Pakistan cricket was one of the most dominating teams in the 90s. Since 2010, the national team started to go down though it still continued to perform well on a few occasions — in some big-ticket events — but have fallen way behind some of the current big teams such as India, England, Australia or New Zealand.
The Babar Azam-led Men in Green have had a good 2021 so far, but they have plenty to catch up on in terms of matching other daunting teams of the modern era. In order to take the Men in Green back to their glory days, opener Imam-ul-Haq recently revealed his talk with Virat Kohli and Eoin Morgan, two of the most successful international skippers currently, where he tried to decode the difference and where Pakistan is lagging behind India, England, etc.
“I have spoken to Eoin Morgan and Virat Kohli, two of the most successful captains in white-ball cricket. I have heard from them and their players that the cricketers get a full go and a proper run to prove themselves. I think this is where we are lacking,” Imam told sports presenter Sawera Pasha on the YouTube show ‘Cricast’. He added, “I think if we find that consistency, we will get better results. In South Africa, we managed to chase 330, because the core of the ODI side has been the same for a while.”
He further opined, “In India, IPL has made a big difference. The batsmen face the same bowlers in international cricket whom they have already faced in IPL and have even done well against them. So when they face these bowlers in international cricket, there is less of a mental barrier. For Pakistan, a player is directly drafted in from domestic cricket, so he finds it difficult to make that immediate adjustment.”
In terms of rankings, Pakistan occupy the 5th spot in Tests, 6th in ODIs and are at fourth place in T20Is. The Men in Green will be eager to back their players from hereon, form a core and go all-out when they commence their campaign in the forthcoming T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held later this year.
In their last ICC event, Pakistan bowed out of the 2019 ODI World Cup in the group stages.
