Is Pakistan Just a Two-man Batting Department?
After a stunning entry into the semifinal, Pakistan T20 WC 2022 has remained low-key in training leading up to their clash. Against New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday. Squads reached out to SCG for PAK vs NZ
After traveling from Sydney to Adelaide on Monday, they decided to cancel their practice session on Tuesday. The exception to this plan was their skipper and star batter Babar Azam, who chose to have a forty-minute session with batting coach Matthew Hayden.
Practice sessions before: Pakistan T20 WC 2022
Players often take sessions from their respective coaches and mentors when they are out of form, Rohit Sharma, Kane Williamson, and James Neesham did the same at the Sydney cricket ground in the practice session ahead of the semifinals in the .
Pakistan’s batting order 50 % of the runs by the top-order batters. Babar Azam and Rizwan scored all the maximum runs for the side. While they are the biggest batting strength of the side, also the middle order has averaged runs at 18.42 the worst amongst all the teams coming for the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 of the Pakistan T20 Squad.
In this ICC T20 World Cup 2022: Pakistan T20 WC 2022
Pakistan has found quite effective middle order and has s been shouldering the burden efficiently for the side. It started with Shan Masood’s unbeaten half-century in the opening game against India and peaked when they managed to recover from 43/4 against South Africa to post a match-winning 185 .
“Pakistan is a two-man batting department”: Pakistan T20 Squad
The two favorites who made Pakistan back in the game are Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab khan hitting Half a ton of knocks for the side. Which eventually paid off to the place in the Semifinals.
But the initial counter-attack came from the youngest of the lot. Mohammad Haris. Who had been drafted into the team on the eve of the game after an injury to Fakhar Zaman. Also, promptly smacked three sixes and two fours and knocked 28 of 11 against South Africa’s strong pace attack.
Also, Haris followed that cameo with 31 of 18 against Bangladesh and gave a fresh lease of life to a batting line-up that looked troubled the Pakistan T20 Squad
It was not until the recent game the team fell out of the batting order. When there was a need to perform the batter fell off the in initial overs. That made a bad start and a struggle against Bangladesh. All the attempts failed in the game and they did not have the luxury to do so again as they are now to play the decider. For now, they have to play good cricket against the Kiwis.
Two Man Batting, Iftikhar, with two half-centuries in the tournament, and a penchant for hitting pace as he did against Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi. Adds another significant layer to the middle-order. Additionally, Iftikhar has also shown that he has upped his game against spin now. Also, hitting at 128.57 as opposed to the 107.69 he had until the Asia Cup. In the World Cup alone he has taken that to 146.2.
Summing up all these small parts the Pakistan batting lineup is imbalanced from the batting order of the Pakistan T20 Squad.
Babar Azam, again, is an exception. Ahead of their first outing against Pakistan, Babar was asked: “Pakistan is a two-man batting department”. The other nine are not competent enough with the bat. If you both are removed early, then another side will win the match. This is the batting scenario of the men in green ahead of the ICC T20 WC semifinal.
