T20 World Cup: What are the reasons for successes and subsequent failures in the presence of Sarfraz?
When Australian commentator Michael Slater asked Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi about his future after his defeat to Australia in the T20 World Cup in India five years ago, most people said it was more than Afridi's possible retirement. Wondering the reasons behind the very disappointing performance of the Pakistani team.
This was the third consecutive failure of the Pakistani team in the T20 World Cup. The World Cup started with a win against Bangladesh, but then in just six days, Pakistan lost to three major teams, India, New Zealand, and Australia.
Prior to this World Cup, Pakistan was ranked seventh in the world T20 rankings and when the event ended, the Pakistani team was still in the same position. The most important question at the time was how to improve this performance.
When the captain changed, so did the fate
After the T20 World Cup, Shahid Afridi was replaced by wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed.
This was the decision that changed the face of the team. Led by Sarfraz Ahmed, the team won the only T20 International played in Old Trafford during the tour of England and in the same match Babar Azam and Hassan Ali's T20 International career started and from the same match, the Pakistan team won the T20 International. A long series also began.
In this journey of victory, the Pakistani team won 11 consecutive T20 series. In those 11 series, he played a total of 33 T20 International matches and won 29 of them.
It lost just four matches, suggesting that the Pakistani team was in full swing in this format.
Pakistan's dominance in the world T20 rankings
The T20 World Rankings started in 2011. England took the first position in this ranking. In this T20 world ranking, Pakistan was in the seventh position, but then over time, Pakistan's performance improved to such an extent that its effect began to be seen in the world rankings.
The Pakistani team came to the world's number one position for the third time on January 28, 2018, after coming to the first position in the T20 rankings twice before. This time it lasted until April 30, 2020, ie 884 days. This lead was finally broken by Australia on 1 May 2020.
The consensus of observers and experts on the excellent performance of the Pakistani team in the T20 Internationals is that due to the performance and combination of Babar Azam, Fakhr Zaman, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Fahim Ashraf, and Emad Wasim in this era, Pakistan has been given this position. Got it.
Among the senior players were Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, and captain Sarfraz Ahmed with whom the team was giving good results. During this period, Pakistani players performed impressively in batting and bowling as well as in fielding.
Then where did those days disappear?
The Pakistani team lost the series against South Africa under the captaincy of Shoaib Malik after winning 11 consecutive series under the leadership of Sarfraz Ahmed. The T20 series against Sri Lanka was a turning point that changed the situation completely.
After a three-nil defeat to a weak Sri Lankan team in the series, the players remained the same, but Sarfraz Ahmed did not remain the captain, although he was also the highest-scoring batsman for Pakistan in the series.
Many commentators still agree that bringing Ahmed Shehzad and Omar Kamal into the team without a strong argument and justification spoiled the combination in the series and the flu fell on captain Sarfraz Ahmed even though he was not in favor of the selection.
Sarfraz Ahmed is the most successful T20 captain in the history of Pakistan who has won 29 out of 37 matches and lost only eight.
Since Sarfraz Ahmed stepped down as captain, the Pakistan team has played 32 Twenty20 Internationals in which 16 have been won, 10 have been lost and 6 have been incomplete. Meanwhile, they have not been able to beat big teams like England, Australia, and New Zealand. It has beaten Zimbabwe and South Africa twice and the West Indies and Bangladesh once.
"When the government changes, so does the PCB."
Former captain of the Pakistan cricket team Rashid Latif says, “The main reason for the team's performance to go down from top to bottom is the huge changes.
"When the government changes, so does the Pakistan Cricket Board. The new chairman, the new captain, the new coach, and the new chief selector all bring about a direct impact on the team's performance.
Rashid Latif says that in the last few years many players have been tested and the coaches have also changed. The difference between strong and weak structures is obvious to all.
"The big countries attach great importance to the T20. There are examples of IPL and Big Bash. Even the West Indies have estimated that their players are performing well in the T20s instead of the Tests and ODIs, so they have started focusing on this format.
According to Rashid Latif, the captain is very important. The 2019 World Cup was devastating. A cricket committee was formed which included Misbah and then he became the coach in place of Mickey Arthur. The captain h
has been replaced.
"Even bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, from whose hands all the T20 bowlers were made, was removed," he said. High-performance centers are not strong. The world has come a long way in T20 but we are coaching in the old ways.
"The biomechanics consultant coach tells us how to do power-hitting, but we don't have anything like that. We are only working on the basis of data. Teams are not formed on the basis of statistics. Now it is time for a counter-attack and the weakest team is Pakistan.
If you take a look at Rashid Latif's talk about the constant changes in the team, Pakistan has brought 18 players to the T20 International since 2018. In 2018, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hussain Talat, and Asif Ali were given caps.
In 2019, Waqas Masood, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Musa, Khushdal Shah and Mohammad Hasnain were given a chance. In the year 2020, good luck fell on Ehsan Ali, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali, Usman Qadir, and Abdullah Shafiq. So far this year, Zahid Mahmood, Danish Aziz, Arshad Iqbal, Azam Khan, and Muhammad Waseem have won the Junior T20 Cap.
'Too many changes are harmful'
Former fast bowler Umar Gul says, "The team can't be set due to too many changes. The same thing is happening now. New players have arrived. There is no senior bowler in the team at the moment who can guide young bowlers in case of pressure.
"It's a combination when you're playing together," says Omar Gul. In our time, every player knew his role. At that time, Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal were prominent in bowling. We were 140 and we were hopeful that we would win this match.
Former Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal says, "If you look at past successes, the main reason was our bowling. If the right combination is made, the bowling wins the tournament while the batsmen win the match.
"At the moment we have Hassan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi but there is no league sniper to take wickets in between. We get wickets in the beginning, in the middle the rival teams play ten overs and in the end, they get hit again. If wickets are found in the middle overs, the bowlers can also put pressure on the last overs.
Who after Babar Azam and Rizwan?
Former Pakistan cricket team fast bowler Aqib Javed says, "The situation at the moment is that neither the player knows how good he is nor the selectors know which player is how good."
"If you write the names of the players of the Pakistani team, after Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, who do you think is after them?" Similarly, in bowling, after Hassan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi, their hands stop to decide what to write next.
If we look at Aqib Javed's statement in the form of statistics, it is clear that the batting of the Pakistani team, which is currently ranked third in the world T20, is completely dependent on Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. Is.
The two have formed a century partnership three times this year. The number of runs scored by Mohammad Rizwan in T20 International this year is 752 while Babar Azam has scored 523 runs.
But the third-highest score after him is only 183 which is the pride of Zaman. Muhammad Hafeez, who performed well last year, has managed to score just 106 runs this year. This is a good indication of the failure of middle-order batting.
Among the batsmen who have been tested in the middle order, Asif Ali and Haider Ali have got the most opportunities but they have not been able to do justice to their talent. Azam Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, and Sharjeel Khan have been facing the biggest problem of fitness.
The ineffectiveness of Shadab Khan in bowling has been very detrimental to the Pakistan team which has managed to take three wickets only twice in the last ten innings and six of those ten matches in which they They could not get a single wicket.
Will Pakistan learn from these mistakes in the upcoming T20 World Cup and turn this fall into a new one? These questions are on the minds of every Pakistani cricket fan and we will get the answers later this month.