Asia Cup 2016: Wake up, Pakistan!

Improvement is needed in every sector, Batting for sure, fielding, obviously and yes, the much talked-about bowling as well.

The Asia Cup 2016 started with a lot of people hoping Pakistan to put up performances to draw attention. This season of Asia Cup, considering the ICC World T20 2016 that follows, is being played in the Twenty20 International (T20I) format and referring to the latest T20 competition the current Pakistan team members have played, i.e. Pakistan  Super League (PSL), the players should have done much, much better than what they have been doing in the tournament so far. Improvement is needed in every sector, Batting for sure, fielding, obviously and yes, the much talked-about bowling as well. READ: Waqar Younis, Azhar Mahmood seek to make Pakistan powerful unit

To start with the problems, the first thing that the recent scorecards reveal is the failure of the top order. In the two matches they have played, Pakistan has kept their opening combination unchanged, with Mohammad Hafeez and Sharjeel Khan doing the job. There is nothing wrong with that, as both seemed to have been in a good form, Hafeez in the international circuit and Sharjeel in PSL. There are no doubts about how able the cricketers are, but bout how they can act according to the situation. While Sharjeel is comparatively new to handling big match pressure, Hafeez is experienced enough and more maturity is demanded of the cricketer. Another problem with the Pakistan side is their No. 3 position. Khurram Manzoor, who currently occupies it, has failed to do justice taking the fact in consideration that it is the most important position to bat at. READ: Virat Kohli’s encouragement helped me bowl better: Mohammad Aamer

The middle-order looks rather settled. Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal and Sarfraz Ahmed have done their bit in the two matches. But a regular top-order collapse and a match-saving middle-order performance following it cannot be expected every day and the Pakistan team need to find out solutions to the prominent problems they are having within.

The next concern must be their poor display of fielding. Keeping aside a few good attempts, the fielding, to be more specific the fitness of the players on field, has been way below expectation. Terrible running between the wickets, lack of communication between players and moreover reluctance to go for catches or saves could be seen evidently and must not occur in a tournament such as Asia Cup.

Finally, the bowling. Pakistan must have received a lot and lot of praises regarding their recent performance but the performance involved a master-class from Mohammad Aamer, and average performances from the others. In the first match against India, the efforts put in by Aamer were ruined by Wahab Riaz’s overs that gifted India runs in a low-scorer. In the next match against a rather inexperienced United Arab Emirates (UAE), bowlers like Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Irfan ended with economies over or equal to 7.00. The newbie Mohammad Nawaz, who impressed in PSL with his left-arm spin, failed miserably completing with 8.66 and no wicket. It resulted in a target of 130, which was the highest by UAE in the tournament.

Performances by individuals, while the team fails, can save once or twice but not in every match. The team needs to play in order to do well in the rest of Asia Cup 2016 and ICC World T20 2016. It is not like they lack talented players, their strategies is what they must reconsider and improve.

(Paulami Chakraborty, a singer, dancer, artist, and photographer, loves the madness of cricket and writes about the game. She can be followed on Twitter at @Polotwitts)

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