Nowadays, the cricket craze is very high as more nations are acquiring to compete at the world level. T20 World Cup 2022 is around the corner and will start next month, so all the cricket nations, whether they are qualified or still in struggle to qualify for the international event, are announcing their 15 players’ squad for the event.
Let’s talk to the Pakistan cricket team squad for T20 World Cup in Australia, which is consisted on Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Junior, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Usman Qadir.
Traveling reserves are Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Haris and Shahnawaz Dahani. However Changes can be made to the squad till 15 October, without needing the Event Technical Committee’s approval.
As a cricket fan I was already aware on the basis of Ramiz Raja statements that there will be no big change in the team. After losing Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka, Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ramiz Raja said that this team is champion, on the base of this statement I assumed at that time, that squad would not be changed for T20 world cup. In my opinion, this squad is well balanced, as all batters, bowlers, and all-rounders are capable to win the World Cup by their performance.
As we all know, Shan Maqsood performed well throughout the year and remind selection committee for his inclusion and this was also a demand of the fans. Shaheen Shah Afridi will also available for world cup which is a big news as we all know shaheen performance in last year world cup was outclass.
After Pakistan cricket team lost the final of Asia Cup, everyone, either cricket fans or experts criticized team players for poor performance and forgot what this team had achieved in previous matches.
For example some fans criticize players for not batting well as Captain Babar Azam not scoring runs and Muhammad Rizwan scored run but with slow strike rate, fans might be right but you cannot change player by watch one game performances, these two players won the game against India in T20 world Cup 2021. Some fans lashed out Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah for not finishing the final of Asia Cup well and did not help Pakistan team to win the title, but sometime good players can also fail to perform, and in this situation national players need our support. Unfortunately as a nation we neither backup our team and nor accept their failure, though we all know very well that win and loss is a part of game.
On the other hand, some former cricketers don’t agree with approach of Pakistan cricket team which starts slow not giving wickets and try to play till the end, start hitting in the last overs to win the game, but experts say this approach is not successful in modern era cricket, instead they suggest playing aggressively from the start, no matter how many wickets you lost, but maintain the good strike rate. For example it is suitable to 110/4 in 12 over as compare to 82/1 in 12 over.
Maybe this is a good strategy in the eye of experts, but my view is different. I think defensive strategy suit Pakistan more because results show that Pakistan have won more cricket matches by adopting this strategy as compare to the experts suggested one.
In my opinion, the squad selected by PCB’s selection committee is the best and well capable to win T20 world Cup, as this team includes all the stars of Pakistan Cricket and every one of them is a match winner.
