PROBLEM WITH PAKISTAN ODI TEAM

Pakistan is 6th in One Day Internationals ranking, but they have been stuck around rank 5th (in ODI) since long time, why aren’t they improving? What is the reason they are not doing well in ODIs, They are the No.1 T20 side, so aren’t they suppose to have good players in the bank?
All these questions are answerable but first we need to dig down deep to get to the problem with Pakistani ODI Team.

Pakistan Cricket has been up and down since they started playing international cricket back in November 22, 1935- (wikiPedia) , and has been the same as during the famous ICC-Champions-Trophy Final, England’s Nassir Hussain comments ” ONE MINUTE DOWN NEXT MINUTE UP, PAKISTAN CRICKET AT ITS BEST”.
Currently, Pakistan is 7th on ICC Test Rankings, 6th on ICC ODI rankings, and 1st on ICC T20 Ranking, but apart from ODIs PAKISTAN has been up and down in other formats, Pakistan did claim the ICC TEST MAZE in 2017 during the reign of Misbah ul Haq. So why is that Pakistan is every stuck on the last few spots in ODIs only? let us take a look at some reasons.

ALWAYS SHAKY STARTS:

Let’s face it Pakistan in this day and age does not have a Rohit Sharma or a Hasim Amla as openers so yes the options have been limited lately there are no consistent Openers in the arsenal like Saeed Anwar or Amir Sohail.
So what is there a shortage of talent? Obviously not! One thing about Pakistan cricket everyone will agree upon is that they have loads n loads of talent. Talent like Sharjeel, Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman have come along in the past few years but as the development part is what Pakistani openers are lacking. They are simply not consistent enough. Every now and then a new opening pair is tested and the newcomers are simply too cautious to play freely and hence the low Scoring rates in Powerplays.
Pakistan scores an average of

Team	RR since 2012
Australia	7.2
India	6.94
West indies	6.5
Sri Lanka	6.3
Pakistan	6.13

Since 2012 Pakistan has been scoring with 6.13 RR and if you consider the recent years Pakistan drop to 7th position. This is one clear indicator that the Game is gaining pace and Pakistan is not keeping up with it.
Here one can say if its only the batting that’s letting Pakistan down? well, the answer might be YES.

Batting Averages Current Players:

Here in the above Stats image the green ones are the Players playing the current series between PAKISTAN and AUSTRALIA in UAE. If we take a look at their strike rates then apart from the New Edition Asif Ali and Imad Wasim there is simply no one with an impressive SR in ODIs. these two are used in the death overs with fewer deliveries to play with.

THE OLD GAME-PLAY THAT ONCE WORKED !

Today’s Cricket is a Fast, Six hitting, quick striking, unorthodox stroke making Cricket. But Pakistan seems to be stuck with the OLD formula of 90’s which was “Save wickets in the start score in the last Ten”. And that just simply does not work or should we say is not enough by today’s Game Standards. Teams today more often than not are regularly striking the 300 Mark and beyond. However, Pakistan’s Old obsolete approach does not allow them to hit that mark too easily.

The above Graphic tells us that Pakistani Cricket Team scored high enough in just nine occasions since 2015. With the exception of 2 matches, all of the rest are against lesser teams. and for the record, the recent high scoring match between PAKvSA was actually lost by Pakistan due to DRS in a rain-affected match as SA was scoring at a better rate. The other one being the Champions Trophy final against India in Oval.

THE BIG CONCLUSION HERE

Obviously one would ask that is it the batting only that is letting Pakistan down? well, the hard truth is Yes! All the Stats shown above clearly show that Pakistan’s bating is simply following the old formula that is not workable any more in the modern cricket and with the ICC WORLD CUP around the corner Pakistan needs to change this. They have no shortage of talent but that talent needs to have the game awareness and Play the modern game with the modern spirit. The Strike rate of the players needs to go up and the dot balls played needs to come down. If Pakistan keeps their current slow and steady approach then one would say that there are very slim chances of them getting close to anywhere in the top 3 Teams in the ICC Rankings.

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