Pakistan’s line-up of 11 lost to the “team” that is Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup 2022 in Dubai on Sunday.
Here are our five takeaways from the match:
If you zoom out and take a macro view, what happened in the final wouldn’t seem out of place. Of the six matches played in the entire tournament, Pakistan lost three, and of the three they won, two could have gone either way.
They went Pakistan’s way only because of individual heroics. Thus, the only match this team was clearly good at was against Hong Kong, which explains it all.
With the T20 World Cup a little over a month away, these are worrying signs. If the team couldn’t do it against Sri Lanka on a familiar Dubai wicket, God help them in Australia where the grounds are bigger and the ball jumps higher.
The team, despite its obvious flaws, had somehow dragged itself to the final. What happened then was a series of gaffes and blunders, the first of which was from none other than the captain himself.
With half the Sri Lankan team back in the dugout, Babar Azam inexplicably went for a defensive approach that would have made prime Misbahul Haq proud.
Furthermore, for reasons unknown, Iftikhar Ahmed bowled three overs when he hadn’t bowled even one in all of the previous matches of the tournament.
Granted that Iftikhar did not prove expensive and picked up a wicket too, but that was the time to capitalise, go for the jugular and bundle out the Lankans under 100.
This was a tournament to forget for Babar for more reasons than one.
His immense goodwill means that no one is going to raise a finger at his batting failures but the captaincy decisions will be scrutinised as they should be.
The foundation of the modern Pakistan batting is laid on Babar and Mohammad Rizwan playing cautious early on, getting to around 30 in the first 5 overs and trying to keep wickets in hand for a vast majority of the team’s quota of overs.
More often than not, they leave just enough overs for the later batters to get a quick 50-60. That cautious early and carefree later approach is being used only by Pakistan among the top teams, none of whom let the run rate drop even when wickets are tumbling.
The notion that attack is the best form of defence, is an approach Pakistan openers do not live by. In this specific match, it was Rizwan who was the culprit for being too slow and laborious.
A 49-ball 55 when the job is to get to 171 serves no purpose. It only delays the inevitable. Such has been the performance of the keeper-batter over the past two years that it almost feels wrong to write these sentences but then if you don’t critique and show the mirror, mistakes are almost always repeated in Pakistan cricket.
Shadab Khan is another one who should escape without much or any criticism except for a naughty meme or two. The leggie all-rounder was pretty decent throughout — barring the final of course.
While Rizwan and Khan’s overall body of work makes us show restraint, no such luxuries should be afforded to the likes of Iftikhar, Khushdil Shah and Asif Ali — all three of whom seem to be cut from the same cloth.
The trio may come in different shapes and sizes but in reality, they are the same player with just different names and faces.
Neither is a proper batter and all three are in the side purely on their six-hitting ability, which is also very hit-and-miss. In fact, it’s more miss than hit — unless you’re up against Hong Kong.
Add to them all-rounders Khan and Mohammad Nawaz — who are decent batters but again not specialists — and this Pakistan side’s composition becomes three true batters followed by a series of jacks of all trade masters of none.
Mind you, of the three true batters, two are out of form so it was basically Rizwan alone versus Asia during this tournament, which is another reason to be gentle with him.
A kneejerk reaction to this would be to ditch some or all of these three and bring in Shoaib Malik but that would be a mistake again. Malik’s record in Australia is notoriously poor and thus picking him would be trying to fix a mistake with a bigger mistake.
This is obviously a tough one for the team’s think tank because if they retain the combination they risk themselves for fiercer criticism when/if the aforesaid trio fails in Australia. But if they bring in Malik, history tells us that is also a guaranteed failure Down Under.
It wouldn’t be fair to not mention Sri Lanka. As Pakistanis, we may think that only we’ve had it tough and rough over the past year with inflation, political turmoil, floods, dengue and whatnot. But there is also Sri Lanka that has been through just as much if not more.
If Pakistan couldn’t be champions, there could not have been a better alternative for the crown than this island nation. What they lacked in star quality, they more than made up for through their grit, determination and persistence.
Where Pakistan looked like a disjointed unit of some out-of-form batting behemoths, some volatile six hitters and some world-class bowlers, Sri Lanka were merely a good team and a true embodiment of “teamwork makes the dream work.”
Header image: Mohammad Rizwan in action as Sri Lanka's Kusal Mendis reacts in the Asia Cup 2022 final between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the Dubai International Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept 11. — Reuters
