The Pakistan cricket team will start their ICC Champions Trophy campaign against New Zealand on February 18. As the hosts of the tournament, all of the eyes will be fixated on how they perform. In an event where you can be knocked out for losing just one match, every game is almost do-or-die. But winning won’t be that easy for them.
Strengths: Middle-order & Pacers
Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha are the shining lights for Pakistan. They have rescued them, and when they can’t win, they have kept them alive in matches of late. Be it saving Pakistan from a collapse or taking the scoring rate to another level, Rizwan and Agha can do both.
As for bowling, with Haris Rauf confirmed fit for the ICC Champions Trophy, their fast bowling looks good. Shaheen Shah Afridi is among the wickets again, Naseem Shah continues to impress, and Mohammad Hasnain can provide them with express pace as well. They have Faheem Ashraf as well, who can swing the ball upfront. Someone like Faheem can be good on sluggish pitches with the ball not coming on the bat.
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Weaknesses: Batting positions & approach, spin
Babar Azam, Pakistan’s best ODI batter, is out of form and playing out of position (opening instead of number three). Fakhar Zaman has played just 3 ODIs since the 2023 World Cup and is returning after a layoff.
Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Usman Khan, and Khushdil Shah aren’t that experienced internationally and, when given the opportunity, haven’t done that well. Their batting positions, barring Fakhar’s, aren’t fixed either. They don’t go hard either. They do well chasing but don’t put up big scores when batting first.
They have just one spinner, Abrar Ahmed. Other than that, they have part-timers. Shakeel, Agha, and Khusdil can roll their arm but aren’t genuine wicket-takers. Agha did well in the tri-series but that was on a wicket that assisted spinners rather than pacers or batters. There is no second main or backup spinner, which can cause them massive issues.
Pakistan’s squad for ICC Champions Trophy
Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha (vc), Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi
