Well it seems like the T20 World Cup will be going ahead this year and there are two sides being discussed in the majority of the discourse around potential winners. For my money there are two strong favourites, a third team who are approaching dynasty territory, and a fourth who could just as well win it all, as bomb entirely.
*Disclaimer, this was initially supposed to be one long read, but it ended up over 3,000 words so consider this the first part of a T20 Men’s World Cup series.
So, Pakistan then.
Pakistan are a side renowned for being rather difficult to pick over the years, off-field issues and on-field meltdowns have led to them losing games in fashions not befitting a team of their talent, equally there is a lot of quality here which is able to overcome any side in the world, at any moment.
The batting lineup is fairly simple to predict, concerning how they play. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are probably the outstanding opening partnership in international T20 cricket at the moment, and their foundation laying formula is successful.
Considering the circumspect nature of their top order, it is perhaps bizarre that Fakhar Zaman remains in the reserves list, given his ability to attack from the off and put pressure on in the powerplay.
Aside from their prolific top-order, Pakistan’s main strength, as it has done for decades, remains in their electric pace unit.
Shaheen Afridi is one of the best bowlers in the world, especially in the shortest format, and his pace (consistently 140kph) allied with the ability to swing the ball both ways makes him a constant wicket taking threat at either end of the innings.
Haris Rauf caught the BBL cold back in the 2019 Australian summer, and has remained one of the T20 circuit’s premier pacers since. Rauf has an action that is a nightmare for batters to pick up which delivers the ball at speeds regularly reaching towards 150kph. Throw in a handy mix of variations and Rauf becomes a real handful.
Mohammad Hasnain is another very young, raw, rapid and exciting pace bowler. Erratic at times, the 21 year old is more than capable of ripping the core out of a batting unit. Hasan Ali has been doing the business for a number of years now in all formats, the 2017 Champions Trophy final against India a real highlight, on UAE pitches, hitting the surface and finding irregular bounce and movement may prove key.
The final area of strength for Pakistan is their spin bowling. Whilst short of a real amount of mystery (Usman Qadir warms the bench as of now) Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim provide wickets and stability aplenty. Imad’s more pacey left-arm spin, delivered from a tall frame, are simply hard to hit. This offers a powerplay option as well as a standard middle overs role. Shadab – as a leg-spinner – is a wicket-taking threat but a career economy of 7.25 suggests an impressive control as well. Both can bat, with Imad a more powerful option, and Shadab a dynamic, fighting lower order option.
If Pakistan click, they can beat any team in the tournament, in thrilling style. If they do not, then it could be messy. If Babar and Rizwan set enough of a platform for their battery of pacers and economic spinners to defend consistently, they are right in the mix.
Phot credit: Ashley on flickr, creative commons 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode
Michael Vince on Sport 