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ICC World Cup 2019: Team Preview: Can the unpredictable Pakistan squad maintain their consistency?
Having lost too many matches in the recent past, Pakistan will enter the World Cup with low on confidence
The adjective ‘unpredictable’ is used for the Pakistan cricket team more often
than not. They have time and again proved everyone wrong and did what
wasn’t on cards. Be it in the 2017 Champions Trophy or the events held
before and after, Pakistan has always been a team whose performance
takes a turnaround all of a sudden.
Look at the current scenario and you will notice that the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led side faced a clean sweep in the last two ODI assignments against Australia and England. They
lacked consistency in all three departments. Batsmen failed to utilize
the conditions, bowlers missed the right lengths, while fielders slipped on
too many chances.
However, despite these flawed last months, none of the teams can
take them lightly at the World Cup. Several cricket pundits and cricketers
also recently termed them unpredictable for the mega event.
Meanwhile, after the horrible England series, the Inzamam-Ul-Haq-led selection committee made some changes in Pakistan's World Cup
squad. The experienced fast-bowling duo of Mohammad Amir and
Wahab Riaz alongside fire-power batsman, Asif Ali were brought in to
the side, replacing Junaid Khan, Faheem Ashraf and Abid Ali.
As seam-bowling has always been the strength of this team, the addition
of Wahab and Amir to already power-packed attack must have boosted
them ahead of the event. Pertinently, their batsmen have shown a lot of promise in the recently concluded England series. Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Asif Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed, all were among the scoring batsmen in the series. Leg-spinner Shadab Khan who joined the team after an injury is also
going to play an important role for the Men in Green. He is very handy in the
middle overs while can also score some runs down the order. Apart from
him, all-rounder, Imad Wasim is the player to look after. He played a few
cameos at the back end of innings and scalped some important wickets
in the England tour, revealing how dangerous he can be on a given day.
The advantage of being in England for a longer time than all other teams
also adds to Pakistan's chances in the tournament.
However, how they fight the pressure of their recent failures will largely affect their
performance. Moreover, it would be interesting to see whether Pakistan
maintains its consistent nature in the World Cup or not?
Squad:
Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), Shoaib Malik, Babar Azam,
Mohammad Hafeez, Fakhar Zaman, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir,
Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan
Ali, Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Hasnain.
Key Players: Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Amir, Imad Wasim.
