Pakistan left to pick up the pieces after lacklustre performance in Asia Cup
Fans who were hoping for a dream final between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup will be hugely disappointed with the latter being knocked out of the tournament by Bangladesh on Wednesday. The Tigers dug their claws deep into their rivals to win by 37 runs as the green brigade once again disappointed with both ball and bat. It has clearly been an ordinary tournament for Pakistan, who have been found wanting in all three departments — batting, bowling and fielding. Here is a look at five factors that led to their downfall.
Zaman’s out of form: Opener Fakhar Zaman has failed to fire throughout the tournament. He was virtually trying to blast his way to form and that kept backfiring. His two ducks and scores of 24, 31 and 1 clearly paint a sorry picture. Shoaib Malek and Imam-ul-Haq batted well but Babar Azam and skipper Sarfraz Ahmad have lacked consistency. “Fakhar is our main batsman, he
failed to perform in this tournament,” said Sarfraz after the Bangladesh defeat. “Our batting was the main reason for our defeat in this tournament. I still believe we have a lot of talented players in the team.” Poor decisions by Sarfraz:
With the lack of runs, Sarfraz’s captaincy has also clearly taken a beating. He let Bangladesh off the hook after their pacers led by Junaid Khan had chipped in with two early wickets and Pakistan were reeling at three for 12 in 4.2 overs. Sarfraz brought spinners Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz into the attack and that allowed Mushfiqur Rahim (99) and Mohammad Mithun (60) to put on a crucial partnership of 144 runs for the fourth wicket. Sarfraz accepted there was too much pressure on him. “There’s always pressure on the captain of the Pakistan team,” he said. “When the team does badly, obviously the pressure increases.
If I tell you that I haven’t slept properly for the last six days, you won’t believe me. But yes, I want to stress that we shouldn’t panic. There should be criticism for our performance, but give us a little time.”
Spinners a let down: Pakistan were clearly one spinner short coming into the tournament. And if spinners can’t be effective on these slow track in the UAE then you are always struggling. Shadab Khan, nursing an injury, just wasn’t effective at all. His partner Mohammad Nawaz, too, never looked like troubling the batsmen. “We failed to perform in this tournament and Shadab was hit by injury too,” said Sarfraz. “But we will have to back him and other boys. We have to look at our bench too. We have a pool of players, and by the time the World Cup comes, we’ll have a good team.”
Amir’s failure: Amir went wicketless in the tournament and that will be a major worry. He was dropped and replaced by Junaid Khan for the last match against Bangladesh. In the last 10 ODI matches since the Champions Trophy final against India, he has bagged just three wickets. Junaid, however, grabbed his opportunity by claiming four wickets for 19 in nine overs in the lone match he figured in. Shaheen Afridi also bowled his heart out and was rewarded with two wickets in the outing against Bangladesh. He would have had more had he got support from the fielders.
Low morale: The back-to-back humiliating defeats at the hands of India seemed to have played a major role in Pakistan looking listless in their must-win contest against Bangladesh. When you lose to arch-rivals, it would have shattered their morale.