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Is Pakistan the new minnow of international cricket?

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Destroyer88

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I strongly believe pakistan hasn't got it in them to compete at international level anymore. Series after series pakistan has been humiliated at all fronts. Our domestic system sucks. The administrators in the pcb have been filling their pockets for far too long and will continue doing so. We are ok to give so many lakhs a month to an incomptetent coach micky arthur but wont consider paying it to the local coach who would want to work with our grass root. In my honest assessment i believe talent is at medicore level now. ****** system, incomptents selections at domestic level, governance of the game is all part to it. In 4 years we have regressed immensely that even a warmup game is being fought closely. I know some may say that its only a warm up game and nothing more to look into it. Banana skin blah blah... i thinj we've been sliding on this flipping skin for far too long...
 
Not exactly minnow but weakest among non minnow teams, BD truly has overtaken Pak as the 2nd best team in Asia.
 
Not minnow maybe but certainly the weakest team going into world cup
 
If Pakistan lose to Afghanistan then I do not think they can sink any further. However, fans will keep finding positives and blessings in disguise in these shameful defeats.
 
The_Odd_One said:
If Pakistan lose to Afghanistan then I do not think they can sink any further. However, fans will keep finding positives and blessings in disguise in these shameful defeats.
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Next target is Nepal!!!!
 
Can't believe how far we have fallen, didn't know I'll see a day where we will lose to Afghanistan so comfortably. Thank you Sarfaraz, Inzi and Mickey. Special thanks to Azhar Mahmood.
 
Without a doubt the worst team in this World cup. And I would back the likes of Scotland and Ireland to beat them easily too. Mind you, it's Pakistan so they might still win the thing.
 
Havent been watching Pak matches recently, are people really serious ? Or are the over reacting ? If it is truly a downfall it is sad. Sad to see how Pak and SL have fallen from where they were.
 
We have yet to recover from the loss of a Pre-15 degree Ajmal and Hafeez
 
Done with this crap team and its players. Uswd to be a sarfaraz fan but i think i have seen enough of his incomptency now. This guy is nothing but a puppet being run by inzi and micky
 
Yeah.

We should be stripped of our ODI and Test status?

Shouldn’t we PP?
 
Problem with most Pakistanis is that they live in a world of illusion. There are Atleast 12-13 very competitive nations out there, capable of beating anyone on a given day. This is not the 90s or early 2000s where there were real minnow nations outside of top 8 or 9.

Now Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and Zimbabwe are quite competitive nations than what they were, perhaps Zimbabwe have fallen a bit but others have become much stronger.

I have seen the ICC WC qualifiers and the quality of games and competition there was so intense, it was such good cricket and every team gave it their heart and soul, Scots and Zimbabwe were so so close to qualifying ahead of Windies and Afghanistan respectively.

Give respect to other teams instead of simply calling them minnows, esp when you yourself haven't won an ODI in ages and no one remembers when was your last ODI series win.
 
this is starting to get a bit serious now. 11 losses in a row.

add to this we played our best 11 batsmen available to come and bat and then we bowled each and every bowler available (barring Hasan), still couldn't win.
 
Can we stop seeing threads about how weak South Africa and Australia are ? This is a overall rubbish Pakistan team. Yes it maybe better than 2015 but it is still one of the poorer Pakistan teams to go to a WC.
 
Lets not over do it here. Let the WC finish before being melodramatic.
 
This was bound to happen, a well deserved humiliation for the incompetent team management and the delusional fans who hype every player to embarrassing levels.

All PSL products Fakhar, Talat, Asif, Shadab, Faheem, Nawaz, Hassan, Irfan Jr, Shaheen did not take long to get exposed.

We must simply accept that there are no world class players available in Pakistan. The closest to world class is Babar and even he severely lacks impact and no team considers him a threat. Pakistan stopped producing world class players since the days of Akhtar, Yousuf, Younis, Razzaq, etc.

Pakistan is not winning the world cup, they are not even qualifying for the semi-finals. On paper, even Bangladesh and full-strength WI teams are stronger than Pakistan. The only teams Pakistan can realistically beat are Sri Lanka and Afghanistan out of which the latter gave this team a run for its money in Asia cup and just beat them in the warm-up game.
 
Pak too Afghanistan too casually. That was their downfall.

People need to give a lot more respect to afghanistan talent. Their 3 spinners are world class and they bat deep. With the addition of zazai, they have 2 explosive openers who can do a lot of damage in the beginning. Overall, Pak lost to a very good Afghan team.
 
Come on yaar it was just a practice match. I have lot of hope especially after watching Wahab and Hasnain bowling reverse swings. I am very confident that Pakistan will do lot better in the tournament. Pakistan batting is not that bad either. Stop spreading negativity plz......
 
Yes they are...also the winners of the most recent odi tournament...
guess the rest are on top of the crap heap then?
 
Well a minnow won the last ICC trophy two years back, with pretty much the same players. We are all angry at the performance, but let's not go overboard with the hate.

The frustrating aspect is that these guys can definitely play, but for some reason refuse to learn and stick to the basics.
 
Some of the fans have the mentality of minnows. I don't think Pakistan is a minnow . Pundits are talking about Pakistan getting to the final 4. Minnows aren't talked about in such regard.
 
Win or loss is part of the game and I have seen a very good PAK side (then World Champs) losing 7-8 games at stress in 1992 WSC (& NZ tour), I have read about PAK losing 5-0 (8-0 run) against Poms & WIN in 1987-88, but I have hardly been bored to watch old PAK team. They had spark, it's like watching Holland or Liverpool in soccer - even in their worst times, on their day, absolute unmatched brilliance.

This PAK side doesn't excite me, doesn't puss me to adjust my schedule so that I can watch their game, doesn't keep me glued in front of TV. Most importantly, I watched PAK games to see something extraordinary - could be good or bad, but something unique. That was unpredictable PAK who'll always catch teams off guard - this bunch are opposite, they are consistently monotonous, and unfortunately always down. I have seen the worst of PAK players - arrogant, indisciplined, individualistic, unpolished ..... but brilliant with skill, aggressive in nature, reckless under pressure, super competitive in contest and a flamboyance of own. In a wild west like gun fight, even the fastest gun hand would think twice to take on a top PAK cricketer of 70s, 80s or 90s. Today, I am sure in a KO game, most teams would prefer to face PAK, simply because of the spineless surrender.

In past, one thing I always used to tell and even most Indians accepted that - PAK players don't play for stats and majority of them are actually better players than their stats suggests. Today, the most deceiving stats are often owned by PAK players - cheap milestones that only keeps fans active in blogs. I am sure, senior members of PP like [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION]s or [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] do realize what I am writing here - this is an unknown PCT to us - they don't retaliate, don't compete, even I doubt if they feel the pain. That pride of being a PAK Test cricketer isn't there any more.

An empire doesn't crumble over night, it's often suffers a painful slow death. May be we are experiencing that phase of PAK cricket. One can only hope that things will take an U turn and wish it's going to happen soon.
 
Wrist slitters are out again

This was all said before and during the CT and we all know what happened there

Pakistan historically always have performed in knockout tournaments when they down and not one of the favs

I wouldnt count them out just yet
 
In ODIs pakistan are minnows. In tests they are a lower rung test side.
 
Usman Chadda said:
Well a minnow won the last ICC trophy two years back, with pretty much the same players. We are all angry at the performance, but let's not go overboard with the hate.

The frustrating aspect is that these guys can definitely play, but for some reason refuse to learn and stick to the basics.
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Honestly speaking, pak winning the CT has lead to this amount of downfall. The current pak team is heading into the WC with 10 back to back losses. Even before CT, they headed into CT with a pretty bad stats aswell. A win here and there is not going to solve the issue in the long run. CT win for you guys is hurting pak lot more than had you guys lost. Might have made the selectors take drastic action. But a win there put everyone's mind at ease. The fact that CT win has to be brought up everytime to defend the state of pak cricket should tell alot
 
light said:
Honestly speaking, pak winning the CT has lead to this amount of downfall. The current pak team is heading into the WC with 10 back to back losses. Even before CT, they headed into CT with a pretty bad stats aswell. A win here and there is not going to solve the issue in the long run. CT win for you guys is hurting pak lot more than had you guys lost. Might have made the selectors take drastic action. But a win there put everyone's mind at ease. The fact that CT win has to be brought up everytime to defend the state of pak cricket should tell alot
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Look, we won an ICC tournament. Which was the last tournament England, New Zealand or South Africa won? India last won a major trophy six years back. They have been good all these years, but no trophy to show for it. We can debate the effects of CT all day long, but massive clean ups have never benefitted Pakistan anyway. The issues are much deeper than faulty selections or incompetent coaches.

Despite all that, we won an ICC tournament by blowing teams away. Its a fact, and it will never change despite all the brushing under the carpet anyone does. As Pakistanis, we have a right to be proud of that achievement. When I see people talking about Pakistan being a minnow, I have a right to question the state of those individuals who think Afghanistan or Bangladesh will come close to winning a major ICC trophy in the next 10 years atleast.
 
Zaz said:
Wrist slitters are out again

This was all said before and during the CT and we all know what happened there

Pakistan historically always have performed in knockout tournaments when they down and not one of the favs

I wouldnt count them out just yet
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+1 We have a knack of turning up when our backs are against the wall, especially in tournament cricket. Expect Pakistan to do better than most people here are saying. We will make Semi's and from there anything can happen, by which I mean we will lift the trophy. Then these same wrist slitters will be praising the team with showers till they lose 1 series.
 
Usman Chadda said:
Look, we won an ICC tournament. Which was the last tournament England, New Zealand or South Africa won? India last won a major trophy six years back. They have been good all these years, but no trophy to show for it. We can debate the effects of CT all day long, but massive clean ups have never benefitted Pakistan anyway. The issues are much deeper than faulty selections or incompetent coaches.

Despite all that, we won an ICC tournament by blowing teams away. Its a fact, and it will never change despite all the brushing under the carpet anyone does. As Pakistanis, we have a right to be proud of that achievement. When I see people talking about Pakistan being a minnow, I have a right to question the state of those individuals who think Afghanistan or Bangladesh will come close to winning a major ICC trophy in the next 10 years atleast.
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Best post I've read in a while, hit it right on the nose.
 
sam_ahm said:
Problem with most Pakistanis is that they live in a world of illusion. There are Atleast 12-13 very competitive nations out there, capable of beating anyone on a given day. This is not the 90s or early 2000s where there were real minnow nations outside of top 8 or 9.

Now Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and Zimbabwe are quite competitive nations than what they were, perhaps Zimbabwe have fallen a bit but others have become much stronger.

I have seen the ICC WC qualifiers and the quality of games and competition there was so intense, it was such good cricket and every team gave it their heart and soul, Scots and Zimbabwe were so so close to qualifying ahead of Windies and Afghanistan respectively.

Give respect to other teams instead of simply calling them minnows, esp when you yourself haven't won an ODI in ages and no one remembers when was your last ODI series win.
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No one is disrespecting lower ranked nations but 9 times out of 10 most people would expect Pakistan to beat teams like Zimbabwe, Kenya, Afghanistan, UAE e.t.c. To lose to such a team is alarming.
 
Pakistan are not minnows.The team is going through a bad patch.Pakistan has not played cricket at home for 10 years and this has damaged our cricket.Our domestic system is also very badly organised and doesn't allow talent to come through.All teams go through bad patches.The West Indies team under Clive LLyod was unbeatable for more than ten years but today WI is no where near the old WI teams.Pakistan has won many international trophies.Minnows normally don't win anything.
 
Usman Chadda said:
Look, we won an ICC tournament. Which was the last tournament England, New Zealand or South Africa won?
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exactly what i tried to show with my comment. both players, selectors and fans alike are high on ct glory - 2 years back. current state of the team is not looking so well. my point isn't about winning the trophy, but rather if they didn't win it, drastic changes had to be made going into the wc. Which would have benifited cricket pakistan overall.

p.s just to be clear, eng does have a icc trophy in their cabinet. Not an odi icc trophy, but they have one back home.
 
PakLFC said:
Lets not over do it here. Let the WC finish before being melodramatic.
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This , rest and rotation and player testing has been the order of the day for the last 4 5 months.
Post world cup we will know better.
I have a feeling we will be ok inshaAllah. Just need to win the game against windies and we will be fine
 
light said:
exactly what i tried to show with my comment. both players, selectors and fans alike are high on ct glory - 2 years back. current state of the team is not looking so well. my point isn't about winning the trophy, but rather if they didn't win it, drastic changes had to be made going into the wc. Which would have benifited cricket pakistan overall.

p.s just to be clear, eng does have a icc trophy in their cabinet. Not an odi icc trophy, but they have one back home.
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2 years back is still better than 6 or 9 years. Yes changes would have been made, but these same players delivered under pressure. They deserved to keep their spots. The ones who didn't, have been dropped and considered not good enough.

The bowling is suffering, but pretty much all these guys (barring Hasnain) have shown they are capable of producing the goods. It's about consistently playing well, and improving. Shaheen bowled exceptionally well against New Zealand in UAE and South Africa in South Africa. Hasan has won us an ICC tournament, on his own. Amir has had his moments. Wahab has a good WC record.

Rather than call for replacing them, there should be in introspection into why these guys are collectively failing to stick to the basics.

As I said, our issues are far deeper than selection or coaches at international level. Our domestic cricket is not producing international class cricketers. No amount chopping and changing will benefit us for now.

But disregarding the CT will be terrible injustice to these players, who played their heart out and brought smiles to a nation that year. Let's support them to do the same this year aswell.
 
Pakistan will surprise a lot of people, as some may know performance in the warm ups is very rarely reflective of a team's performance in a tournament or series.
 
I am bemused reading some of the comments on this forum . .

Is Pakistan a minnow?

First of all, who defines a minnow? Second of all, no! Absolutely not! If anything we were closest to being at our worst in 2015 . . from around 2013/14 to 2017 . . which is why we ended up at number 8 . .

For comparison sake, let's look at the players we had playing in the 2015 world cup . .

We had Nasir Jamshed, Ahmad Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Misbah, Younis Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Yasir Shah and Ehsan Adil in our squad for the 2015 world cup . .

We are infinitely better in 2019 than we were in 2015 . . Imam, Fakhar, Babar, Haris (Haris was in both squads), Amir, Shaheen, Hassan, Shadab, Imad . . Only takes someone with a very myopic view to say that we have continued to regress and this Pak team is the worst there ever was . .

If you take out Malik and Hafeez from our line up, our average age is 23!! Twenty Three! Malik and Hafeez will be gone after this world cup anyway . .

If I had taken a poll after the South Africa series about Shaheen, I can guarantee that 95% of the posters would put him as the first person on the team sheet . . . since then he has played 4 ODIs in England . . and granted has gone for plenty and bowled poorly. . but all of a sudden he sucks? and that 95% drops to 30?! There's a thread out there to drop him from the squad all together . .

Btw, I don't want to sound like there are not any issues . . but for me . . 75% of the issues in this team stem from the management, strategies, out cricket, analytical thinking . . and development/lack there of, of cricketers once they come into the team . . Let's take planning . . Pakistan doesn't know 5 days out from the world cup who is going to be their number 4, 5, 6 or 7?! How can you say you've done everything to prepare for the world cup when you can't answer that question . . Pak doesn't know who are the 3 fast bowlers they're going to play?! Until 3 games ago, Faheem Ashraf was in the top 3 pacers and now he is out from the squad . . smacks for terrible terrible planning . . no vision! Btw, I have remained a big fan of Mickey Arthur . . but the shambles our planning has been this world cup, calls for his head . . he is the leader of the "team management" along with Sarfaraz! Anyway, all this has nothing to do with the players and talent . . You can take the best set of players and give them to the current Pakistan team management, and rest assured, their performance will go down . . . The best captains, think tanks, team managements can do much much better with worse players than this current Pakistan squad . .

This core of this team hopefully will be together for a long time . . and I can only see them getting better with time . . My only hope is that we get a solid team management . . In the world of videos, data and analytics, age of information, we need to get with the times and have a team management and captain that can make informed decisions . . when I see Shaheen Shah fielding at mid off/long off/long on . . when I see Yasir bowlign to root when he hadn't been dismissed in 2 years to a leg spinner (separate story he got out in that game to Yasir), it just means they are playing like street cricket . . (I have plenty more examples) .. Cricket has moved past all that . . wayyyy past that . . the typical flair, street cricket mindset, etc. etc. is no longer going to win you many cricket games . . all good teams have gotten everything down to a science! Anyway, I'll stop here cuz the conversation will go in a different direction . .

Pakistan will emerge . . And Pakistan will be a better team . . they've gotten into a rut right now and its difficult to get out of such ruts when things aren't clicking . . when batting does okay, bowling fails .. when batting fails (Afghan game), bowling was decent (last 40 overs) . . it happens . . as the cliche goes, winning is a habit . . and so is losing . . they need one win to get back to playing well and turning them into results . .

I get Pakistan cricket team has some of the most passionate supporters out there . . When we win, everything is fantastic and we're the best team in the world (like what happened after cT 2017 and the SL series white wash) . . when we lose, we swiftly drop to being minnows . . I am not saying that Pak will make the semi finals or they wont . . but the doom and gloom picture being posted on PP . . the doom and gloom picture being discussed in this thread is not consistent with reality . . This team will only get better . . mark my words!
 
NauV said:
I am bemused reading some of the comments on this forum . .

Is Pakistan a minnow?

First of all, who defines a minnow? Second of all, no! Absolutely not! If anything we were closest to being at our worst in 2015 . . from around 2013/14 to 2017 . . which is why we ended up at number 8 . .

For comparison sake, let's look at the players we had playing in the 2015 world cup . .

We had Nasir Jamshed, Ahmad Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Misbah, Younis Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Yasir Shah and Ehsan Adil in our squad for the 2015 world cup . .

We are infinitely better in 2019 than we were in 2015 . . Imam, Fakhar, Babar, Haris (Haris was in both squads), Amir, Shaheen, Hassan, Shadab, Imad . . Only takes someone with a very myopic view to say that we have continued to regress and this Pak team is the worst there ever was . .

If you take out Malik and Hafeez from our line up, our average age is 23!! Twenty Three! Malik and Hafeez will be gone after this world cup anyway . .

If I had taken a poll after the South Africa series about Shaheen, I can guarantee that 95% of the posters would put him as the first person on the team sheet . . . since then he has played 4 ODIs in England . . and granted has gone for plenty and bowled poorly. . but all of a sudden he sucks? and that 95% drops to 30?! There's a thread out there to drop him from the squad all together . .

Btw, I don't want to sound like there are not any issues . . but for me . . 75% of the issues in this team stem from the management, strategies, out cricket, analytical thinking . . and development/lack there of, of cricketers once they come into the team . . Let's take planning . . Pakistan doesn't know 5 days out from the world cup who is going to be their number 4, 5, 6 or 7?! How can you say you've done everything to prepare for the world cup when you can't answer that question . . Pak doesn't know who are the 3 fast bowlers they're going to play?! Until 3 games ago, Faheem Ashraf was in the top 3 pacers and now he is out from the squad . . smacks for terrible terrible planning . . no vision! Btw, I have remained a big fan of Mickey Arthur . . but the shambles our planning has been this world cup, calls for his head . . he is the leader of the "team management" along with Sarfaraz! Anyway, all this has nothing to do with the players and talent . . You can take the best set of players and give them to the current Pakistan team management, and rest assured, their performance will go down . . . The best captains, think tanks, team managements can do much much better with worse players than this current Pakistan squad . .

This core of this team hopefully will be together for a long time . . and I can only see them getting better with time . . My only hope is that we get a solid team management . . In the world of videos, data and analytics, age of information, we need to get with the times and have a team management and captain that can make informed decisions . . when I see Shaheen Shah fielding at mid off/long off/long on . . when I see Yasir bowlign to root when he hadn't been dismissed in 2 years to a leg spinner (separate story he got out in that game to Yasir), it just means they are playing like street cricket . . (I have plenty more examples) .. Cricket has moved past all that . . wayyyy past that . . the typical flair, street cricket mindset, etc. etc. is no longer going to win you many cricket games . . all good teams have gotten everything down to a science! Anyway, I'll stop here cuz the conversation will go in a different direction . .

Pakistan will emerge . . And Pakistan will be a better team . . they've gotten into a rut right now and its difficult to get out of such ruts when things aren't clicking . . when batting does okay, bowling fails .. when batting fails (Afghan game), bowling was decent (last 40 overs) . . it happens . . as the cliche goes, winning is a habit . . and so is losing . . they need one win to get back to playing well and turning them into results . .

I get Pakistan cricket team has some of the most passionate supporters out there . . When we win, everything is fantastic and we're the best team in the world (like what happened after cT 2017 and the SL series white wash) . . when we lose, we swiftly drop to being minnows . . I am not saying that Pak will make the semi finals or they wont . . but the doom and gloom picture being posted on PP . . the doom and gloom picture being discussed in this thread is not consistent with reality . . This team will only get better . . mark my words!
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Potw .
You nailed it.
 
I am usually an optimist, and I do think this is one of the better sides we've have in the last decade or two. But still, 11 losses in a row is quite concerning. I am not seeing a semi final berth right now.
 
I am bemused reading some of the comments on this forum . .

Is Pakistan a minnow?

First of all, who defines a minnow? Second of all, no! Absolutely not! If anything we were closest to being at our worst in 2015 . . from around 2013/14 to 2017 . . which is why we ended up at number 8 . .

For comparison sake, let's look at the players we had playing in the 2015 world cup . .

We had Nasir Jamshed, Ahmad Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Misbah, Younis Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Yasir Shah and Ehsan Adil in our squad for the 2015 world cup . .

We are infinitely better in 2019 than we were in 2015 . . Imam, Fakhar, Babar, Haris (Haris was in both squads), Amir, Shaheen, Hassan, Shadab, Imad . . Only takes someone with a very myopic view to say that we have continued to regress and this Pak team is the worst there ever was . .

If you take out Malik and Hafeez from our line up, our average age is 23!! Twenty Three! Malik and Hafeez will be gone after this world cup anyway . .

If I had taken a poll after the South Africa series about Shaheen, I can guarantee that 95% of the posters would put him as the first person on the team sheet . . . since then he has played 4 ODIs in England . . and granted has gone for plenty and bowled poorly. . but all of a sudden he sucks? and that 95% drops to 30?! There's a thread out there to drop him from the squad all together . .

Faf Du Plessis at the end of the 5 match series against Pak just a few months ago said that Pak prlly played better cricket than SA in that series. and I agree . . if not better, they were at least at par . . there was one game where Pak scored 300 plus and it was rain affected and SA won with D/L . . it could have easily gon our way . . we had a very real chance of winning that series . . the series before that against NZ . . we would have won that 2 - 1 had it not been for rain in Dubai . . This series against Eng, regardless of the result, again we had a real chance of winning at least 2 of those games . . my point is the story of the last 6 months could have looked very different . . and that definitely doesn't sound like a minnow story for me . .

Btw, I don't want to sound like there are not any issues . . but for me . . 75% of the issues in this team stem from the management, strategies, out cricket, analytical thinking . . and development/lack there of, of cricketers once they come into the team . . Let's take planning . . Pakistan doesn't know 5 days out from the world cup who is going to be their number 4, 5, 6 or 7?! How can you say you've done everything to prepare for the world cup when you can't answer that question . . Pak doesn't know who are the 3 fast bowlers they're going to play?! Until 3 games ago, Faheem Ashraf was in the top 3 pacers and now he is out from the squad . . smacks for terrible terrible planning . . no vision! Btw, I have remained a big fan of Mickey Arthur . . but the shambles our planning has been this world cup, calls for his head . . he is the leader of the "team management" along with Sarfaraz! Anyway, all this has nothing to do with the players and talent . . You can take the best set of players and give them to the current Pakistan team management, and rest assured, their performance will go down . . . The best captains, think tanks, team managements can do much much better with worse players than this current Pakistan squad . .

This core of this team hopefully will be together for a long time . . and I can only see them getting better with time . . My only hope is that we get a solid team management . . In the world of videos, data and analytics, age of information, we need to get with the times and have a team management and captain that can make informed decisions . . when I see Shaheen Shah fielding at mid off/long off/long on . . when I see Yasir bowlign to root when he hadn't been dismissed in 2 years to a leg spinner (separate story he got out in that game to Yasir), it just means they are playing like street cricket . . (I have plenty more examples) .. Cricket has moved past all that . . wayyyy past that . . the typical flair, street cricket mindset, etc. etc. is no longer going to win you many cricket games . . all good teams have gotten everything down to a science! Anyway, I'll stop here cuz the conversation will go in a different direction . .

Pakistan will emerge . . And Pakistan will be a better team . . they've gotten into a rut right now and its difficult to get out of such ruts when things aren't clicking . . when batting does okay, bowling fails .. when batting fails (Afghan game), bowling was decent (last 40 overs) . . it happens . . as the cliche goes, winning is a habit . . and so is losing . . they need one win to get back to playing well and turning them into results . .

I get Pakistan cricket team has some of the most passionate supporters out there . . When we win, everything is fantastic and we're the best team in the world (like what happened after cT 2017 and the SL series white wash) . . when we lose, we swiftly drop to being minnows . . I am not saying that Pak will make the semi finals or they wont . . but the doom and gloom picture being posted on PP . . the doom and gloom picture being discussed in this thread is not consistent with reality . . This team will only get better . . mark my words!
 
This Pakistan line up is as good as it was going to get. I for one am backing Pakistan to start firing and hope you all do too. We should back our Kaptaan Sarfraz. He is a fighter and the young bowlers under the experience of Wahab and Amir will get all the support to break partnerships.
Our top order seems stable now more than ever. Our middle order should take more responsibility though and I am hopeful once the WC starts that they will. InshaAllah. I expect Pakistan to get to the semis at the very least.
 
Take out Shoaib malik and play Asif.. play an extra batsmen which helps other batters to play more freely. Pakistan has been much well then expected imam fakahr Babar every one has got runs Asif and Hafeez got 50s and sarfaraz scored some runs as well. I feel the team should do well but just need bit of luck.

Fakhar
Imam
babar
haris
hafeez
sarafaraz
Asif
shadab
hassan
wahab
Amir

hafeez harris and fakhar to share some overs. and batting heavy means batsmen can bat little freely.
 
I have to agree with a lot of comments, but I also back management too. They tried every single experiment possible, Pakistan could have won a lot more matches but they choose to rest players against Australia, and they left winning aside to experiment every single option available. I was completely against Wahab but look how it turned out, even Afghanistan game they decided to rest Hasan Ali.
I think Pakistan is ready to take on world, don’t be surprise with semi spot inshallah we will win the cup
 
Pakistan now is not in the category of teams like India, England, New Zealand or Srilanka. They are in second tier competing with the likes of Srilanka, West Indies, Bangladesh etc. My fear is that they have become worse than those mentioned teams.

I blame the brand of cricket we have become accustomed to playing in the UAE. That formula of winning games is never going to work in the long run outside UAE and now we are too used to the mindset that batting at 6 rpo is very good.
 
The state of Cricket can emulate the state of Hockey (in our country) soon, as the current players are boring to watch, nothing world class about the team, no X-factor, zero personalities. The domestic talent is not impressive as well, no players have world class stats especially in FC cricket, apart from Fawad and Haris (both aren't youngsters) no one is averaging above 50 with the bat, most of the TTF still ruling it. I am not sure what's the solution. But after playing Cricket Captain series, in most of the editions Pakistan become number 1 after 2020 or so, I still have hope, lol.
 
In Test cricket we're still competing with top teams, having beaten Australia and drawn in England. We also possess a strong overall record in T20s.

The problem is the middle format of ODIs. Against the top 5 teams, Pakistan have lost MORE matches than they've won in EVERY year since 2000 except 2001. When we beat a top ODI side these days it comes as a shock.
 
I fear that the next time we tour England they’ll rest their first xi and play their second xi. This series defeat against England C will have consequences for the future. We’re essentially minnows in the eyes of the ECB.
 
The lower ranked and associate or newly associate teams winning against Pakistan these past couple years isn't a fluke. They are beating Pakistan on the basis of skill, fitness and planning. The gap between Pakistan and teams like Afghanistan and Ireland is almost non existent now.

Pakistan lost to Afghanistan (50 Overs WC)
Pakistan were on brink of losing against Netherlands (50 Overs WC)
Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe (WT20)
Pakistan lost to New Zealand C team (20 overs)
Pakistan lost to Ireland (20 overs)

They are really struggling to win against these sides. Which wasn't the case 5-10 years ago. Certainly this isn't the case with teams like Australia and India. Which simply means that Pakistan is among the low ranked teams.

Pakistan is simply not there to compete among top teams anymore.
 
Pakistan’s still hanging out for a T20I series win since the 2022 World Cup final.

They’ve given the captain’s hat to three different guys, but still copped losses in 11 out of 19 matches. Tough times?
 
We are now officially considered minnows when teams like Canada & USA shows us the eyes
 
TOP TIER

Australia
India
England

Sometimes good, Sometimes rubbish Tier

New Zealand
South Africa
Afghanistan

Minnow Level

Sri Lanka
Bangladesh
Pakistan
Ireland
Zimbabwe
Netherlands
etc
 
FB_IMG_1741174387574.jpg

Pakistan will play minnows over the next 6 months, knowing NZ will field a C Team. Well infact Pakistan itself is also in minnow territory
 
Pakistan is certainly a minnow now in T20s after Agha has taken over as captain with the damaad as his vice captain.
 
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