Quality
I don't think anyone can dispute the fact that the current Pakistan test team lacks serious quality, not just in batting but in bowling as well. We have been fed with this nonsense for the last 20-30 years that Pakistan just needs to put runs on the board somehow and the bowlers will do the rest. The truth is that our bowling quality is as worse as our batting, maybe even worse. A Test team cannot simply compete with 8 or 9 average players in a starting lineup. Which is what the current Pakistan team has. In the 90's we constantly heard the quote for the Indian Test team that they are "lions at home, lambs abroad" which was very true as they had 8-9 average players playing a Test match. Until Pakistan ups the quality both in bowling and batting, expect Pakistan to remain at par with the likes of SL and WI.
Depth
No depth at all. The fact that the likes of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq have played so long is because the depth of our cricket is so shallow that you don't have any outstanding talent coming up to displace them. Yeah people will point out how Fawad Alam was discriminated against, but you have to see if there really was a place for him in the first place. You had a strong middle order of Azhar, Younis, Misbah who were scoring runs from 2010-2017, so the only contention you can make is Fawad in place of Asad at number 6. But Asad was averaging close to 45 at number 6. Fawad wouldn't have bettered Asad's numbers in that period. A team will only become strong once there is depth in your cricket and you can seamlessly replace a non-performing member with a new player from the domestic. There is no such luxury in Pakistan cricket at the moment which is why Azhar and Asad gets the long rope that they, to be fair, don't deserve.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Unfortunately, the list is empty for strengths and pages long for weaknesses. I really don't have any strength to list down for the current Test team. 4 years ago, our strength was UAE where Misbah had cultivated and moulded the team to wear out opposition time after time. Even that strength is gone now.
In terms of weaknesses, I'll just list 3 for now:
1) No counter-attacking batsman at number 7:
Number 7 is a critical batting position in Test cricket. Modern Test cricket requires a punchy player at number 7. It cannot be a Jack Russell or Ian Healy type player. Period. Most teams have a WK that can potentially change the complexion of the match in an hour or a session. Pakistan doesn't have that luxury. We thought Sarfraz could be that catalyst when he made those centuries in the UAE against Aus and NZ at a glorious SR. But then his WK was horrible and the subsequent loss of batting means we are again stuck with no counter-attacking batsman.
2) A solid number 3 player:
Again great teams will have a number 3 that will almost always be the difference in the team making 350+ or getting 250 or below. You look at NZ with Kane, Aus with Labuschagne, Eng with Root, SA with Amla (when SA were a great team), India with Pujara - the common theme lies in having a great number 3 player. Currently, our number 3 averages less than our number 8 batsman. I'm tempted to suggest Haider Ali to become the number 3 player long time but I believe he's too flashy and may not be able to do justice to the number 3 position.
3) Captaincy:
People hate upon Misbah, but you cannot discount his impact as a captain. Most wins as Pakistan captain cannot come simply because of luck. He was a shrewd tactician and really understood the game to make UAE a fortress as long as it was. Currently, we have a mediocre captain and even beyond him, it doesn't look like we may get a shrewd captain. Babar doesn't strike to me as someone who can influence a game with his captaincy. I always believe that if you want to find a captain, then look for a player who has great match awareness skills when he's batting or bowling. If a batsman gets out to a hook shot with 3 fielders on the boundary especially put for the hook shot, DO NOT ever make him captain even if he's Don Bradman. Do you see any player in the current Test team that looks sharp on match awareness? I can't.
Leaders
No leaders at all in the team. And leaders just doesn't mean captaincy. Kohli was a leader even when he wasn't a captain. Ashwin is a leader even though he isn't a captain. A leader is someone who people can look up to at a certain point in time in the game and go, "yeah that man is going to make us win". Pakistan has been bereft of leaders for a long long time. Probably the last great leader we had was Wasim Akram. You could always look up to him and think, yeah we can still get something from the game. All is not lost. Currently, we are terribly short of leaders.
To sum it up, I would say Pakistan are rightly placed at number 7 in the rankings. We are just par with SL and WI. We can spring a surprise here and there but the odds are very less.
