Instead of strengthening the Pakistan batting line-up with batsmen who could score runs and stick around for at least a few overs the focus was on players who batted at 150+ strike rates. Inspired by the butler, miller, and warner's of the world we went searching for our very own but ended up picking players who could hit the odd six in local leagues. The PCB was intent on teaching the players how to hit sixes when perhaps the focus should have been on running between the wickets, finding gaps, managing game awareness, and general fitness (A haphazardly organized training camp right before the WC does not count).
We ended up fielding players who could barely hold a bat on the international stage and froze under the first sign of pressure, embarrassing the nation when we should have had two wins in two games to start the campaign. Hoping to take the additional step and win the WC compared to the last few T20 world cups, we took several steps back and did not even make it past round 1. Somewhere in our search for the ideal batsmen who scored runs with intent, we ended up picking 3-4 deadweight batsmen which cost us each game. In search of a diamond, we lost the gold - Instead of playing knockouts with a chance to win the WC we should be playing the qualifiers for the next WC (if not for our prior ranking).
We can change the captain (which we should have done a while ago and stuck with it), we can play all rounders for more balance (who should bat at 7 and 8 and not higher), but should our top priority not be to find a couple of batsmen who can hold a bat on the international stage and not crumble against the slightest pressure?
We ended up fielding players who could barely hold a bat on the international stage and froze under the first sign of pressure, embarrassing the nation when we should have had two wins in two games to start the campaign. Hoping to take the additional step and win the WC compared to the last few T20 world cups, we took several steps back and did not even make it past round 1. Somewhere in our search for the ideal batsmen who scored runs with intent, we ended up picking 3-4 deadweight batsmen which cost us each game. In search of a diamond, we lost the gold - Instead of playing knockouts with a chance to win the WC we should be playing the qualifiers for the next WC (if not for our prior ranking).
We can change the captain (which we should have done a while ago and stuck with it), we can play all rounders for more balance (who should bat at 7 and 8 and not higher), but should our top priority not be to find a couple of batsmen who can hold a bat on the international stage and not crumble against the slightest pressure?
