Pakistan’s Performance in T20 World Cup

Team Schedule

S.W.O.T Analysis

Strengths – Pakistan’s biggest strength lies at the top of their batting order. Both Rizwan and Azam have shown a penchant for scoring big runs even in T20Is. They are hard to dislodge once settled and if they lay down a good foundation, Pakistan have a number of power hitters in the middle order following them who can ensure Pakistan can put big totals on the board and chase them down too.

Weaknesses – Pakistani cricketers haven’t played too many T20Is in Australia. In all, Pakistan has played 4 T20Is in Australia and the last time they played in Australia in a bilateral series against the hosts, they lost 0-2. The conditions might prove to be fairly unfamiliar to most of the Pakistani cricketers although the likes of Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf have experience of playing in the Big Bash League.

Opportunities – Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali proved lethal on rather benign pitches of UAE. On the bouncy tracks of Australia, they can trouble the best on their day.

Threats – In the last World Cup, Pakistan enjoyed the experience of Shoaib Malik and Mohd. Hafeez in the middle order. In their absence, the middle order is susceptible to caving in under pressure if the top-order doesn’t get going.

Pakistan Team’s Performance

Pakistan cricket has always carried the ‘unpredictable’ label with them which makes them doubly exciting to watch in a format as dynamic as T20 cricket. In the initial years of T20Is, Pakistan had the perfect personnel for T20I in players like Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir and skilful bowlers like Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal. They enjoyed considerable success on the world stage too as they overcame their heartbreaking defeat of the 2007 World T20 Final against India with a win in the next edition in 2009. Even in the third edition in the Caribbean, they looked on course to do an encore but were denied by a special innings from Michael ‘Mr. Cricket Hussey in the semi-final.

The Asian powerhouse made two more semi-final appearances in the following editions but the silverware has still eluded them. Many considered them the favorites to win the 2021 World Cup, owing to the form of their star players like Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi. But it was not to be and Matthew Wade’s attack on Afridi in the semi-final not only brought back memories of Hussey’s similar assault on Saeed Ajmal from the 2010 tournament but also gave Pakistan their first defeat of the tournament and sank their campaign. With pretty much the same team expected to turn out for the 2022 T20 World Cup, Pakistan would hope that they can go on to achieve this time what they seemed destined to in UAE. However, the challenge on the Australian pitches would be much different.

In the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup, Pakistan will feature in Group 2 where they will have to face-off against arch-nemesis India apart from Bangladesh and South Africa. There would be two more teams too from the qualifier stage to join these four teams in Group 2. The last time Pakistan faced Bangladesh in a T20I series, they whitewashed them and achieved a 3-1 win over South Africa when they met them last in a T20I series. Their last encounter with Team India came in the T20 World Cup 2021 where they romped to an easy 10 wicket win against them.