After T20 World Cup loss, what should be Pakistan’s future course of action?

Pakistan cricket team has been knocked out of the mega event after losing to Australia in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup2021. While the national cricket team set many new records in this series, however, there were also a few flaws and a lack of planning among the team members. 

Let’s take a look at Pakistan’s preparation and planning for the T20 World Cup 2021.

National team selection

The choice of team for any competition is of utmost importance as to how to include batsmen, bowlers, and all-rounders in the team and which player to use when and where. However, the team selected for the mega event was changed twice by Pakistan and due to these changes, there was uncertainty among the selected players that it is not known when they will be replaced with another player.

Who was in and who was out?

Chief selector Mohammad Waseem initially announced a 15-member squad in which first Azam Khan, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Sohaib Maqsood, and Khushdal Shah were included in the squad, then they were dropped, and then again Khushdal Shah and Mohammad Nawaz were added to the traveling reserve. It was a move that changed the players and repeated changes made the management very worried about the preparation of the final team.

Balance in the team 

After the changes in the Pakistan team, a balanced squad was formed and two experts from each department including the opener, middle order, hard hitter, pacer, spinner, and wicketkeeper were added but the players who were rested also got a chance. If given, the result might be different.

Mohammad Waseem Jr., Mohammad Nawaz, and Haider Ali, who were included in the national team, could have been given a chance in the event, but the captain and the management fielded the same team throughout the event which was the best team in their eyes.

Inexperience

Babar Azam is currently the uncrowned king of the cricket world but as far as leadership is concerned, it is a separate field. There is a tendency in today’s world to make the best performers captains, whereas if we look at the past, in many strong teams, the average player has been made captain instead of the player with the excellent record because individual performance and leadership are two different things.

In this event, Babar Azam, as an individual, was able to perform 100 percent, but due to his inexperience as a captain, many difficulties arose but due to the victory, he was ignored.

Lack of planning

After Australia, Pakistan is the team that has reached the semi-finals of most mega-events and has reached the final twice and won one event while losing the other. But either she reached the semi-finals free from the game of statistics but the lack of planning was noticeable in this stressful match.

The semifinals would be a stressful competition and a young captain should be given such an understanding by the team management and the board that the mistakes made by past captains should not be repeated this time and he should be taught how to control his nerves. Get out of the pressure and get results from the team. How to keep players relaxed, how to get back into the match after missing a catch or miss fielding, and how to stay active while fielding. 

Catch and match 

Cricket experts do not repeat the catch-one match quote but there is a logic behind it that where you drop the catch you get away from victory and the same thing happened with Pakistan in the previous T20 when Rahat Ali hit Wahab Riaz’s ball. But Shane Watson’s catch was dropped and the team was pushed away from the victory and in the recent event also due to Hassan Ali’s drop catch the match got out of Pakistan’s hands.

Future planning

The national team should keep in mind that better results can be achieved by making one or two changes instead of playing the same team in five or six matches in a row but the captain will depend on the same team throughout the event without any changes which are appropriate. There was no action.

We need to learn from this defeat and overcome the shortcomings so that we can come back victorious in the upcoming events by playing a better game.