Pakistan facing major concerns with flaky top-order before clash against India

The first Powerplay was so lacking that it left the team at 22/2 after 10 overs, their lowest score in six years during this phase of the game. It was the lowest score for any home team in ODI history, making it easy for New Zealand to maintain their lines and let the climbing required run rate do the rest.

Which is at odds with the narrative Pakistan have recently set as a batting team, now that they are cornered into a must-win situation against India on Sunday. Just over a week ago, Pakistan scripted their highest ever ODI chase (also at Karachi) scaling South Africa’s 352/5 with an over to spare. There too Pakistan had lost two wickets in the first Powerplay but still scored 91.

A major difference from that chase was the absence of opener Fakhar Zaman who had to bat at No 4 on Wednesday after staying out of the ground for a considerable time owing to an injury concern.

But for Mohammad Rizwan to retreat into a 14-ball 3 from an unbeaten 122-run high from that record chase points to a mindset issue at a time Pakistan needed top-order runs to stay alive in the game.

More worrying was the ease with which New Zealand almost dictated his dismissal just by blocking off Rizwan’s scoring areas. Keeping the score ticking by farming the strike like Will Young did earlier was key at that juncture but Pakistan never ventured into that horizon.

“We need to rotate the strike better, because that builds an innings,” said Salman Agha, the lone batter who looked like taking the attack to New Zealand, after Pakistan’s 60-run defeat. “We need consistency to be included among the best teams. We can’t play one good match and one bad match. When you’re chasing 320, you need a big partnership at the start. But that never happened, and wickets continued to fall. We didn’t play a good Powerplay. We had to produce momentum at some point, without which chasing this sort of score is very difficult.”

Further setting them back were the number of dot balls. A dot ball count of 162 effectively doubled the required run rate and Pakistan had only themselves to blame for that, conceding their 100th dot by 23.2 overs.

“We were looking at around 270 – 280, or maximum 300 runs, not more than that, because it was such a pitch where you can chase about 300 runs, if you have a good start. But we couldn’t start the batting well, which is why we couldn’t create momentum. Which is why we couldn’t make the runs,” said Agha.

Babar Azam was key to the chase, and he did his best to keep hopes up till the 33rd over even though his strike rate dropped significantly.

“When you’re chasing 320, you have to make a partnership. And you need momentum in that. So, it didn’t work out. The wickets kept falling,” said Agha.

For Pakistan to implode like this only because Zaman wasn’t available (he has now been ruled out of the Champions Trophy and Imam-ul-Haq has been named replacement) to open is a vulnerability India would love to exploit on Sunday. In the age of batting flexibility and a fearless approach during fielding restrictions, Pakistan’s approach was woefully rudderless. Unless that changes quickly, expect a walkover against a far superior India.

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