With New Zealand and Sri Lanka on the slide, can Pakistan move to No. 5 within next 6 months?

[Shaik]

Pakistan is my second team, after India. I have a great respect for Pakistan, for a reason unknown to me. May be because I love pace bowling and Pakistan have produced some great pace bowlers over the years.


This team has a core set of players.

01.Fakhar Zaman
02.Sharjeel Khan(if he's innocent)/ Sahibzada Farhan
03.Babar Azam
04.Haris Sohail
05.Sarfraz Ahmed
06.?
07.Imad Wasim
08.Shadab Khan/ Fahim Ashraf
09.Muhammad Amir
10.Hassan Ali
11.Junaid Khan

-Destructive openers
-Solid middle order (3,4,5)
-Good lower order (7,8)
-Good batting depth (9, 10)
-Decent spin options
-Good seamers

Now they are ranked 7. In the next 6 months they have 10 ODI's, 5 each against SL and NZ.

SL is looking really unprofessional with their fitness and their bowling unit is as poor as it can be. And, NZ has really messed up with their batting line up with too many all rounders, who are good at neither batting nor bowling.

With Pakistan finding their combination right, can they dream of achieving no.5 in ODI's? When I say achieving no.5, I mean to be consistently between no.5 and no.6.


Discuss.

 

[MenInG]

Number 5 cannot be a dream!

We should be looking at number one.

 

[Shaik]

Number 5 cannot be a dream!

We should be looking at number one.

Sure. But if you read the post I have mentioned in next 6 months or so. Realistically it won't be possible to achieve no.1 in 6 months

 

[MenInG]

Sure. But if you read the post I have mentioned in next 6 months or so. Realistically it won't be possible to achieve no.1 in 6 months

Ok so make it clear in the title also - will change for you.

 

[Shaik]

Ok so make it clear in the title also - will change for you.

Would love if you could do it. I thought title would be too big if I do that.

 

[adzzy786]

Imad Wasim waste of a spot

 

[Daniyal 13]

Only if we throw Hafeez and Azhar Ali out of the team and give chance to more deservingly young cricketers.

 

[Savak]

Rankings don't really matter, on the big stage its all about peaking at the right time as the South Africans have consistently shown in big tournaments and the current CT has shown.

 

[Aman]

I'm actually optimistic about our future as our failure in the CT might finally lead to blooding in some younger players.

 

[SandyB]

You can't aim higher than 4 till you get a new core. Hafeez, Malik etc need to go . Give Sarfaraz a long run like Dhoni got. And for goodness sake, don't chop and change the coach.

Pakistan did good in this tourney, in spite of its many core issues, they'll take a few years to iron out !

 

[proud_pakistani]

I'm happy as long as we are amongst the top 4 sides in the world. The important thing is to compete and play positive cricket which we haven't. It's def possible if we play this team:-

1- Sharjeel Khan
2 - Sahibzada Farhan
3 - Babar Azam
4 - Fakhar Zaman
5 - Sarfraz Ahmed (c/wk)
6 - Shadab Khan
7 - Fahim Ashraf
8 - Imad Wasim
9 - Mohd Aamir
10 - Hasan Ali
11 - Junaid Khan

 

[BDwarriors]

The gape between 5 and 6 very high. Easily they will be on 6th. But for 5 place it need more time.

 

[hadi123]

I'm happy as long as we are amongst the top 4 sides in the world. The important thing is to compete and play positive cricket which we haven't. It's def possible if we play this team:-

1- Sharjeel Khan
2 - Sahibzada Farhan
3 - Babar Azam
4 - Fakhar Zaman
5 - Sarfraz Ahmed (c/wk)
6 - Shadab Khan
7 - Fahim Ashraf
8 - Imad Wasim
9 - Mohd Aamir
10 - Hasan Ali
11 - Junaid Khan

Why Fakhar Zaman at 4?

 

[Markhor]

Should be able to if we select the right players after the CT, kick out the deadwood and build on the belief gained from this CT run.

 

[Hasan123]

Yes we can by making the right changes in terms of team selection.

 

[cricketerB94]

How many ODI series do we have in next 6 months? And with whom?

 

[BDwarriors]

How many ODI series do we have in next 6 months? And with whom?

This year only with srilanka in nov-dec. 3 test 5 odi. And next year march against Zim. So dont know how many points pak will get ...

 

[ManFan]

I think if we get rid of the seniors and Imad " it's me, it's me " Wasim and continue to bring in performing youngsters from PSL, there's no reason for us not to be in the top 4 by the time the 2019 World Cup comes.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Sure. But if you read the post I have mentioned in next 6 months or so. Realistically it won't be possible to achieve no.1 in 6 months

No 5 is also not realistic as difference between no.5 and no.6 is 17 points. and between no.5 and no.1 is 8 points. Difficult to overcome such a huge gap in points in just 6 months.

 

[CricketCartoons]

Pakistan won't mind being lowly ranked, if they keep winning global tournaments. Teams like South Africa can take all the ratings they want.