3 concerns for Pakistan to address ahead of Asia Cup 2023
Pakistan come into the Asia Cup ranked No. 1 ODI side in the world. They showed their class and depth in the series against Afghanistan. Pakistan have proper team balance and the required potency to go all the way not only in Asia, but also in the upcoming World Cup.
Babar Azam is the leading batter in the world, Shaheen Shah Afridi will lead the attack and they have variety even in the spin department. Such is the confidence in the unit that they have already announced their playing XI for their opening clash against Nepal. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf along with two spin-bowling allrounders in Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz make up their bowling department.
Here, we take a look at three concerns for Pakistan to address ahead of Asia Cup 2023:
#3 Middle order
Pakistan's lower middle order is still quite inexperienced, and this could cause them problems in important matches during this tournament. Agha Salman has done well in the limited number of One Day International (ODI) matches he has played so far, but he hasn't faced really tough situations yet.
Salman has played only 14 ODIs, where he has scored 396 runs with an average of 44.00. Iftikhar Ahmed too has not played many ODIs. He has played the same number of games as Salman. However, his stats are not very flattering - he has scored 293 runs in 14 games with an average of 36.62.
#2 Dependency on the top order
One of the big issues for Pakistan has been the coordination between the top and middle order. There will be a lot of pressure on the openers in Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman as well as their captain Babar Azam. They have to get the side off to a solid start consistently since Ifthikar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, and Agha Salman need a good platform to capitalize.
The batting becomes brittle when the openers do not lay a platform as Pakistan have been notorious with batting collapses.
#1 Lack of wickets in the middle phase
Shadab Khan has been Pakistan's main weapon as the wrist spinner in limited-overs cricket. He's a clever leg-spinner who has been a huge member of the side with his bowling. However, his recent performances show that he's been struggling to take wickets in the middle phase.
As far as numbers are concerned, this year Shadab has played six matches so far. While he has been quite frugal, but the concern is the number of wickets he's taken. He has only managed to get seven wickets this year. This might be a worry for Babar since the leg-spinner has to pick up wickets in the middle phase to peg the opposition back.
Pakistan seem to have all bases covered, but they now need to iron out these flaws in order to be one of the best sides in the competition.