Pakistan’s T20 Selection Disaster: 2 Batters, 1 Keeper, 8 Bowlers

[We Bleed Green]

One of the biggest issues in Pakistan’s recent T20 selection is a simple tactical mistake: the team has been overloaded with bowlers or bowling all-rounders, while the batting line-up remains fragile. In practical terms, we are playing with only 2–3 specialist batsmen, and the rest of the XI consists of players whose primary role is bowling.

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Today’s Team Composition

Specialist Batters (2):

• Sahibzada Farhan
• Babar Azam

Keeper-Batter (1):

• Usman Khan †

All-Rounders (5):

• Saim Ayub
• Salman Agha (c)
• Shadab Khan
• Mohammad Nawaz
• Faheem Ashraf

Specialist Bowlers (3):

• Shaheen Shah Afridi
• Abrar Ahmed
• Usman Tariq

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The Bowling Overload Problem

With eight bowling options in the XI, we theoretically have 32 overs of bowling available — far more than the 20 overs of a T20 innings. Overloading the team with bowlers in this way weakened the batting line-up, leaving the team vulnerable once early wickets fell.

Some of these all-rounders, like Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Nawaz, or Faheem Ashraf, are never considered specialist batsmen, yet they were included in key batting positions. Faheem, for example, has not bowled in the last few matches, and Shadab bowled only one over.

If we are carrying players who don’t contribute in their primary skill, we are wasting a valuable team spot. Instead, we could have strengthened the batting by including players like Fakhar Zaman and Khawaja Nafay — without reducing our bowling strength.

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How Many Bowlers Do You Really Need?

A T20 innings requires:

• Five bowlers to complete 20 overs
• A sixth bowler for tactical flexibility

Anything beyond six is unnecessary. A seventh or eighth bowling option does little to reduce runs conceded and significantly weakens the batting. Extra bowlers are not a substitute for runs scored.

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Stronger Structure

A well-balanced T20 XI should look like this:

• 5 specialist batters (including the keeper-batter)
• 1 genuine batting all-rounder
• 1 bowling all-rounder
• 3 specialist bowlers

This gives:
✔ Six reliable batting options
✔ Six bowling options
✔ Clear roles and structure
✔ Maximum use of all players’ skills

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Why Strengthening the Batting Matters

When a team has only three or four reliable batters, players play cautiously, and risk-taking is limited. Extra batting depth allows:

Top order to attack in the powerplay

Middle order to play freely

Recovery from early wickets without panic

Extra bowlers do not provide these advantages. Strong batting directly increases runs scored, which is the most effective way to win T20 matches.

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The Case of Faheem Ashraf

Playing Faheem at number 8 without a clear bowling role is effectively playing with ten active players. He takes up a spot but contributes little to either runs or overs. This wasted slot highlights the structural flaw in the team selection.

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Looking Forward: A Better Pakistan XI

For future T20 matches, Pakistan should focus on role clarity and balance. Our best combination is as follows.

Top Order:

• Sahibzada Farhan
• Saim Ayub
• Salman Ali Agha

Middle Order:

• Babar Azam
• Fakhar Zaman
• Khawaja Nafay

Lower Order:

• Usman Khan
• Mohammad Nawaz
• Salman Mirza
• Abrar Ahmed
• Usman Tariq

With this combination:

✔ We have five main bowlers with Agha as sixth bowling option
✔ Batting line-up is strong and well-balanced
✔ Every player is used to their full potential
✔ No spots are wasted

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Conclusion

We simply don’t have the talent or the system to compete effectively against India. The squad selected for the tournament has significantly weakened the team through poor choices. Even so, at the very least, Pakistan should aim to field the best possible combination, maximizing every player’s contribution and avoiding wasted spots.

 

[Professionalismandflair]

Good post. But argument for Nawaz the choker is fundamentally flawed

 

[Cric1234]

Very good analysis the coach and captain need to change things quickly to make the semi finals.

 

[kingusama92]

100% agree.

Just bizarre team composition that's only viable if the all-rounders are of the highest quality in T20s (i.e. peak Afridi, Hafeez, Watson). Not bits and pieces guys like the current lot. All this does is confuse the captain on the field cause he's overloaded with mostly average options.

You might still lose but at least put a smart XI together to optimize your chances.

Ignoring bowling form was further icing on the cake by dropping Mirza for Shaheen.

 

[chinaman00]

I have been saying since day that Pakistan can’t continue to play a team of fake allrounders and expect to play competitive cricket.

 

[GLORY OF '92]

Been a problem for so long but we never learn. Sigh.

 

[ads101]

They’re all batsmen except for Shadab. They all get in batting alone. Saim and Usman are specialist batsmen. They just happen to have an extra skill.

Having said that I think if Saim can offer overs like a part timer and Usman can keep, maybe we should look to just overload the batting. Then again I don’t know if there are better batsmen. Shadab while he is mostly a bowler at international level, outperforms most of our batsmen in PSL. And is capable to batting low when most aren’t. It’s a frustrating situation with him, when he feels surplus to requirements but usually even out of form our team feels stronger with him than without him.

I think you could slot fakhar in for Shadab or Nawaz. But honestly doubt there would be much difference.

 

[pakistani pride]

Sorry but Babar is not a bat and SSA not a bowler since like 3 years.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

I agree. And some questions need to be asked of Hesson for this strategy. It's only 20 overs why do we need so many bowlers.

I suspect the answer will unfortunately be sadder than it being bad selection by Hesson. It is that these rellu kattas like Nawaz, Shadab and Faheem, despite being bowlers, are better batsmen than majority of Pakistani T20 batsmen.

 

[hur rizvi]

With Saim bowling, there should be only one of Shadab/Nawaz

 

[hur rizvi]

Also not bowling Faheem totally is criminal. I am sure he would do no worse than Shaheen with the ball

 

[Savak]

Bhumrah and Pandya showed that the ball swings in Sri Lanka under lights in the second innings. Pakistan's approach of going spin heavy is all wrong, the team does not need that many spinners. Also Abrar and Usman Tariq are absolute dud's with the bat, you cannot play both of them in the same eleven together.

1) Shahibzada Farhan
2) Saim Ayub
3) Salman Ali Agha
4) Fakhar Zaman
5) Khawaja Nafay
6) Usman Khan
7) Shadab Khan
8) Mohd Nawaz
9) Faheem Ashraf
10) Naseem Shah
11) Salman Mirza

Salman and Naseem can make full use of the new ball and Faheem can be the third pacer. You have Saim, Agha, Shadab, Nawaz for spin options. I can't think of a better combination we can make from the squad of 15 that has been picked for the T20 WC.

The chapter of Babar and Shaheen needs to end for now. Both the players have been very poor and are under extreme pressure. The shot that Babar played today should end his T-20 career.

 

[chinaman00]

Bhumrah and Pandya showed that the ball swings in Sri Lanka under lights in the second innings. Pakistan's approach of going spin heavy is all wrong, the team does not need that many spinners. Also Abrar and Usman Tariq are absolute dud's with the bat, you cannot play both of them in the same eleven together.

1) Shahibzada Farhan
2) Saim Ayub
3) Salman Ali Agha
4) Fakhar Zaman
5) Khawaja Nafay
6) Usman Khan
7) Shadab Khan
8) Mohd Nawaz
9) Faheem Ashraf
10) Naseem Shah
11) Salman Mirza

Salman and Naseem can make full use of the new ball and Faheem can be the third pacer. You have Saim, Agha, Shadab, Nawaz for spin options. I can't think of a better combination we can make from the squad of 15 that has been picked for the T20 WC.

The chapter of Babar and Shaheen needs to end for now. Both the players have been very poor and are under extreme pressure. The shot that Babar played today should end his T-20 career.

You lost me at Shadab.

Also, do let his cameo today fool you, Usman Khan will fail 9/10 times. Another player that should be far away from the team.

 

[Savak]

You lost me at Shadab.

Also, do let his cameo today fool you, Usman Khan will fail 9/10 times. Another player that should be far away from the team.

I can't think of too many other options from the squad of 15 that has been selected. Please feel free to share the combination which makes sense in your view.

The selectors and team management have not done their homework on Sri Lankan conditions. We have been present in Sri Lanka from the beginning but the Indians who just came assessed the conditions better than us. The thinking that the Sri Lankan conditions will only assist spin was misplaced, the ball swings under lights as well and you can't have a halka pace bowling attack either.

 

[AAli98]

Pak have undervalued the word all rounder by calling shadab faheem nawaz shaheen Ayub all rounders.. it’s a disgrace to all rounders of the past like, Kallis Clive rice Imran Hadlee.

 

[SportsWarrior]

Bhumrah and Pandya showed that the ball swings in Sri Lanka under lights in the second innings. Pakistan's approach of going spin heavy is all wrong, the team does not need that many spinners. Also Abrar and Usman Tariq are absolute dud's with the bat, you cannot play both of them in the same eleven together.

1) Shahibzada Farhan
2) Saim Ayub
3) Salman Ali Agha
4) Fakhar Zaman
5) Khawaja Nafay
6) Usman Khan
7) Shadab Khan
8) Mohd Nawaz
9) Faheem Ashraf
10) Naseem Shah
11) Salman Mirza

Salman and Naseem can make full use of the new ball and Faheem can be the third pacer. You have Saim, Agha, Shadab, Nawaz for spin options. I can't think of a better combination we can make from the squad of 15 that has been picked for the T20 WC.

The chapter of Babar and Shaheen needs to end for now. Both the players have been very poor and are under extreme pressure. The shot that Babar played today should end his T-20 career.

Zimbabwe showed that better against Australia. More wickets have been taken by fast bowlers than spinners. Even today if bumrah and pandya had bowled their quota of overs they would taken couple of more wickets. Pakistan has just too many bits and pieces players. Nawaz is mediocre against India except that Asia cup match, shadab is useless, so are Shaheen and Faheem.

Babar is well past his sell by date. I suspect he is a big age cheater. No decent batsman has such a huge downward trend during their early 30s. Usually that is there peak years. Bumrah, dubh, pandya, Surya, Axar, kuldeep, are all his peers or even slightly older and they are all at their peak.

 

[gazza619]

I agree. And some questions need to be asked of Hesson for this strategy. It's only 20 overs why do we need so many bowlers.

I suspect the answer will unfortunately be sadder than it being bad selection by Hesson. It is that these rellu kattas like Nawaz, Shadab and Faheem, despite being bowlers, are better batsmen than majority of Pakistani T20 batsmen.

It seems like the coach has more confidence in the batting abilities of Shadab and Nawaz ahead of proper batters.

 

[shah9425]

Kick out Babar Shadab Salman and Shaheen asap from T20 team

 

[jnaveen1980]

ACtually this pitch was good for pacers too. But Pakistan has this one-dimensional mindset of bamboozling teams with spinners somewhat let them down. Let us look at the scores by opposition on this

USA 158/8
Netherlands 147
India 175/7

Netherlands almost won it. So their loading of spinners in the side didn't exactly help them trounce oppositions.

 

[jnaveen1980]

100% agree.

Just bizarre team composition that's only viable if the all-rounders are of the highest quality in T20s (i.e. peak Afridi, Hafeez, Watson). Not bits and pieces guys like the current lot. All this does is confuse the captain on the field cause he's overloaded with mostly average options.

You might still lose but at least put a smart XI together to optimize your chances.

Ignoring bowling form was further icing on the cake by dropping Mirza for Shaheen.

Shaheen's batting in asia cup somewhat saved them a bit. I think they are treating him as a total package.

 

[moghul]

There are many useless players in the team, particularly Shadab and Faheem .Faheem i particular has no buniness in the team , he is neither a bowler not a batter. One fluke performance against a minnow and we get stuck with him for long.

Please ged rid of the following players immediatelt

Shaheen , Faheem, Shadab and Babar
Replace them with Mirza, Naseem, Fakhar and Nafay.

 

[Amjid Javed]

The team selection is as retarded as it can be, if this is what the coach and captain think are best, both should be sacked.

In starting 11, Pakistan should pick its best 4 bowlers, then your keeper. The fact that Saim can bowl 4 go over usually and opens means that the 6th bowling option should be the only other all rounder in the side. The rest of team should be proper batsmen.

The fact that farhan is opening and is a glorified minnow basher and walking wicket otherwise means, Pakistan are always starting PP on back foot vs good sides, if your only picking 2 other front line batsmen then your asking for trouble.

Also this fascination with picking nawab and faheem who are utter needs to stop.

Today's batting line up wouldn't have chased 130 let alone 170. The overkill on bowling made zero sense. The fact agha decided he was going to bowl, what was need in all the other pie throwers in the team.

 

[Kroll]

You might as well overload the team with proper batsmen and use a few for the bowling rather than the other way round. They can't get tonked for more than Shaheen does.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

1. Power hitter
2. Power hitter
3. Power hitter
4. Power hitter
5. Power hitter
6. Power hitter
7. All rounder (bat+phast bowler)
8. All rounder (bat+spin bowler)
9. Phast bowler
10. Phase bowler
11. Spin bowler

This is what you call a balanced team.

Your TWO all rounders ONLY get into the team as BATSMEN FIRST, their bowling should be the least of our concerns. We have to build a team with 8 batsmen, 2-3 of which that can bowl 4 overs.

Saim Ayub
Sahibzada Farhan
Fakhar Zaman
Usman Khan
Khawaja Nafay
Mohammad Haris (wk)
Faheem Ashraf
Mohammad Nawaz
Naseem Shah
Salman Mirza
Usman Tariq

 

[Omer2002]

With Saim bowling, there should be only one of Shadab/Nawaz

Absolutely spot on i just posted about unbalance of team..i think faheem has to play as he is a seamer and bats. India have dube and pandya even though pandya has turned into next level allrounder

 

[hur rizvi]

Absolutely spot on i just posted about unbalance of team..i think faheem has to play as he is a seamer and bats. India have dube and pandya even though pandya has turned into next level allrounder

Babar makes way for fakhar
One of shadab/nawaz makes way for nafay

So many relu kattas are not needed.

Saim, Faheem, shadab/nawaz can bowl 8 overs per match

Salman Mirza, Usman Tariq, abrar need to bowl other 12

Hesson sucks at assigning clear roles

 

[sweep_shot]

Why do they need 6 spinners?

Shadab should be dropped for a proper batter.

 

[jnaveen1980]

Funny thing is even with 8 bwolers. Only one regular seamer. Other one is more like 5th bowling option.

 

[jnaveen1980]

I think Pakistan is over-rating their spin attack. Look at the spin performance by teams in this. Some teams played in INdia as well. Despite playing all games in Srilanka Pakistan's ER is not that magnificent

 

[ads101]

Strongest you could make the batting line up realistically if you could pick outside of squad I feel would be something like this.

1. Farhan
2. Saim
3. Salman agha
4. Hasan nawaz
5. Fakhar
6. Irfan
7. Haris (wk)
8. Nawaz/faheem
9. Shaheen
10. Salman Mirza
11. Usman Tariq

 

[jeeteshssaxena]

The team combo is absolutely horrible.

Shadab and Nawaz aren’t good batters, play a specialist batsman at 6 atleast.

Its surprising that the likes of Shoaib Malik and Mohd Hafeez were two leagues above all the batters in this team. Thats how bad the stock is right now.

 

[mon858]

I agree generally. However, other then the "potential" of Khawaja Nafay and maybe in future Maaz Sadaqat, the all rounders we have are probably equal or better than most batsmen not selected. One could argue may e Fakhar is better than Faheem, then again just 2 games ago Faheem saved world cup elimination when regular batters couldn't.

Shadab and Nawaz are also good six hitters, something which our full time batters like Babar or recent high run getter keeper Rizwan cant. Hasan Nawaz had potential but blew it in his recent chances. Irfan Khan is more known for fielding than batting.

Hussain Talat failed and not even selected in PSL auction I think.

Who am I missing??

So bottomline to me as of now maybe get Nafay in and perhaps Fakhar for babar and 1 all rounder. So 1 all rounder can be rescued.

Later Maaz Sadaqar can be introduced and possibly come back for Hasan Nawaz at some point if he develops his game awareness bit more and Sameer Minhas in long run.

 

[jnaveen1980]

Can someone tell what is the primary role of each player? and their performance in that role and their performance in the secondary role? I think these all rounders can keep playing forever because they might click one department in a given match. Saim is a classic example.

 

[Savak]

Lets get real with the selections for now, the squad of 15 that has been chosen for the WC is what it is. No point wishing for Maaz Sadaqat, Sameer Minhas, Ali Raza, Hassan Nawaz at this stage. I think the best possible playing 11 that can be picked from the squad of 15 we have is the following

1) Sahibzada Farhan
2) Saim Ayub
3) Fakhar Zaman
4) Salman Ali Agha
5) Khawaja Nafay
6) Usman Khan
7) Shadab Khan
8) Mohammad Nawaz
9) Faheem Ashraf
10) Naseem Shah
11) Salman Mirza

This combination gives you 8 aggressive batsmen, 4 spin options and 2 proper pace options upfront and a medium pacers.

 

[jnaveen1980]

Lets get real with the selections for now, the squad of 15 that has been chosen for the WC is what it is. No point wishing for Maaz Sadaqat, Sameer Minhas, Ali Raza, Hassan Nawaz at this stage. I think the best possible playing 11 that can be picked from the squad of 15 we have is the following

1) Sahibzada Farhan
2) Saim Ayub
3) Fakhar Zaman
4) Salman Ali Agha
5) Khawaja Nafay
6) Usman Khan
7) Shadab Khan
8) Mohammad Nawaz
9) Faheem Ashraf
10) Naseem Shah
11) Salman Mirza

This combination gives you 8 aggressive batsmen, 4 spin options and 2 proper pace options upfront and a medium pacers.

Pakitan has decided that all SL pitches anti-fastbowler friendly for some reason. So i am not sure they will go with 3 seamers. They go with 2 and get only 2 overs out of them. So i doubt they will go for balanced attack like 3 pacers 3 spinners.

 

[daytrader]

Great Post and excellent analysis.

There should be another Pace option in the XI. There's no way we should hand the ball to a spinner at death. We simply need a couple of pacers that follow plans and can bowl some variety.

XI I would like to see from the squad for the next game:

Sahibzada
Saim
Babar/Fakhar - to keep the lefty righty combo, just a basic tweek. If Saim gets out send in Fakhar, if Sahibzada then Babar
Fakhar/Babar
Agha
Usman
Shadab/Nawaz
Faheem
Mirza
Abrar
Usman


Give the pacers the 2 opening overs and decide afterwards if it's worth persisting. And for God's sake please stop bowling Abrar in the PP. They expose him too early when part timers can do the job. Try to use up as many overs from the 5th bowling option in the PP. A couple from Faheem/Saim/Agha will give us lots of options from main bowlers when the going gets tough

 

[We Bleed Green]

Great Post and excellent analysis.

There should be another Pace option in the XI. There's no way we should hand the ball to a spinner at death. We simply need a couple of pacers that follow plans and can bowl some variety.

XI I would like to see from the squad for the next game:

Sahibzada
Saim
Babar/Fakhar - to keep the lefty righty combo, just a basic tweek. If Saim gets out send in Fakhar, if Sahibzada then Babar
Fakhar/Babar
Agha
Usman
Shadab/Nawaz
Faheem
Mirza
Abrar
Usman


Give the pacers the 2 opening overs and decide afterwards if it's worth persisting. And for God's sake please stop bowling Abrar in the PP. They expose him too early when part timers can do the job. Try to use up as many overs from the 5th bowling option in the PP. A couple from Faheem/Saim/Agha will give us lots of options from main bowlers when the going gets tough

Your team has 7 bowling options, including Agha or six without Agha. We don't need so many bowling options as we will weaken our batting. You need to bring in Nafay and replace one of the bowlers. Personally I wont play Faheem

 

[charlie007]

It was a few decades ago, but Gavaskar had provided a very good definition of an all rounder. He said an all rounder is not a player that can bat and bowl, but one that can get into the team on the basis of either skill alone at their respective positions. All rounders in his time were mostly genuine all rounders.

Teams have over many years diluted that definition of an all rounder, much more so in the last 2 decades of T20 cricket where bowling 1 or two overs is enough if they can bat well. And a new concept of a batting all rounder and bowling all rounder has emerged rather than a plain all rounder. But that has also diluted the batting and bowling performances across the board (all teams), and in the Pakistani context it has become more prominently showing - they are neither here or there. You can see how many good teams have had good skilled players in recent times - Jadeja, Watson, Stokes, Flintoff, Razzaq, Sam Curran, then Ashwin, Azhar Mahmood, and Marco Jansen to an extent, and so forth. Who in the Pakistan team falls under that definition?

 

[daytrader]

Your team has 7 bowling options, including Agha or six without Agha. We don't need so many bowling options as we will weaken our batting. You need to bring in Nafay and replace one of the bowlers. Personally I wont play Faheem

This is for Sri Lanka conditions. Ideally I would add another pace bowling all rounder (whatever bits and pieces ones we have) in place of a front line spinner. That would strengthen the batting a bit and give us another pace option with 16 overs of spin potentially.

 

[BouncerGuy]

TBH, we don't really have options left... Fakhar is a gone case, we cannot trust.

Nafay is young and selectors are not giving him any chance even against minnows to give him confidence for big games.

Salman Mirza ws sidelined for that trundler Shaheen who should have been kicked out after 1st game.

Babar? No words...

Shadab?? LOL... parchi

Abrar and Usman Tariq + Nawaz are enough, along with Saim and Salman Agha + Salman Mirza. We need to get rid of Shadab and Faheem TBH. They are unnecessarily paying

 

[LongHorn]

100% agree.

Just bizarre team composition that's only viable if the all-rounders are of the highest quality in T20s (i.e. peak Afridi, Hafeez, Watson). Not bits and pieces guys like the current lot. All this does is confuse the captain on the field cause he's overloaded with mostly average options.

I vaguely recall some term used by IK to describe such players; railu something, something to do with a small lamb/calf ?

 

[jnaveen1980]

GIllespie is going after Australian team management for the same reasons. He thinks there are too many bit part players. He wants 5 best bowlers, 6 best batsmen. THat's it.

 

[jnaveen1980]

One of the worst thing that can happen when you have too many bowlers role clarity becomes muddled. I remember Umar Gul match after match bowling 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th overs. But not sure Pakistan has such a disciplined bowling plan. When you have way too many bowlers you tend to force yourself to all of them needlessly.

 

[hur rizvi]

And the losers dropped Abrar of all people

Mike crazy Hesson

 

[shah9425]

Abrar should be in all games for super 8

 

[hur rizvi]

Abrar should be in all games for super 8

Knowing Hesson, we have seen last of Abrar in this t20 wc

 

[Kianig89]

If Babar is not req in top 4, there's no point in having him we don't need another Faheem Ashraf type role. Push everybody and slot in Abrar or straight swap him with Fakhar