Fakhar Zaman - a swashbuckling opener

 

         Fakhar Zaman is an opener with tremendous talent and he has the unique ability to strike the ball hard and score his runs quickly. He is a more team man than an individual player and he always plays for the team keeping in mind the team's interests.

He has the record of scoring the highest individual score of 210 runs for Pakistan breaking Saeed Anwar's Pakistan record of 194 runs that he scored against India in Chennai in 1997. Although Fakhar Zaman has this record against a weak team such as Zimbabwe we must give him credit for it.

Fakhar Zaman is a match winner and has an ability to score huge hundreds. In the Champions Trophy Final in 2017 against arch rivals India he scored a match winning hundred.

In the end what I would like to say is that Fakhar Zaman in the future should be made captain of Pakistan white ball teams if Shaheen Shah Afridi fails to deliver as captain.

Pakistan is an excellent ODI team

 

Pakistan has been performing reasonably well in One day internationals of late. At home we have defeated strong teams like Sri Lanka 3-0, South Africa 2-1 in November and now World Champions Australia. We only lost to Bangladesh 2-1 which is a mere aberration.

Pakistan is ranked a solid 5th in ICC ODI rankings which is a great achievement as they have been consistently good in ODIs in a period of time as they were once ranked no.1 in ODI cricket very briefly under Babar Azam's captaincy. Only strong teams such as India, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa are ranked above Pakistan in ODI cricket.

Shaheen Afridi is doing a fine job as captain of ODI team as we have won three series out of four in ODI's under his captaincy. His real test will come when we will play an abroad ODI series.

In the end what I would like to say is that Pakistan is amongst the favourites to win the 2027 ODI world cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia keeping in mind their recent performances.

Pakistan vs Australia 2nd ODI 2026

 

I think Pakistan became complacent and let Australia off the hook and that is why Australia defeated us by 41 runs. I think we should have bowled a lot better and had a terrible last over bowled by Haris Rauf when he was hit to all corners of the ground by Oliver Peake.

Pakistan are clearly missing the services of Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub due to injuries as they are much better than the current opening duo of Farhan and Maaz Sadaqat who have failed twice in this ODI series. We need someone to give us a good, brisk and positive start at the top of the batting order something which Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub can do easily.

In the end what I would like to say is that we should prepare a batting track for the Third ODI as the current strategy of preparing spinning pitch is back firing for Pakistan's point of view.

Pakistan vs Australia First ODI 2026

 

Pakistan comfortably defeated Australia by 5 wickets in the First ODI at Rawalpindi. This win comes as a big morale booster after the ODI and test series defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in Bangladesh. Having said that Australia has send it's second string side to Pakistan tour and there is hardly any match winner in this current Australian squad send to Pakistan.

Arafat Minhas had a dream debut picking up 5 wickets and he is surely a great future prospect. Abrar Ahmed also bowled well in tandem with Arafat Minhas picking up two wickets. All the Pakistani bowlers bowled well to restrict Australia to a score of only 200 runs.

In the end what I would like to say is that if Pakistan losses the toss in any of the remaining two matches and if Australia bowls first. It will be interesting to see how Pakistan will bowl in dewy conditions at night.

Pakistan vs Bangladesh 2nd test day 5 2026

 

Pakistan have been defeated by Bangladesh by 78 runs in the second test played at Sylhet. In this way Bangladesh have white washed Pakistan for the second time since 2024 when Bangladesh whitewashed Pakistan in their home 2-0 at Rawalpindi. 

Pakistan didnt bowl well throughout this test match and when they had Bangladesh reeling at 116 for 6 they should have gone for the kill and completed the job by dismissing Bangladesh for a total of under 150 runs if they had done that Pakistan would have probably won this test match instead they allowed Litton Das to score a century and accumulate runs along with the tail.

Pakistan really lack a genuine fast bowler like Nahid Rana and have bowlers like Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali who are medium pacers at best.

In the end what I would like to say is that Shan Masood should now resign from captaincy after having another pathetic series as captain.

Pakistani Legend Ijaz Ahmed

 

Ijaz Ahmed was a great striker of the cricket ball and a stylish batsmen and match winner. He had a very unorthodox technique because of which he was prone to being out leg before wicket and being bowled around his legs. Nevertheless he was a very useful batsmen coming at No.3 in the batting order. He also used to shuffle a lot in his crease and was often trapped Leg before wicket.

Ijaz Ahmed in particular had a great record against Australia and it was his century in Sydney Test which helped Pakistan to win that test match in 1995 under the captaincy of Wasim Akram.  That Test victory over Australia was Pakistan's last test victory on Australian soil.

Ijaz Ahmed send into bat as an opener against India in the third ODI of Pakistan - India ODI series 1997 scored a memorable whirlwind innings of 139 runs off only 81 balls which helped Pakistan to a comfortable 9 wicket win over India in only 26 overs chasing India's total of 226 runs. 

In the end what I would like to say is that if Twenty20 cricket was played in Ijaz Ahmed's era then Ijaz Ahmed would have proved to be an excellent batsmen in twenty20 internationals.

Pakistan vs Bangladesh 5th days play First Test 2026

Pakistan lost to Bangladesh in the first test at Mirpur Dhaka by 104 runs. Pakistan's batsmen were found to be particularly vulnerable to Nahid Rana's pace on the fifth day's pitch which was wearing and tearing. Pakistan made the huge mistake of bowling first on a pitch which was flat on the first three days of the test match.

Although Pakistan's debutantes Azan Awais and Abdullah Fazal shone with the bat throughout the test match the senior batsmen especially Shan Masood and Saud shakeel failed miserably. Shan Masood as captain should lead from the front just like Imran Khan used to do in his playing days but Shan Masood is doing exactly the opposite.

In the end what I would like to say is that Bangladesh's bowling is their strength and Pakistan will do well if they can draw this test series 1-1 with Bangladesh.