Pakistani cricket pundits take pride in describing the Pakistan team as the most dangerous and unpredictable. It is sad that cricket experts aspiring for various coveted jobs in PCB try to cover up management and team flaws by sweeping glaring mistakes under the carpet of unpredictability.

Before going to New Zealand, Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka in Asia Cup final in an unprofessional manner and later hosted England for seven T20 match series as part of T20 World Cup preparations, which England won by a margin of one match.

After an average performance with the bat in the Asia Cup and against England in Pakistan, cricket experts were expecting some changes in the batting line up before the team’s departure to New Zealand. However, the player power prevailed and the “friends eleven” left for New Zealand without much surprise.

In the absence of established grassroots cricket in education institutions, cricket in Pakistan has grown in streets with tape-ball over the years, which is quite different from professional cricket. Pakistan keeps on churning quick bowlers but its batting and fielding departments lack professionalism, power and technique. Tape ball cricket provides you the opportunity to ball quick in the streets, but it’s impossible to learn correct batting and fielding in street cricket, which can’t be mastered later.

I would like to draw the attention of cricket pundits towards the fourth T20 played between Pakistan and New Zealand in Christchurch on 11th October where Pakistan after winning the toss decided to bat first. Pakistan ended up scoring 130 for 7 in 20 overs. New Zealand achieved the target in 16 overs at the cost of one wicket only. Martin Guptil alone hit 6 sixes in his 62 runs innings in the match where Pakistan’s entire batting power house failed to hit a single six in the 20 overs.

If Pakistan team has to continue playing in the same fashion of unpredictability, then there is no need to pay heavy purses to support staff who seem helpless in front of player power.

Elite sports played by professionals are not left to chance. Most of the game aspects are now developable and controllable provided the players are physically fit, technically correct and have rehearsed the game scenarios several times, leaving nothing to chance.

We all understand the factor of bad luck, injury and lack of form that can affect an athlete’s performance. A player is given adequate rest and substituted with another player till the time he regains his form, fitness and confidence.

Unfortunately, the player power in Pakistan cricket is so strong that it supersedes all logic, coaching and selection plans. It is because of this that Pakistan cricket embarks on the path of unprofessionalism. Its leadership despite personal batting glory is unimaginative and hardly comes out with any out-of-the-box solution when chips are down.

Pakistan is lucky to have a strong bowling line up that mostly bails the team out of difficult situations. However, T20 is an unkind game with little or no chance of error. If Pakistan team’s batters, fielders and leadership continue to perform in the same fashion, then one shouldn’t expect much from Pakistan on bouncy Australian pitches against quality bowlers supported by professional batting and fielding.

In the absence of experienced Hafeez and fit Shoaib Malik the responsibility of batting in upper middle order rests on the shoulders of Shan Masood and Haider Ali who have to perform under pressure created due to the inability of Pakistani openers to clear the infield in the first six overs. Individual performance of Pakistani openers is fantastic but they are consuming too many overs to achieve personal glory at the cost of team result.

While I was posting this article for TNS, Pakistan managed to chase 173 scored by Bangladesh in 19.5 overs in their sixth match. Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan set up the platform with their eighth century opening stand in T20 and Nawaz chipped in with quick 45 to take Pakistan to victory against an average bowling attack.

The worry remains about Pakistan batting first against quality bowling lines of Australia, England and India on bouncy tracks and in bigger Australian grounds. It would be better if Pakistani batsmen spent some of their precious time in golf courses or baseball grounds to improve their pinch hitting and bat swing before the start of the T20 World Cup. Otherwise, the result would be predictable.

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