The answer is yes.
Pakistan is a passionate nation for cricket and as a result there will be constant supply of talent. To be honest being a mid tier team in cricket is the least you could ask for anyway because it’s still a sport constantly played by only a few nations at the highest level. The structure these 6-7 nations have is still something other so called minnow nations won’t have for decades.
Pakistan’s aim must be to break into the Big 3. In the 90s they were a Top 3 team. Possibly in late 80s also. Since 2000s it’s been a decline and Pakistan hasn’t consistently been a top 3 cricket nation despite reaching higher ranking here and there.
Breaking into Top 2/3 means you have had an 8 years run where you entered world cups as a Too contender , have won major series and stayed consistently in Top 3 and never went below that for a longer periods. Is it doable at present? Unlikely but Cricket in Pakistan i would say still has huge upside potential. You need to get there in 5-6 years time. It won’t be at the back of Saim Ayub or Gulab, but the entire cricketing structure in Pakistan would have to get better.
I’ve been following Pakistan cricket for 25 years now, and while our domestic system isn’t perfect, it’s far from terrible. The real issue isn’t a lack of talent; Pakistan has more than enough to be a top-3 team. The problem lies in how that talent is handled—or more accurately, mishandled.
One of the biggest barriers is the constant churn in the system. We have this tendency to bring players in and out of the fold based on subjective, “eye-test” opinions rather than relying on data and process.
The mentality in Pakistan is often “this guy is not international material,” and too many players get written off before they even debut or shortly after. It’s frustrating because there’s rarely any patience for player development. It’s as if every new player needs to be “discovered” already in their prime, skipping over the messy work of nurturing talent. And let’s be honest, this is only compounded by stories like Inzamam’s selection through the nets—which he himself has clarified multiple times was a myth. In reality, he was a consistent performer in domestic cricket.
Take Kamran Ghulam as an example. The guy is a domestic legend—breaking records, performing year after year—but he keeps getting written off as “not international material” because of someone's subjective opinion. Meanwhile, we’ve kept fielding bowlers like Nawaz and Shadab as middle-order batsmen, when it’s obvious that’s not their strength. Despite all this, the team still came close to winning titles.
But here’s the thing: despite all the turmoil and inconsistent decision-making, Pakistan’s ODI team is still one of the top three in the world, behind India and Australia. The idea that the recent success against so-called B or C teams is meaningless is, frankly, nonsense. Apart from the third ODI against Australia, both teams fielded their best available players.
.png "Apology :apology")
