Pakistan's World Cup 2023 Player Performance review?

[mominsaigol]

Now that Pakistan's World cup campaign is over, I want to ask everyone's opinions on how Pakistan did at this world cup.

Imo this campaign lasted better then our 2015 campaign but worse then our 2019 campaign as well as our 2011 campaign by miles.

So here's a performance review of each player.

1) Fakhar Zaman:

Fakhar underperformed in the warmups and wasn't able to perform well in the England game.

He did show killer performances in his last 2 penultimate games especially against NZ where he scored a killer 63 ball century and took his team to a WC victory. However after today's failure the question needs to be asked?

Is Fakhar back in form? Or does he continue his streak of being Pakistan's most frustrating batter, I.e sometimes performing and often times failing?

2) Abdullah Shafiq

For his first tournament Abdullah has impressed, scoring a couple 50's this WC and despite a few failures scoring a cracking 111 runs in an all important record run chase against Sri Lanka.

So the question remains, is Abdullah the future to invest in given his stunning technique or is he another glorified stat padder with slow starts. Will he be the find of the future or another glorified stat padder? Time will tell.

3) Imam ul Haq

Imam scored an okay 70 this WC but has consistently failed in all matches. His troubles against short ball has been a glaring issue, and he's simply been stuck in the 90's. One of the most glaring faults was the lack of 6 hitting in pp1 achieved courtesy of Imam.

So the question must be asked, What does Pakistan do with him?

Is fakhar and Abdullah the new opening pair? Is imam's career over? Will he stick to being our test opener? Or will management persist with him for the future?

4) Babar Azam

Babar's captaincy has certainly been questioned this world cup, with key players like fakhar not being selected earlier, with questionable squad selection as well as key fielding placements, along with his glaring issues against spin, the question remains

Is our captain being exposed? Was he always a glorified stat padder? Or did he suffer a dip in form?

To babar's credit he still scored multiple half centuries this world cup, and did his best to lead from the front?

So is his captaincy days over? Will he be persisted with as our no 3?

5) Muhammad Rizwan

Rizwan in this world cup starred in a record breaking run chase against Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 131, he's also been pakistan's most consistent batsmen throughout 2023 fostering the highest stats amongst his fellow peers, along with excellent keeping skills.

However despite an excellent 131, Rizwan proceeded to fail constantly in every game that followed?

So what was the reason for this failures? Theirs also the question of the controversial no 4 spot that rizwan occupies. Should Pakistan have tried to move rizwan in another position? Or should he be our no 4 given his consistent run form?

6) Saud Shakeel

Saud Shakeel seemed to have a very very ordinary world cup, Having starred in the warmup games and winning man of the match against nedtherlands he proceeded to show very ordinary performances thereafter.

His biggest glaring weakness being soft dismissals. It seems that saud has been unable to replicate his test form into odi.

So what's the reason? Should saud be moved up the order? Is he playing our of position? Or will saud go down as another younis Khan? Aka a test great but an odi failure?

7) Iftikhar Ahmed

Chacha also had a pretty ordinary world cup, deapite a few okay scores here and their, shocking stats show that he only has an average of 1.12 sixes hit per game? For being a finisher his six hitting ability is extremely lacking this cup compared to fakhar pur opener.

He also had glaring issues with wrist spin this cup. Chacha however did pretty well with the ball, despite lackluster stats, he still managed to outshine our 2 lead spinners with the ball?

Another question to be asked is age, Chacha is nearing 40 atleast, and should he persisted with as our future finisher? Or our lead allrounder?

8) Shadab Khan and Muhammad Nawaz

Sheddy and Nawaz economy and wickets wise have been the worst spinners in the world cup 2023, only surpassed by Joe root who isn't a full time spinner or allrounder for the team.

The 2 have also failed to impress with the bat. Having shocking stats in asia cup and world cup, what was babar thinking stating that these 2 were his match winners?

These 2 have zero positives from this world cup?

10) Shaheen, Rauf, Hasan Ali

Our bowling trio might have given our fans the biggest shock of the tournament. Before the world cup, Rauf was consistently picking up wickets in the middle and Shaheen had a habit of starting the " India cannot play him" Mantra.

Both once being hailed as the best bowlers in the world, completly shocked the Pakistan community by failing and bowling miserably through the tournament.

Despite shaheen and Rauf picking a few wickets here and their, they were mostly belted through and through and received a beating through the tournament?

so what was the reason? Were they overhyped, and batsmen have figured them out? Are they unfit? Why did they fail.

Another glaring issue is hasan Ali. Once our match winner, the man who bowled his heart out to win us the champions trophy seems to be a shadow of his former self not even being able to bowl at 140 clicks anymore? Is he a hasbeen? Why did inzi select him?

11) Waseem Jr

Waseem stats wise may not have had the best tournament, however he was clearly the best bowler for us during the tournament via a simple eye test from fans who watched the game. Despite having poor warmup games, he continued to impress with his bowling and fielding skills in this cup.

So should waseem be persosted with? Or are other bowlers in the ranks such as zaman khan, Ihsanullah, naseem shah still holding him in place?

What do you guys think? He was clearly the best bowler for Pakistan but is he good enough to compete against SENA and India?

14) Agha Salman

Agha has not had many games so it's difficult to analyse him. He was abysmal with the ball and his batting form was poor in the asia cup.

He did impress in the NZ series as well as the Sri lankan test series and scored a half century in today's match?

Is he the allrounder that Pakistan is looking for? Or will he be another thorn in the side like nawaz?

15) Usama Mir

Usama mir bowled better then shadab and Nawaz this tournament but he was poor. Based of analysis done, over 70% of his deliveries bowled were half trackers. He also lacked confidence.

So why did usama fail?

Conclusion

Based of the overall performance review, the glaring issue clearly is bowling, considering our bowlers failed and don't have much positive light in the tournament.

Fielding has also been an issue with is the story of Pakistan cricket for a good decade now.

Batting is debatable. Their have been a few positives and a few negatives.

But the shocking conclusion is that for the first time our batting managed to outperform our toothless bowling, in 2015, 2017 and 2019 it was usually the bowling that won us games and batting that costed us.

In 2023, our batting did cost us however it manahed to save us on a few occasions as well especially our run chase against sri lanka. Our bowling failed 24/7.

 

[ElRaja]

Openers
Fakhar - 7, two good performances, two failures, acceptable return
Abdullah - 7, was brought in for consistency at the top, and provided it until the tournament was virtually dead
Imam - 2, the dismissal against india is one of the worst shots ive seen in my life, and couldn't pull on indian pitches

M/O
Babar - 2, blazed a quick 50 in the warm up, then reverted to a timid pussycat when it mattered. captaincy was devoid of logic at times.
Rizwan - 5, started sharp but obviously was perturbed by his name being mentioned in media for non cricketing reasons
Iftikhar - 6, solid job with the ball, decent with the bat, but his shot against aus lost us the game.
Saud - 5, one good knock, and a lot of middling contributions besides. old school cricketer who doesnt have the dynamism required of a lower-order batsman.
Agha Salman - 4, no real contribution of merit.

Spinners
Shadab - 3, forgotten how to land his leggie, clearly something is very wrong. some useful contributions with the bat but no power hitting threat.
Nawaz - 3, mental midget who cemented his reputation doing nothing of note at any critical juncture.
Usama Mir - 1, horror shows with ball, bat or in the field.

Seamers
Shaheen - 6, terrible start to the tournament but figured out how to get a few wickets regardless.
Haris - 5, this may be an unpopular opinion but he bowled well in the second half of the innings, was misused amazingly by management who kept giving him the newish ball.
Hassan - 4, decent start to the tournament then fell away completely, another senior hiding at crunch times.
Wasim - 7, figured out the right length to bowl quick, then stuck to it, became predictable with time.

All quicks get one extra point since none had bowled in India before and trying to work out those pitches is not easy.

 

[sweep_shot]

Fakhar - 8/10.
Babar - 5/10.
Rizwan - 7/10.
Ifti - 6/10.
Shaheen - 7/10.
Rauf - 6/10.
Hasan - 6/10.
Shadab - 2/10.
Nawaz - 1/10.
Usama - 5/10.
Saud - 6/10.
Abdullah - 6/10.
Imam - 3/10.
Waseem - 7/10.
Salman - 3/10.

 

[batandballbattle]

I'll do it by grades

A
Fakhar, Abdullah

B
Rizwan, Shaheen, Wasim jr, Ifti

C
Babar, Saud, Hasan, Imam

D
Shadab

E
Mir, Rauf, Nawaz

N/A (Not enough to go on)
Agha

 

[mominsaigol]

Fakhar - 8/10.
Babar - 5/10.
Rizwan - 7/10.
Ifti - 6/10.
Shaheen - 7/10.
Rauf - 6/10.
Hasan - 6/10.
Shadab - 2/10.
Nawaz - 1/10.
Usama - 5/10.
Saud - 6/10.
Abdullah - 6/10.
Imam - 3/10.
Waseem - 7/10.
Salman - 3/10.

Hasan and haris Rauf got a 6? Interesting

 

[kron]

Haris rauf. Conceded the most 6s in this tournament. Haris rauf

 

[kron]

True to his name, when he bowls, the ball goes to the roof for a 6

I love him a lot man but yea huge disappointment in odi. He should be played only in sena for odi.

Not sure it will make much difference though.

In saying that he should use his brains.

 

[ads101]

Fakhar - 9/10 . He was brilliant. I think anything less than a 9 just isn't fair.
Babar - 3/10.
Rizwan - 7/10. He kept well, and he did perform with the bat. We wanted more, but our top run scorer with great keeping including a very good innings against SL, that deserves at least a 7, was easily our best bat after Fakhar.
Ifti - 6/10. He's being rated 6 because his bowling was a big asset this world cup. 5 otherwise.
Shaheen - 7/10.
Rauf - 3/10.
Hasan - 2/10.
Shadab - 2/10.
Nawaz - 2/10.
Usama - 2/10.
Saud - 4/10. Looked great at the crease, but didn't actually perform. Soft dismissals. And even his best performance was Netherlands.
Abdullah - 6/10.
Imam - 2/10.
Waseem - 6/10.
Salman - 6/10. Actually did ok when he wasn't on bench. I know this guy doesn't look really impressive. But he keeps putting in a consistent shift when he's played. Saud in comparison looks 10 times better, yet in actual performance and stats, Agha's outperformed him. And yet even after the world cup, I'd still pick Saud over him. But he probably looks at his stats and performance and compares to his peers and doesn't understand why he is in and out of the team.

 

[chinaman00]

Haris roof. Conceded the most 6s in this tournament. Haris roof

To be fair, he was misused and forced to play outside his role. He’s not a new ball bowler. Anytime you take him away from the death, he gets punished, but Pakistan kept taking him outside the death and were punished consequently. His second half bowling were exceptional.

 

[FearlessRoar]

The only positive I have seen was the form of Fakhar Zaman. All other players, including Babar and Rizwan, were too mediocre. As for Usama Mir, I am shocked at how he's even playing for Pakistan. He doesn't even know the basics of spin bowling. It was horrible to see such standards from our cricket. It's time for Shadab to go back to basics and just play red-ball cricket in domestic. He shouldn't even play in the PSL.

Abdullah Shafiq is not an explosive opener, which is the requirement of modern-day cricket. Imam ul Haq and Haris Rauf, one is slow like a turtle and the other a rocket fire, but both are delivering cricket of a lesser standard. They should take retirement with dignity and never consider playing for Pakistan again.

 

[shamaan]

Fakhar 9/10
Abdullah 7/10
Babar Azam 2/10
Rizwan 8/10
Saud 5/10
Iftikhar 5/10
Imaam 1/10
Shadab 1/10
Nawaz 1/10
Wasim Jnr 9/10
Shaheen 6/10
Rauf 3/10

 

[ahmadharis1]

• Fakhar Zaman: 7/10
  • single handedly won us a match along with rain, but couldn't come through consistently
• Abdullah Shafique: 7/10
  • Looked solid in spurts, solid innings against Sri Lanka, but didn't deliver throughout
• Babar Azam: 4/10
  • Decent numbers with the bat, but decent doesn't cut it. Played amateurish shots and looked helpless as captain
• Mohammad Rizwan: 5/10
  • Same as Shafique... looked decent at times and turned up against Sri Lanka but outside of anything that was a flat deck he was hopeless
• Saud Shakeel: 6/10
  • Looked like our best bat at times, but it was clear he needed more experience in the format
• Ifthikar Ahmed: 5/10
  • Solid performances with the ball but failed to do much with the bat. So much for being an x-factor
• Imam ul-Haq: 2/10
  • Did about as well as I could expect, not much to say about him that hasn't been said since his debut 6 years ago
• Shadab Khan: 2/10
  • LOL, can't bowl, can't bat, decent fielder, all that together give you 1/3 of an ODI player. Flop
• Mohammad Nawaz: 1/10
  • Match loser, continues to choke time and time again
• Mohammad Wasim Jr: 8/10
  • Honestly surprised me and he proved me wrong. Solid with the ball and took wickets with some great reverse swing
• Shaheen Shah Afridi: 6/10
  • Took wickets but it was clear he wasn't his old self. Seemed lethargic at times and wish we got more out of him
• Haris Rauf: 0/10
  • Biggest joke I've ever seen, an absolute waste of a spot on any XI in the world. Bum
• Usama Mir: 5/10
  • Didn't do amazing but how much of that can you hold against him? One of the few players in Pakistan who earned their spots and he gets thrown into the deep end. Looked good in spurts and the potential is clearly there.
• Agha Salman: 7/10
  • Incomplete score, wish he could have played more in place of Nawaz

 

[CerebralPatriot]

Fakhar- 9.5/10
Imam- 2/10
Abdullah- 5/10
Babar- 2.5/10
Rizwan- 0/10
Saud- 6/10
Iftikhar- 4/10
Shadab- 1/10
Nawaz- 1/10
Usama- 1/10
Shaheen- 3.5/10
Rauf- 0.5/10
Wasim Jr- 5/10
Hasan Ali- 3.5/10

 

[VForVendetta]

Fakhar 8
Wasim 7
Abdullah 6
Rizwan 5
Shaheen 5
Agha 4
Iftekhar 4
Saud 3
Babar 2
Rauf 2
Shadab 2
Hasan 1
Nawaz 0
Mir -1
Imam -2

 

[hassan918]

Fakhar - 8
Wasim - 7
Abdullah - 6
Rizwan - 6
Shaheen - 6
Iftikhar - 5
Hasan - 4
Saud - 4
Agha - 4
Babar - 3
Imam - 2
Rauf - 2
Shadab - 2
Nawaz - 1
Mir - 1

 

[Chip32]

Anything over 5 for Shaheen is criminal. He’s in the side for his wickets up front, which is something he didn’t do. Wickets once the opposition is already 250-0 after 30 hours shouldn’t even be counted.

 

[moghul]

Passed : Fakhar, Abdullah , Rizwan and Wasim

Failed : Chacha, Babar, Shaheen, Saud,

Bankrupt: Shadab , Osama , Nawaz, Rauf, Hasan, Imam ,

 

[Sunzi]

Openers
Fakhar - 7, two good performances, two failures, acceptable return
Abdullah - 7, was brought in for consistency at the top, and provided it until the tournament was virtually dead
Imam - 2, the dismissal against india is one of the worst shots ive seen in my life, and couldn't pull on indian pitches

M/O
Babar - 2, blazed a quick 50 in the warm up, then reverted to a timid pussycat when it mattered. captaincy was devoid of logic at times.
Rizwan - 5, started sharp but obviously was perturbed by his name being mentioned in media for non cricketing reasons
Iftikhar - 6, solid job with the ball, decent with the bat, but his shot against aus lost us the game.
Saud - 5, one good knock, and a lot of middling contributions besides. old school cricketer who doesnt have the dynamism required of a lower-order batsman.
Agha Salman - 4, no real contribution of merit.

Spinners
Shadab - 3, forgotten how to land his leggie, clearly something is very wrong. some useful contributions with the bat but no power hitting threat.
Nawaz - 3, mental midget who cemented his reputation doing nothing of note at any critical juncture.
Usama Mir - 1, horror shows with ball, bat or in the field.

Seamers
Shaheen - 6, terrible start to the tournament but figured out how to get a few wickets regardless.
Haris - 5, this may be an unpopular opinion but he bowled well in the second half of the innings, was misused amazingly by management who kept giving him the newish ball.
Hassan - 4, decent start to the tournament then fell away completely, another senior hiding at crunch times.
Wasim - 7, figured out the right length to bowl quick, then stuck to it, became predictable with time.

All quicks get one extra point since none had bowled in India before and trying to work out those pitches is not easy.

Nailed it.

I'd give Babar a 3-4 however. He still got 4 x 50s of which one was played with real impact vs NZ in the face of a massive chase. It was rain-affected and interrupted which made it less daunting a target but they'd still kept pace at a challenging rate for 27 overs and Babar contributed to that.

Nailed it otherwise.

 

[Sunzi]

Nailed it.

I'd give Babar a 3-4 however. He still got 4 x 50s of which one was played with real impact vs NZ in the face of a massive chase. It was rain-affected and interrupted which made it less daunting a target but they'd still kept pace at a challenging rate for 27 overs and Babar contributed to that.

Nailed it otherwise.

I'd give Rauf a 4, on reflection - spared a 3 owing to being mismanaged; nevertheless, he just wasn't good
enough. Irrespective of the mismanagement he was ultimately unreliable and far too expensive.