Pakistan may be the world’s number one T20I team but they will be without a host of key players when their three-match series against Australia starts in Sydney today.
For a variety of reasons, the tourists will be missing wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed, pace prodigy Shaheen Afridi, quality quick Hasan Ali and veteran all-rounders Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.
All five of those players have had a significant impact for Pakistan in the past two years, during which they have hovered at or near the top of the T20I rankings.
In their places will be the uncapped trio of Khushdil Shah (batsman), Usman Qadir (leg spinner) and Muhammad Musa (pace bowler), and the unproven Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Hasnain (pace bowler) and Iftikhar Ahmed (batsman).
Pakistan will still boast a core of world-class T20I cricketers including gun batsman Babar Azam, impactful quick Mohammad Amir, and elite all-rounders Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan. But this Pakistan line-up is not nearly as intimidating as the one which dominated Australia last year, winning five consecutive matches against them.
First Pakistan beat Australia in the final of the Zimbabwe T20I tri-series in Harare in July, then they thumped them 3-0 in the UAE in October.
Sarfraz and Shoaib played key roles as Pakistan won that match in Harare, while Hafeez, Ali and Afridi hurt Australia in the following series.
The fact none of those five players will be involved in this current series will greatly weaken the tourists. Although they should be far tougher competition than Sri Lanka, who were just bulldozed 3-0 by Australia.
Sri Lanka upset Pakistan 3-0 in Karachi last month and against Australia they will field a team brimming with inexperienced players. In Babar, Amir, Imad and Shadab, though, they have a quartet of phenomenal T20I cricketers, each of whom has a fantastic record against Australia.
Versus the Aussies Babar has averaged 81 with the bat, and Amir, Imad and Shadab have averaged 13, 15 and 18 with the ball, respectively.
It has been Pakistan’s bowling which has offered them the biggest advantage over Australia in recent T20I encounters. Left-arm quick Amir has regularly made an impact with the new ball as well as blanketing Australia at the death. Shadab has consistently taken wickets through the middle overs against Australia with his accurate leg-spin.
And Imad has proved remarkably difficult for the Aussies to get after, conceding just 5.75 runs per over in his four matches against them. So difficult, in fact, that Pakistan decided to open the bowling with the left-arm finger spinner in his last three matches against Australia.
Bowling around the wicket and targeting the stumps, Imad caused a lot of problems for Australian skipper Aaron Finch, who is usually a dominant player of spin in the shortest format. Imad also shapes as a good match-up against David Warner.
The left-handed Aussie likes to cut the ball off his stumps in T20s but this is a very risky shot against Imad, who changes up his pace and flight so well.
Because Imad and Shadab are also gifted with the bat, Pakistan have the advantage of being able to play five bowlers. That leaves a pair of specialist bowler positions open alongside Amir, Imad and Shadab.
Those two spots look likely to be filled by aggressive left-arm quicks Mohammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz. They played in Pakistan’s easy warm-up win over a Cricket Australia XI on Thursday, taking 1-19 from four overs and 1-27 from four overs, respectively.
Both of those pacemen are natural wicket-takers. Wahab has a great short ball and is capable of nudging 150kmh. Irfan, meanwhile, is a truly unique bowler due to his extraordinary height – standing 216cm he is a whopping 20cm taller than Mitchell Starc.
An Australian batting line-up missing its best player of the past two years, Glenn Maxwell, faces a stiff task against this Pakistan attack. The home bowlers appear to have a simpler challenge due to the absence of Sarfraz, Malik and Hafeez.
Pakistan do, however, have the world’s number one ranked T20I batsman in Babar. The 25-year-old is a sedate batsman by T20 standards, scoring at just 7.6 runs per over in his international career. Consistency is his greatest asset, having passed 30 in no less than 55 per cent of his career innings.
(Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Babar anchors the Pakistan innings, giving freedom to attack for more dynamic batsman like Fakhar Zaman and Asif Ali. Pakistan are not, and never have been, a particularly high-scoring T20I side.
Similar to the dominant Perth Scorchers team under the reign of Justin Langer, their biggest strength has been disciplined bowling and a supreme ability to defend even middling totals.
Compared to Sri Lanka, their attack is fantastic, even without Hasan and Afridi. Pakistan may not be at full strength, but they loom as fierce foes for the Aussies over the next week.
dat
Roar Rookie
It's kinda partly the fault of the culture in the sub continent ,generally the state/district you are born in will support you to no end.You could be booked for match fixing and be guilty in everyone else's view, but the home base would still rather believe in some wild conspiracy theories responsible for entrapping their heroes. With every match dhoni skip these days (and pant's poor form of late), his home as well as ipl fans grows stronger in their believes, that he can go on for an another 2-3 years. Rizwan in terms of his role as a keeper batsman and Babar as the captain will be under a similar scrutiny for next few months and if either underachieves Sarfraz would be back, even without any major change in his batting form.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
"It has been a difficult decision to drop Sarfaraz Ahmed, who has performed well as a player and a leader," Mani said in a statement. " - PCB Chairman. His statement centered around Sarfraz's form as being the issue. But lot's of doublespeak going on, as usual.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Ha. The Hindustan Times quoting a "source" which essentially implies the Pakistan team are lazy. Well there's a surprise!
Paul
Roar Guru
Thanks Dat, but what you've described is a different matter entirely, certainly different from the releases I've read in the past few days. If the guy is underperforming and/or out of form, by all means drop him, but the stories, which might have sparked those protests you mentioned ONLY talk about his captaincy issues and on the surface, being a bad captain is not a reason to be be dropped. Being a bad captain and a player not good enough to be in a side is.
dat
Roar Rookie
Outside his own state of Karachi holding protests over the news of him being sacked, pakistani fans in general agreed on the need to drop him. His avg of 33 in odis and 28 in t20is doesn’t necessarily ensure him a place in the 11 as he lacks the hitting ability down the order, while guys like babar and harris sohail are better than him at playing the anchor roles. He was once a very solid test batsman, but ever since misbah’s and younis retirement he is averaging 25 with the bat. Most felt he was holding on to his spot just because he was the capt,add that to the fact he regularly has verbal spats with his bowlers(debutantes and veterans alike) if they don’t bowl according to his wishes ,and his own fitness not being up to par for the most part and it feels like the most logical decision misbah had made in short tenure as coach/selector. Doesn’t make much sense in having a captain who shouts at his bowlers for one bad over they bowled when his own form has been questionable.
KenoathCarnt
Roar Rookie
— COMMENT DELETED —
Paul
Roar Guru
That probably sums up Pakistani politics and how off field people can influence the team. It makes sense to sack a captain if he's not getting the leadership job done but to sack one of their best players suggests something more is at play.
Paul
Roar Guru
I had exactly the same recently happen to me Dave, so wrote to the editors asking why. It was an interesting exchange and the final response was, they weren't really sure, so I guess it's down to what ever the proof reader/editor decides should be the title.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Suspect Ronan doesn’t write his headlines. I submitted an article once and they changed my headline - to something worse in my opinion.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Surprised to see Sarfaraz sacked as captain and gone from the tour as he seemed a real leader, and has a strong Test batting record. But apparently Pakistan management have had their concerns and Misbah doesn’t like his attitude: “ He is unhappy that some players are just too relaxed and take training lightly and are not working on improving their cricket discipline. He has also not been encouraged by the attitude of captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed whom he feels shies away from taking responsibility when the chips are down,” a source was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times. Their 3-0 loss to SL in a T20 series seems to have been the last straw.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Paul, remember when South Africa came out here at the same time last year? No, neither do I. CA is fully invested in the BBL cash cow and Internationals have been moved to the periphery. Now if it wasn't for that irritating Boxing Day Test tradition, we could have a BBL triple header. Hey, I wonder if CA has asked SA or NZ if they can have two thirds of a Boxing Day gate for a Test match, then CA can increase their revenue streams.
Paul
Roar Guru
I assume Ronan doesn't write his own headlines. Yesterday's piece was titled " Mighty Pakistan await cruising Aussies", while todays is suggesting something completely different. IMO, Pakistan cricket in general terms could best be described as mercurial. When any of their teams are "on", they can comfortably face down and beat any other team in world cricket, as some of their recent World Cup results show. On the other hand, they can equally fall in a heap, as they did comprehensively in the recent T20 series whitewash against Sri Lanka. I think CA wanted to begin the international season with a bang by playing six T20's in October/November, but to date, there have been hardly any fireworks and, from what I can gather, hardly any spectators or interest. I'm sure CA more than anyone else will be hoping the real Pakistan steps up and makes this series into a real contest, otherwise it could turn the rest of the summer into a fizzer.