn’t give Pakistan any answers

Cricket is a cruel sport. It is cruel because most things can be defined through data.

Cricket is perhaps one of the few sports and probably the top of the line where the usage of data is unparalleled to any other around.

One can pretty much make a story just based on numbers because they tell you what has happened, why it has happened and sometimes even can present the solution to solve if there is a crisis.

It is no wonder that data is now the talk of the town and people who follow cricket passionately, just like it is in Pakistan, use numbers to assert their point and rightly so.

Using those numbers, an introspection into Pakistan’s batting lineup began earlier this year where it was claimed by many that the real problem the Men-in-Green are facing in the T20Is over the last few years is the strike-rate of the openers, captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

That criticism definitely had some validity as since Babar and Rizwan started opening for the Green Caps in T20Is, they have been one of the slowest in terms of scoring amongst all the full members in the powerplay, playing at just slightly over seven in the first six overs.

Teams run-rate and avg powerplay scores since 2021 in T20Is

But one thing which is not mentioned in that table is that during the same duration, Pakistan lost just 45 wickets in 41 innings in the powerplay, making their average wickets lost during that duration the lowest in the world as well.

Average wickets lost by teams in PP

Now the numbers above may suggest that there is not much difference, to make it simpler, Pakistan would have lost 11 wickets in the powerplay in 10 innings, the second-best would’ve been India with 13 whereas Zimbabwe would’ve lost nearly 20 wickets in the same duration.

But as many say that keeping wickets is not really a thing in T20Is, at least now, the question is whether that can be applied to the Green Caps methodology as well?

Since the start of 2021, Pakistan batters from number 3-8 in T20Is average just overs 17 with a strike-rate of 127 but there is a caveat in this.

Out of the last 22 months, in 12 of those, there were two senior pros part of the side — Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik — who used to bat in the middle phase and made some valuable contributions.

But both have not been a part of the T20I side in 2022 and in those positions this year, the Green Caps are averaging 14.77 — lowest amongst all the 12 full members — and have a strike-rate of 119.7, only better than Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in that duration.

Performance of batters from position 3-8 in T20Is in 2022

Then the question is why is there so much focus on what Rizwan and Babar are doing when they are arguably the best in business at what they do? The answer is yet to be known but one thing is pretty clear and that is we are not investing our energies where we should be.

And that’s not just limited to cricketers on the field where the focus is on scoring runs quicker whereas the focus should be to play according to the situation as not everyone can play in a similar manner, it is also reflected in what fans are doing on social media too.

For example, the people were more worried about whether Khushdil Shah cried after being booed by the local crowd than how he performed in the series where he averaged 21 in four innings and had a strike-rate of just 112.50.

There have been so many social media posts about how the batter broke down (allegedly) after the crowd chanted ‘parchi’ (slang in the Urdu language for nepotism) which is quite baffling as a sportsman or woman must have a thick skin.

They are and will always be booed by the crowd, sometimes their own crowd whereas sometimes by the opposition’s fans but that should not overshadow how poor he was and, in all honesty, he should not be on the plane to Australia after those numbers, especially after playing as a finisher.

Similarly, there was so much joy about Iftikhar Ahmad’s bowling where he finished as the most economical amongst all Pakistan bowlers with an economy-rate of 6.08 that people almost forgot how he never delivered when it mattered for the team with the bat in hand.

An average of 19.80 and a strike-rate of 132 with the highest of 32 is not good enough for someone who is batting at four or five in the modern day cricket.

Comparing him with England’s Ben Duckett and Harry Brook, both of whom came at four and five in the series, shows how poor Iftikhar was with the bat.

The left-hander scored 233 runs at an average of 46.60 along with the strike-rate of 159.50 whereas Brook smashed 235 at an average of 78.33 and a strike-rate of 160.96.

In all of this, people almost forgot about how mediocre once again Asif Ali was. The right-hander famous for his attacking display scored 34 runs in four innings at a strike-rate of 136, which included two sixes which came in the same over on the bowling of Reece Topley.

Similarly, Haider Ali, another hard-hitting batter and perhaps the only one who can bat in the top-order after Fakhar Zaman was dropped following poor performances, scored 36 runs at an average of nine in four innings with a strike-rate of 94.74.

The most alarming thing is that perhaps no one acknowledged the fact that the T20I series against England didn’t give Pakistan any answers they were looking for.

Before the series started, six players were probably certain in the playing XI and after that as well, those six players are still a must in the team.

The other five are yet to be discovered and we are just two weeks away from the first match against arch-rivals India. Absolutely appalling to say the least.

There is a genuine feel back home that we must back the boys as not much can be done about it since the T20 World Cup is here but even then, this notion of sugarcoating everything for the sake of being positive and supporting the team should not be applauded and questions must be asked.

There is a storm waiting for us and clearly, we are not ready. Not ready to whether it and get to the other end and therefore, a catastrophe is waiting to happen, we like to admit it or not.