It was disappointing to see the way Pakistan team played in ICC Champions trophy. The main cause of there loss is heavily burdened on Pakistan batting. In all the three matches they score less than 200. The top scorer from Pakistan side is Misbah-ul-Haq. Pakistan who never loss against India in this tournament lost against them without any sort of resistance. The match against India, Pakistan itself went in to the shallows when they scored only 70 runs in 19 overs and came to know that match is reduced to 40 overs. Indian bowlers bowled pretty well and were getting the results from time to time. In the other side if we see Indian team who is standing so strongly is due to having the strongest batting line-up in the whole ICC Champions trophy. Despite of not having Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj and few others. Every batsman of Indian team is busy proving why they are chosen instead of them. Dhawan and Karthik has extended the future of Indian batting line-up. Dhawan scored two centuries uptill now in ICC Champions trophy. More than that they both have sidelined Kholi, Raina and Dhoni who are the most consistent players in the team. One thing that I am still amazed and not clear that we starts with 30 possible players for ICC Champions trophy and then we shrink to 15 an then out of 15 we chose 11 players at a time but still we can't find batters who could a scored 200+ runs altogether.
There had been a dozens of debates on how to improve Pakistan batting line-up and how to bring solid batsman. Pakistan team looks horrible when I see there is not a single batsman who has the ability to hit at least three balls out of the park in an over. Even after the introduction and induction of T-20 cricket, it is horrible to see the amount of balls a Pakistani batsman consumed in their innings. Pakistan have introduced a lot of aggressive players like Ahmed Shehzad, Shahzaib Hasan, Umer Akmal, Owais Zia and they were all sidelined by giving a statement that they played irresponsible shot and lost their wicket or their is still a flaw in their techniques. But you can not deny from the fact that they are the requirements of the modern ODI cricket where you need them. Talking about the fresh players who have one of the sound batting technique like Fawad Alam, Khurram Manzoor, Azhar Ali, Nasir Jamshed and Asad Shafiq they are not given a proper chance apart of Shafiq.
Fawad Alam who in his first test match was used as an opener and scored 168 runs against Srilanka and in the third(last match played up till now) test match played at one down where the most experienced players should bat had played against New Zealand and tried to resist Shane Bond in alien conditions. He played as a middle order batsman against England in ODI's when Pakistan batting line-up was in crisis. He also have the experience of playing in UAE and Pakistan will play in UAE this year possibly against the same team South Africa. Instead of reviving the career of Younus Khan, Soaib Malik and others he should be given the chance. He averages almost 56 in first class. He should be taken in to confidence for the series in Dubai and if he plays well in UAE he should be given chance to play in Srilanka where he scored a century in his test début.
Nasir Jamshed has now become the back bone of batting line-up of Pakistan but still needs to prove by scoring centuries against strong bowling opponents. He will learn it as soon as he gathers experience. Talking about the aggreive fresh players like Ahmed Shehzad and Shahzaib Hasan. Shehzad who has played in WC-2011 and has played with Chris Gayle in BPL and scored a ton in a match. He is more popular then all the 11 players who played against India. Its not because of his popularity he should be included in to the team but it is because of the way he plays. I know he is a bit irresponsible but has scored two centuries and that shows he can create a huge impact as soon he is given the license. Pakistan bowling line-up was regarded as the most impact line-up of bowlers but with its fragile batting line-up they can never win a tournament like CT#13 where there is always a do or die situation.
Asad Shafiq needs to score a couple of centuries in ODI's so that he could count his name as the high profile batsman or else it will take only seconds to sideline a player like him. He is no doubt plays according to situation but still needs to furnish himself for the modern ODI cricket. Umer Akmal, he is more than any other batsman in Pakistan batting options but still needs to prove which he is failing to do. I hope when he gets the second chance he will burst out.
Here are the few batting options which Pakistan team need to consider for WC-2015.
Nasir Jamshed
Ahmed Shehzad
Asad Shafiq
Fawaad Alam
Umer Akmal
I am not seeing Misbah to play WC-2015 so does it mean we need to prepare a captain for Pakistan team for WC-2015?
