Inexperience and indifferent form cannot count Pakistan beyond Quarter-final

Pakistan’s preparation to the World Cup has been minimal. Their performance in ODI has been shoddy of late. The let down has come mainly from the top middle order batsmen and added to that the inexperienced bowling attack.  

Ever after their return to ODI, Younis and Umar Kamal performances have been abysmal searching to find form in the last 6 months and has kept the team on the back foot. With the withdrawal of Hafeez, and with the inexperience of Maqsood and Haris Sohail at the top, it has now become pertinent that one of these two class batsmen have to be included in all matches. Unfortunately, Umar Kamal might get the axe, since Younis Khan is considered as a big time player.

The withdrawal of Junaid Khan has further dented the chances of Pakistan’s qualification to the next round. The bowling department looks very bleak with Wahab Riaz and Md.Irfan are the only once having some experience. The late clearance of Ajmal by ICC is not doing any good to Pakistan, as one of the players have to be approved as unfit to make way for this off-spinner.

With the current form, this team is dependent only on 3 players – Ahmed Shehzad, Shahid Afridi and Sarfraz Ahmed – thus it will be very difficult to see Pakistan qualify the semi-final berth.

Pakistan Team:

Batsmen:Misbah-ul-haq, Ahmed Shehzad, Haris Sohail, Nazir Jamshed, Maqsood, Umar 

Akmal, Younis Khan

Bowlers:Eshan Adil, , Md. Irfan, Rahad Ali, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah,

All rounders: Sarfraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi

Fixtures:

Vs India – Adelaide – Feb 14^th

Vs West Indies – Christchurch – Feb 21^st

Vs Zimbabwe – Brisbane – Mar 1^st

Vs UAE – Napier – Mar 4^th

Vs South Africa – Auckland – Mar 7^th

Vs Ireland – Adelaide - Mar 15^th