Pakistan were served a reality-check by New Zealand in the tri-series final on Friday, when the hosts suffered a one-sided defeat by five wickets at the National Stadium in Karachi, which comes as a jolt ahead of the Champions Trophy (CT).
Winning only one out of three matches in the tri-series, with South Africa as the third team, Pakistan have a lot to sort before their CT opener against New Zealand, who remained unbeaten in their title run to warm up for the ICC event in style.
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The defeat hasn’t gone down well with former Pakistan players, who have criticized the team’s decision-making, with ex-batter Ahmed Shehzad bashing the team for its incompetence.
“Pakistan’s bubble has burst ahead of the Champions Trophy,” said Shehzad on this YouTube channel.
The former batter criticised captain Mohammad Rizwan‘s decision to bat first and drop a specialist bowler for an all-rounder in order to bat deep.
“It was a mind-boggling decision (to bat first) because we had seen in the previous match that the pitch becomes better to bat on in the night, the ball doesn’t grip on the surface for the spinners. Still, the Pakistan team decided to bat first. Brainless decision, they had no clue,” said Shehzad, pointing at Pakistan’s record chase to eliminate South Africa at the same venue in the previous match to qualify for the final.
On Friday, Pakistan were bowled out for 242 in 49.3 overs, with William ORourke starring for the kiwis with his spell of 4 for 43, while visiting captain Mitchell Santner (2 for 20) and Michael Bracewell (2 for 38) bowled crafty spin to take two wickets each.
Rizwan (46), Salman Agha (45), Tayyab Tahir (38) and Babar Azam (29) got starts but could not kick on to score big.
In response, New Zealand chased down the target in 45.2 overs, thanks to half-centuries by Daryl Mitchell (57) and Tom Latham (56).
Shehzad, meanwhile, further slammed Pakistan skipper Rizwan for always playing it safe when it comes to deciding the playing eleven.
“In his every decision, the Pakistan captain wants to play safe with batting, be it by being a spinner short in the Champions Trophy squad or this match, where they played (bowling all-rounder) Faheem Ashraf to have a longer batting line-up at the expense of (fast bowler) Mohammad Hasnain and still used him (Ashraf) for just two overs,” Shehzad analysed.
Medium-pacer Ashraf gave 16 runs without a wicket in the 2.2 overs he delivered. Pakistan’s best bowler on the day, pacer Naseem Shah, was not used for his entire quota of 10 overs, bowling eight overs for his 2 for 43.
“The normal phenomenon is that you plan around your strengths. You extended your batting line-up and still chose to bat first. If you have deeper batting strength, then why not chase, like you did in the match against South Africa?” Shehzad questioned the team management, led by head coach Aaqib Javed.
Adding more harshness to his criticism, Shehzad added that the Pakistan team creates opportunities to win only whey they are offered a chance by their opponents.
“In a final, you are making childish decisions…you are making so many mistakes in matches. You get a chance to win only when the opposition performs below par or don’t have their main players playing,” he said.
