Stats: Pakistan poor against top teams
The art of hammering weak teams and failing consistently against big teams isn't a preferable art at all. Being considered as a strong ODI side, Pakistan don't have statistics to prove that they have all the components to beat the genuine top ODI teams at present.
The Pakistani ODI team is regarded as a balanced team which possesses the ability to beat the best ODI teams when they get going. Well, it's fine. But it's not fine at all when they get going only a few times a year. Yes, at times they've got the better of the strong oppositions like India and England but those are rare.
Here I present you the statistics to show that Pakistan are not a great team against strong ODI sides.
Let us start with overall wins and losses of Pakistan since the start of the year 2016.
Pakistan have played 44 ODI matches after 2016, having won 24 of them. Their W/L ratio is 1.2 which is not bad.
However, splitting the teams on the basis of their strength and viewing Pakistan's W/L record again, we'll find some shocking results.
First, let's view the stats of Pakistan against weaker oppositions; the oppositions include Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Hong Kong and Afghanistan, the five teams they've played against since 2016.
Pakistan have played 20 matches against these oppositions, out of which they've won 19 and lost just one. Those are phenomenal numbers in fact. Their win percentage is a whopping 95%.
On the darker side, they have ridiculous numbers against strong oppositions. In the 24 matches they've played against strong ODI teams (India, South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia, and Bangladesh) since 2016, they've managed to win just 5 matches and have lost 19 matches. These numbers aren't convincing for any team who has played ODI cricket for decades.
Is this the reason why Pakistan love playing against weak oppositions? Among the big ODI sides. Pakistan have played almost 45% of their ODI matches against weaker teams since 2016. In this course, they've created and broken a lot of records.
If this trend continues, Pakistan can face serious threats in the upcoming World Cup, where they will have to be on their toes against strong rivals constantly.