I look at Pakistan's batting and on paper it appears to be a disaster waiting to happen. There are players struggling for form, while others are past their best, whilst others are looking to establish themselves.
It's a combination that could go horribly wrong.
Teams in the past have been in this very position. We look at some of the greatest players who made their names in situations like this.
It's not too difficult to understand what the batsmen have to do. They need to just slow things down and wait for an opportunity to capitalize. Pitches in New Zealand aren't as tricky later on as opposed to when the ball is still new. Patience and grit are needed to avoid flirting with balls which should be left.
From my understanding, New Zealand will have a game plan against our team already. There are a lot of loose ends like you mentioned, but I'll give a run-down of what they'll do.
For Abid Ali, they'll either bounce him a lot up front and then push one away from him to tempt the drive, or they might get Boult to angle the ball across like Curran did and open up the outside edge.
Southee will target Masood's pads, but he's even more dangerous with the one that swings past the outside edge. He will be the trickiest bowler to negotiate, so Pakistan need to hope that there isn't too much swing on offer and that they can block the ball well.
Azhar Ali will most likely be targeted on the pads again, though it will probably be Boult who does this with the natural length and swing.
Whoever our no.4 is will probably be a domestic player who hasn't faced international level bowling and will nick the ball.
Fawad Alam will almost certainly be targeted on the pads as well as the outside edge, though he might be one of the key factors for Pakistan given that he did well against the A team.
Haris Sohail is also a very big questionmark, as he will most certainly nick the one that swings away from his bat. He can be a good batsman if he allows himself to settle in and avoid playing at balls that should be left.
Rizwan is probably our only batsman who looks like he can threaten the New Zealand bowlers. He doesn't have a noticeably weakness as of now due to a small sample size, but he is vulnerable early on in his innings, so expect the best bowlers to come on when he comes out to bat.
To conclude, we have a batting line-up with a lot of potential weaknesses which New Zealand can exploit, but most can be eliminated if our batsmen take time and negotiate the moving ball well, by leaving when necessary and avoiding and unnecessary drives. If we do this, we will almost certainly change the scope and outlook for the batting, because New Zealand are unlikely to trouble us with the old ball. The question is if we can reach the old ball without losing too many wickets.
