Pakistan vs England, Team review: Visitors disappoint in ODIs

The ODI batting looked entirely dependent upon the middle-order, to be specific, Sarfraz Ahmed.

After an impressive performance in the Test series, visitors Pakistan disappointed in the One-Day International (ODI) series that followed. The Pakistan team for Tests, differs a lot from that for the ODIs and with the defeat in the 50-overs format, the flaws in the side are now exposed. England continued their form across formats to give visitors Pakistan a challenge they could not overcome in the ODIs. Pakistan’s approach towards the series was highly criticised along with their trend of not adapting to changing situations and their orthodox style of playing has been reasoned as one of the factors behind the defeat. LIVE CRICKET SCORE: England vs Pakistan, One-off T20I at Old Trafford

The trends in cricket are changing everyday, the benchmark of a safe target is getting higher quite often. While 250 used to be a safe total, now-a-days it is considered as the par mark. Pakistan’s scores in the first four ODIs averaged around 250 against England, who have a strong, packed batting line-up which goes down to No. 7. In the only match that Pakistan won in the ODI series, the team successfully chased 300 plus runs.

Pakistan batting’s main problem lies in the lack of balance. One of the main problems that Pakistan faced throughout the tour is their unstable top-order. This is one problem that Pakistan actually facing for a long time now and will have to overcome as soon as possible in order to better their ODI performance.

The batting looked entirely dependent upon the middle-order, to be specific, Sarfraz Ahmed. The wicketkeeper-batsman delivered some great performances. but failed to take his side to a winning conclusion except in the last ODI, where he managed to build a partnership with Shoaib Malik.

An early top-order collapse, quite obviously, affects the batting and by many ways. The top-order consists of batsmen who are technically strong and who are cpaable of taking the attack to the opposition. If the openers are dismissed early in an innings, the chances of a big total reduce. Having lost early wickets, the pressure of taking the innings further comes on the shoulders of the middle-order batsmen, who are supposed to play a lot more freely, more so in limited-overs format so that they can score quickly. In order to stop the regular fall of wickets, the Pakistan middle-order missed out on those extra runs. They also used up deliveries in order to build a new innings altogether, which again did not help in giving themselves a cushion of runs.

The root of the problems, however, may remain in the amount of cricket Pakistan has played in different venues in the recent past. Pakistan hardly got to play international cricket at their home. Playing mostly in the UAE, their batsmen have a lack of experience of playing in different conditions. This ended up in them taking more time to read England’s bowlers and understand the way the pitch behaves, unlike their contemporaries who happen to play regularly in both home and away with different opponents.

Another fact that is evident from the ODI series is Pakistan batting’s lack of consistency. Two of the most successful batsmen were skipper Azhar Ali and Sarfraz. Azhar scored an 82 in the first and an 80 in the fourth. In both the occasions, there was just another half-century scored in the innings which resulted in a low total. The onus of scoring runs relied on these two.

An entire batting line-up cannot be dependent upon one just two individuals. England utilised the ‘home-side advantage’ aspect to the fullest, playing accordingly in different grounds and found it easy to put the required runs up and pave their way to victory. A similar case was that of Sarfraz who scored a hundred in the third match, a fifty in the first. But his only effort that ended up in a winning cause was his 90-run innings. In the fifth match, the entire batting line-up contributed with their bit, unlike the other matches where the batsmen struggled to reach double-digit scores.

Pakistan have been organising domestic competitions for the screening of young talents. However, in the past few years, there has hardly been any new faces in the top-order. Sami Aslam is their only tried option, who performed decently, looking at the experience he has.

A big concern lies upon the captaincy in the ODI format. While Misbah-ul-Haq was pretty successful in rotating the bowlers or to indicate each player’s role, Azhar’s decisions raise many questions. Azhar’s plan, the way he used his bowlers did not help Pakistan much, to get closer to victory. Letting bowlers bowl even after they went for expensive overs, can sure boost a player’s confidence, but the experiment must not come at a cost of a shameful defeat and that is what happened in case of Wahab Riaz, which helped England ensure their victory, in the clash at Trent Bridge.

Just like their batting, Pakistan’s bowling has also been dependent upon one man, to be specific, Mohammad Aamer. Even before the start of the tour, Aamer was the center of cricket lovers’ debates but his contributions, especially in the ODI series, were of no extraordinary sorts. Aamer was able to bag only 4 wickets from the five ODIs, which, as a frontline bowler, is not enough to call it a good performance.

There have been standout performances and the first name that comes to mind is of Sarfraz. Having played with a changing top-order for a long time now, Sarfraz has evolved into a dependable middle-order batsman who can take up responsibilities and turn the lone warrior for the side, guiding the team to victory on occasions. He emerged as the top-scorer in the ODI series leaving behind the likes of Joe Root and Jason Roy, which shows how much he has grown as a batsman.

All-rounder, Imad Wasim also showed his talent and can be labeled as the find of the ODI series specifically. Apart from Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan team does not have any proper all-rounder currently in the squad and Imad has a potential to become one in near future.

Hasan Ali remained the most impressive among the bowlers, picking up 8 wickets from the five ODIs. The young bowler took 4 crucial wickets in the final ODI and remained one of the key players behind Pakistan’s only victory in the ODI series.

(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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