I don’t think it’ll work - PAK’s core game is different.
What transformation in English team we are watching actually is not new - this was English LO tactics even in 1960s (when the Gillette Cup started as first List A cricket). May be due to the change in playing conditions, the scoring rate is different these days, but England’s ODI combination & tactics were very similar in past, which saw them making three finals (& two SF) in first five edition of WCs and they were a very good ODI side till mid 90s. Those were the days when England used a similar combination - specialist ODI batsmen (openers), ODI all-rounders & bowlers that are suited to this game - many of whom were good to great ODI players but average Test players. Derek Pringle, Dermott Reeve, Nick Knight, Chris Lewis, Neil Fearbrother..... instantly comes to mind and I am sure I can find few more. It was in between 15-20 years surprisingly England changed their LO philosophy and went for more traditional approach, which didn’t work. 18 English Counties produced highest numbers of very good cricketers, but just a level below the top tier that Aussies were producing hence in between 1990 to 2010s, they have dominated Ashes and even in ODI as well. Yes, this is a special case where players like Butler, Roy, Hales, Stokes ... have peaked together and they are playing in 300+ per condition - their aggressive tactics is working; but even in 1980s they tried Paul Downton, later opened with WK Stuart, had Ian Botham at 5; Lamb at four & Gower played the Root role. In that regard, I’ll say England ODI under Athers, Nasser, Vaughn, Strauss & Cook were different.
PAK’s core game is not batting based and it wasn’t even when they had a batting line up of Mazid, Sadiq, Zaheer, Javed, Asif, Mushtaq, WRaja, Imran, Intekhab, Sarfraz & WBari at 11 - one has to understand cricket better to realise what sort of batting depth that was - still in 1970s, only one SF..... Imran realised it more than anyone and he assembled a team that had SOLID 50 overs, which made three WC SFs under him, winning one trophy & added that with another Final in 1985 Mini World Cup & a Neheru Cup trophy on the shoulders of basically one master batsman & a decent support hands - only a fool of highest order will think that he backed Qadir & Wasim Akram because they could bat a bit as well!!! Yes, it’ll always help if you have batsmen in class of Imran, Akram, Qadir, Saqline in your bottom half .... their bowling was added bonus, we may think.
Theoretically, we can draw many scenarios and hype many talents, but I don’t think a PAK team loaded with explosive sloggers and depth with “all-rounders” is going to achieve any thing significant- they might rob ZIM statistically, but that was done with conventional cricket as well - nothing new.
May be, just for the sake of discussion, I am drawing a team with current available players for this tactics:
Fakrah, Kamran+
Haider, *Babar, Asif Ali, Sohail Akhtar, Yamin, Imad, Shadab,
Sohail Khan, Mo Amir
One can add Zeeshan, Sharjeel, Amad, Faheem, Newaz, Wahab ... in that mix
That’s a hell a f batting depth & lots of fire power all through & a decent bowling options as well ....... then think again.
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