Pakistan's tour of Bangladesh 2021

Pakistan had a hugely successful tour of Bangladesh. Although the twenty20 series was much closer than matches in the test series Pakistan nevertheless whitewashed Bangladesh in the Twenty20 series as well. Mind you Bangladesh fielded an extremely inexperienced team in the twenty20 series clearly missing the services of Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan while Pakistan were at full strength. Bangladesh in particular look an extremely weak team whenever they play without Shakib Al Hasan who is their only star player with a lot of charisma.

Bangladesh team showed fight in the first match and in the third match of the twenty20 series. In the first match if it wasnt for Shadab Khan and Muhammad Nawaz late power hitting Pakistan might have lost the first match. In the second match of the twenty20 series Pakistan won convincingly by eight wickets. In the third match, Pakistan had the control of the game until Mahmudullah's final over of the innings in which he picked up three wickets. Had Ifthikar Ahmed not struck a huge six of the third ball of the innings and Muhammad Nawaz not struck four of the last ball of the innings the match might have been decided by the super over. Having said that Muhammad Nawaz took a huge risk by leaving the last ball of the innings indicating to the umpire he wasnt ready before he struck the last ball of the innings for four.

In the test series Pakistan was ruthless even though Mushfiqur Rahim returned for the test matches and Bangladesh had taken the lead in the first test match. Abdullah Shafique and Abid Ali struck century opening partnerships in the both innings of the test match to ensure Pakistan won easily by eight wickets in the first test. The second test match was a rain marred test with rain ensuring any play on the third  day of the test match but Sajid Khan's spell of 8-42 left a Bangladeshi collapse of 87 in their first innings ensuring follow on. On the last day Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan resisted but were unable to prevent an innings defeat to Pakistan as Pakistan clean swept the test series 2-0 against Bangladesh..

Pakistan in this tour of Bangladesh proved to the world that they are not only a very good twenty20 side but they have an equally potent test side as well and they really have the temperament to play the longer versions of the game.

Pakistan's ICC twenty20 World Cup 2021 campaign

 

Pakistan had a dream World Cup until that dream was shattered by Australia in the Semi Final. Pakistan set a decent target of 176 runs thanks to Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman 's knocks. When Australia were 96 for 5 it looked like Pakistan had the upper hand and Pakistan were winning. On the other hand Stoinis and Mathew Wade had other ideas as unbelievably they had  a match winning 81 runs partnership which stole away the match from Pakistan's grasp. Pakistan was also unlucky they didnt win the toss as teams chasing especially in Dubai have a huge advantage batting second because of the dew factor. It is because of the dew factor Pakistan's bowling suffered as the bowlers found it difficult to grip the ball and make it swing.

Babar Azam's slow batting also let Pakistan down in the semi final. Babar Azam scored only 39 runs off 35 balls and wasted too many deliveries with dot balls. If Babar Azam played with a better strike rate then Pakistan would have posted a higher total with extra twenty or so runs and Australia might have never reached that target. Pakistan also lost the semi final because of Hassan Ali's poor performance. Hassan Ali not only gave away too many runs with his bowling but was also responsible for the defeat by dropping Mathew Wade. As we say catches win matches and had that catch being taken by Hassan Ali who knows Pakistan would have been in the final of this Twenty20 World Cup. Hassan Ali just dropped the Twenty20 World Cup by not taking that catch of Mathew Wade.

Overall Pakistan's performance was superb in the tournament winning five consecutive matches before the semi final. That performance also included a win against India which was Pakistan's first win over India in world cup matches. Having said that ICC should have staged the knockout matches at Day time as in the night the dew factor comes in which robbed Pakistan a place in the Final of the tournament.

In the end I would like to congratulate and thank Pakistan cricket team for it's superb performance throughout the Twenty20 World Cup and I would say it was a successful World Cup for Pakistan. I am proud of this Pakistan cricket team and they have made the entire nation proud of their performance.

Pakistan s wins in major tournaments

 Pakistan has won a major tournament in two formats of the game that is in two tournaments of ICC in ODI format namely the world Cup of 1992 and champions trophy of 2017. In twenty20 we won the 2009 twenty20 World Cup tournament which was held in England.

In 1992 World Cup after a terrible start we came from behind to win the tournament. After 5 matches Pakistan had won just one match lost three and one match as no result. Pakistan were at the bottom of the table along with zimbabwe. Then came their match against Australia. Pakistan bowled extremely well setting a target of 220 to Australia on the fast WACA pitch and eventually bowled the hosts Australia for 180 which began Pakistan revival in the 1992 World Cup. Pakistan then went onto defeat srilanka and new Zealand to enter the semi finals of the 1992 World Cup.

Chasing a target of 263 Pakistan was struggling at 140 for 4 in the 35th over. In came inzamam who played a match winning knock of 63 runs of just 37 balls to win the semi final for Pakistan. In the final, javed Miandad and imran Khan s slow batting was pushing Pakistan s towards a below par total then inzamam and later wasim akram pushed the run rate with their knocks of better than a run a ball. Pakistan were able to post a fighting total of 249 runs and Pakistan were able to defend that total to win the 1992 World Cup which proved to be pakistan's only world Cup win in so many world cups played so far. 

Now I will talk about Pakistan's Champion's trophy win in 2017. Pakistan entered the tournament as the bottom ranked team. They were 8th in the ICC ratings when the tournament started so there was no surprise when India crushed Pakistan to open Pakistan's campaign in their first match. Then on Pakistan looked a completely different side from their first match as they defeated South Africa in a rain hit match. In their next last qualifying match they defeated Sri Lanka after Mohammad Amir and Sarfraz Ahmed match winning partnership stole the match from Sri Lanka's hands and Pakistan entered the Semi Finals. Pakistan then produced a brilliant show with both bat and ball to beat England and reach the final of Champions Trophy. Fakhar Zaman played a brilliant knock of a hundred plus score to lead Pakistan to a tremendous total of 339 runs. India were never in the hunt in their chase after Muhammad Amir's brilliant opening spell of 3 wickets and Pakistan won the Champions Trophy for the very first time in its history.

In the end will like to conclude that after a disappointing loss in 2007 ICC twenty20 World Cup Final , Pakistan bounced back on the behalf of brilliant all round performance of Shahid Afridi to win the ICC 2009 Twenty20 World Cup.

Pakistan tour of West Indies 2021

Pakistan had a fantastic tour of West Indies although I think Pakistan was unlucky not to win the test series as well. Pakistan started the tour with the Twenty20 series win over West Indies. Pakistan was lucky that three out of four matches were rained off otherwise the star studded and heavy and powerful hitters of the West Indian team were clear favourites for the Twenty20 Series over Pakistan.

Had Muhammad Hafeez not bowled that economical spell of 4-1-6-1 in the second twenty20 match in West Indian innings and had Nicholas Pooran was ably supported at the other end Pakistan would have lost the second Twenty20 match and the series. So Pakistan was lucky to win the Twenty20 Series against West Indies.

In the test matches opposite happened and luck deserted Pakistan in the first test match of the series. Had Pakistan not been bowled for a low total of 217 in the first innings and if they took their chances while Kemar Roach was batting Pakistan would have won the first test match as well.

In the second test match Fawad Alam, Babar Azam in batting showed their class while in bowling Shaheen Shah Afridi proved to be a match winner. Pakistan won the second test match by 109 runs which clearly indicated that Pakistan were a much talented and superior side than the West Indies in tests.

Overall I would say that Pakistan had a successful tour of West Indies winning the twenty20 series 1-0 and drawing the test series 1-1.

Pakistan's tour of England 2021

 Although Pakistan won just one twenty20 match in their entire tour of England. I would not call this tour a disastrous one because it wasnt a win less tour. This can be judged by the fact that Sri Lanka had a disastrous tour of England before England playing Pakistan as Sri Lanka failed to win not even a single match.

Having said that Pakistan was facing England's second string side in the ODI's and Pakistan should have won atleast the ODI series. In the Twenty20 series England played their full strength team so it was reasonable to expect England to win the Twenty20 series.

 Pakistan's batting let them down in their first two ODI's and when finally their batting put up an mammoth total of 331 runs on board their bowling let them down. Pakistan's middle order has been under performing for quite a while now and whenever Pakistan's top order fails it is expected Pakistan cricket team will surely lose. I would suggest Pakistan to play both Sarfraz Ahmed and Muhammad Rizwan with Muhammad Rizwan playing as a batsman and Sarfraz Ahmed playing as a middle order batsman and also as a wicketkeeper. Bringing in Sarfraz Ahmed as a batsman will bring stability to Pakistan's middle order. I would also suggest to bring Muhammad Amir and Wahab Riaz back into the team to bolster our bowling attack.

Our Twenty20 team's performance was okay but I would suggest to bring Shoaib Malik in place of probably the misfiring Sohaib Maqsood and also bring Muhammad Amir and Wahab Riaz back into Twenty20 team as well. With these changes Pakistan will achieve the required results expected of them and the team will return victorious once again.

Pakistan s top three bowlers of all time

 My choice for Pakistan's top three bowlers of all time are:

1) Wasim Akram

2) Waqar Younis

3) Imran Khan

1) Wasim Akram: I rate Wasim Akram as the best Pakistani bowler of all time. Wasim Akram with 502 ODI wickets is the best Pakistani bowler of all time. Of all Pakistani bowlers Wasim Akram had the best variety and variation in his bowling. Wasim Akram could swing the new as well as old ball. He can reverse swing the ball and can bowl both inswing, outswing, leg cutters, off cutters and had a deadly bouncer too. Wasim Akram not only had extreme fast pace but he also had a very good slower ball. Wasim Akram not only had a terrific ODI career but also had a wonderful test career as well. To top it all he was a handy batsmen too coming at no.8 in batting order making him an all rounder of great repute.

2) Waqar Younis: I  rate Waqar Younis as the second best Pakistani bowler of all time. Waqar Younis could reverse swing the old ball at extreme pace. Waqar Younis was known for his toe crushing yorkers. Waqar Younis was known to get the middle order and tail ender batsmen out while Wasim Akram was known as getting top order batsmen out regularly. Waqar Younis had an extremely awkward and great bouncer too.

3) Imran Khan: I rate Imran Khan as the third best Pakistani bowler of all time. It was Imran Khan who taught reverse swing to both Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and was their mentor. It was Sarfraz Nawaz who taught Imran Khan reverse swing and also how to swing the ball at high pace. Imran Khan was an extremely capable all rounder and was equally dangerous and capable with both bat and ball.

Pakistan's top three batsmen of all time

 My choice for the top three Pakistani batsmen of all time are:

1) Younis Khan

2) Inzamam ul Haq

3) Javed Miandad

1) Younis Khan: I rate Younis Khan as the greatest Pakistani batsmen of all time because he is the only Pakistani batsmen to break the tally of 10,000 runs barrier in test cricket. No Pakistani batsmen has scored more runs than Younis Khan in test cricket. He was a great accumulator of runs and had a great match temperament. He never used to throw his wicket away and never used to gift his wicket to the opposition bowlers. It was very difficult to dismiss him because he had a rock solid defensive technique and scored a lot of valuable runs for Pakistan under pressure.

2) Inzamam ul Haq: I rate Inzamam  ul Haq as the second greatest Pakistani batsmen of all time. Inzamam ul Haq was a big match winner and won a lot of matches for Pakistan single handedly. It has been said and is a well known fact that Inzamam won more matches for Pakistan than Sachin Tendulkar did for India. In this way Inzamam was an even better match winner than Sachin Tendulkar. Another well known fact is that whenever Inzamam played a substantial innings Pakistan always used to win.

3) Javed Miandad: I rate Javed Miandad as the third greatest Pakistani batsmen of all time. Javed Miandad was a great fighter. He rescued Pakistani batting from difficult situations a lot of times by playing the sheet anchor role. Javed Miandad had a great technique, probably the best technique as compared to both Younis Khan and Inzamam ul Haq. It was Javed Miandad whom the opposition  used to fear that he can win matches single handedly for Pakistan from any situation especially against India.

I know that Babar Azam is breaking all the batting records but I wont include him in the list and in my ratings because he isnt as experienced as Younis Khan, Inzamam ul Haq and Javed Miandad.