On paper the team in 2017 was weaker than the team we have now. But we had a far smarter captain. Can we do it with the captain we have right now? No, I don't think so. I'd love to be proven wrong but I think Babar is too passive and too fearful even if his body language isn't that.
That is not true.
Azhar Ali in 2017 wasn't as consistent as imam but he doesn't get stuck at 80 sr forever and doesn't need fakhar hand holding, When fakhar Accelerated, Azhar kept up the pace with fakhar and pakistan were consistently going at 7 runs per over with these 2 at the crease.
Fakhar in 2017 was 100x the player he is now.
Our middle order composed of Hafeez, malik, Haris sohail, sarfraz, inad waseem is 100x superior then our current middle order of rizwan, Agha/Saud, chacha, Nawaz and Shadab.
Nawaz and shadab are useless against quality bowling and wouldn't do anything that pur 20q7 middle order were able to do to India in the final.
Rizwan like imam is perpetually stuck at 110 and we need a 140sr player at the back end, something saud was able to do, and rizwan can't.
The whole middle order is riding on saud and chacha saving the game, while rizwan and babar and imam selfishly go on their merry way and shoot us in the foot.
Abdullah is now being preferred over fakhar meaning expect a 35 for 0 target every game.
Agha is a non factor with both the bat and ball.
In terms of bowling amir was peak unplayable in 2017 and hasan Ali is 100x the bowler in 2017 then he is now. Junaid was a has been but far far superior to current hasan Ali or waseem.
Our spin bowling was also extremely strong with shadab also being 100x the bowler then he is now.
We had a stronger top order, stronger middle order, stronger tail, stronger spin department and slightly stronger fast bowling.
Only thing our 2023 team had over our 2017 team was fast bowling but with naseem gone, all depends on haris and shaheen, and with haris forced to bowl put of position then RIP.
