Tuesday 5 January 2021

Pakistan Cricket team in the Calendar Year 2020

 Pakistan cricket team reasonably did well in 2020. They performed well in Twenty20 internationals by winning 7 matches and losing just 3 with one ending in no result. Although the series wins came against weak teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and they failed to win against stronger teams like New Zealand and England series wise. I would still say Pakistan performed better in Twenty20 cricket in 2020 as compared to 2019. I am saying this because Pakistan lost to a lowly rated Sri Lanka whom not only sent their second string team to Pakistan in 2019 but was a team missing several key players. Losing to that Sri Lankan team was very disheartening for Pakistan cricket and Pakistani fans. Although in 2020 Pakistan performed better losing the series only against New Zealand 1-2, and drawing with England 1-1 besides winning against infact clean sweeping Bangladesh 2-0 and also white washing Zimbabwe 3-0. whereas in 2019 Pakistan hardly won any series and were defeated badly by the opposition seeing their ranking drop from first to fourth in ICC rankings.

Pakistan started 2020 seventh in ICC rankings and finished seventh in the ICC rankings by the beginning of 2021. In five test matches Pakistan won just one test match against Bangladesh and lost two, one against England and one against  New Zealand and drew the remaining two test matches against England. Pakistan should have won the first test match against England in Manchester when having set a target of 278 they let England win by three wickets as Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes helped England to recover from 112 for 5 to 258 for six. By that time both Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes had scored centuries and they proved match winners for England's unlikely victory. If Pakistan had won that test match they might have gone on to win that series as the last two test matches were rained off. The fault that I found with Pakistani batsmen in tests in 2020 has been their overly defensive batting. Pakistani batsmen dont look for scoring opportunities as a result opposition bowlers find a way to get them out. 

In ODI's in 2020 Pakistan won two matches and lost one, all against Zimbabwe. The third ODI ended in a tie after full fifty overs with Pakistan losing the match in super over. I dont know why Babar Azam didnt bat in the super over as Khushdil Shah and Iftikhar Ahmed were sent in as a result we lost that match when both these batsmen got out cheaply to Zimbabwe bowler. 

Overall it was a successful year in Pakistan cricket with Pakistan having a positive winning percentage in Twenty20 internationals and ODI's.

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