Before the Asia Cup played before the World Cup, Pakistan team was ranked number one in ODI, but the ranking does not present the real picture. Some weaknesses of Pakistan were clearly exposed in the Asia Cup, but despite this, no changes were made in the World Cup team. Pakistan team once again failed to make it to the semi-finals. She last managed to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup competition played in 2011. There were some reasons for Pakistan’s failure, which also included the poor performance of the opening batsmen.
Pakistan’s batsmen disappointed
Pakistan batsman Fakhar Zaman was included in the World Cup squad despite not being in good form but he was dropped after the team’s first match against Netherlands. After this, Abdullah Shafiq was given the responsibility of opening the innings along with Imam-ul-Haq, but there was a lack of consistency in the performance of Pakistan’s opening pair. Later Fakhar was included in the team in place of Imam and he performed well but by then it was too late. The responsibility of Pakistan’s batting rested on captain Babar Azam but he did not live up to the expectations. These top three batsmen of Pakistan needed to adopt an aggressive attitude but they could not do so.
PCB committee chief Misbah-ul-Haq gives advice to spin bowlers
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) technical committee head Misbah-ul-Haq has revealed that after the performance of Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz in the Asia Cup, he had advised to make changes in the spin department. Although the Pakistan team management gave priority to maintaining stability in the team, their main spinners did not perform and thus the selection mistakes cost the team dearly. Both Shadab and Nawaz were able to take two wickets each in the entire tournament. Usama Mir was given a chance in the middle of the tournament but he too could not perform well under pressure. Fast bowling has been considered the strong side of Pakistan. He has fast bowlers like Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf. However, Naseem could not play in the World Cup due to injury and Pakistan missed him throughout the tournament.
Apart from Afridi, no bowler performed well
Afridi took 18 wickets in 9 matches but no other fast bowler could support him well. In most of the matches with Afridi, Hasan Ali handled the new ball but he failed to put pressure on the batsmen while Rauf did not have control over his balls.