When the Pakistan cricket team landed in England for the ODI and T20I series, it was a general perception that it would be a tough task for the Green-shirts to beat the hosts in seaming conditions.

When England replaced the complete squad for the ODI series after three players and four staff members tested positive for Covid-19 and announced an inexperienced 18-man squad, suddenly things started looking good for Pakistan.

But what happened? Pakistan got whitewashed by a makeshift England team in the 3-match ODI series. After losing the first two ODIs quite easily, Pakistan tried to make a strong comeback when they posted 331 on the board. But the English team achieved the target in 48 overs.

Most of Pakistan’s defeats occur because of the failures of the batsmen and it is assumed that bowling is the strong area for Pakistan cricket, but in the third ODI this was proved wrong. Six bowlers failed to defend a reasonable total. As usual, sloppy fielding also played an important role to complete the whitewash.

They looked helpless against England pace attack and lost wickets one after another. Batting on seaming tracks has always been a problem for Pakistani batsmen.

In the first ODI Pakistan entered Cardiff as the favourites, but the Saqib Mahmood-led bowling attack was too hot to handle for the Pakistan batsmen. On the first ball of the ODI series, Imam-ul-Haq was gone and after just one ball skipper Babar Azam lost his wicket and after a few overs Pakistan had lost four wickets for just 26 runs.

Pakistan never recovered from the early damage and were bowled out for 141 that was easily chased by the inexperienced batsmen in the 27th over for the loss of only one wicket.

In the second ODI at Lord’s, the home side bowled out the visitors for 195 and won the match by 52 runs.

At one stage, England was 160-7 and reaching 200 looked unlikely. But Lewis Gregory and Brydon Carse added 69 in 77 balls, giving the hosts a chance to defend a competitive total of 247.

Fast bowler Hassan Ali argued that the ODI series loss was due to change in conditions. It’s a lame excuse from the pacer as it was Pakistan national side not a club team. Professionals should be ready to face any condition.

Imam-ul-Haq failed in the first two matches as he managed to score just one run in the first two matches, but in the last ODI, he found his form with a watchful fifty.

Opener Fakhar Zaman is an aggressive opener, having a good track record with an average of over 48 in ODIs. But in this series, he was not up to the mark. He failed to score even one fifty. He scored 63 runs in three ODIs at an average of 21.

Vice captain Shadab Khan also remained ineffective in the ODI series as he took only three wickets after conceding 129 runs at an average of 43.

In 2021, Shadab has played five ODIs, taking only three wickets at a high average of 79.33.

Though Usman Qadir was in the ODI squad, he didn’t get a chance as Babar’s deputy Shadab had his place secure.

It’s an alarming situation that in the current squad, there is no world class spinner who can threaten a quality opposition. Since Saeed Ajmal, no quality spinner has been discovered by the national and academies coach.

If we want to beat Australia, England, South Africa and the West Indies, the management must find an outstanding spinner at the earliest.

The role of all-rounder Faheem Ashraf in the ODI squad is also debatable. He has been failing with both bat and ball.

In the ODI series, he scored only 16 runs and failed to take a single wicket, conceding 112 runs at an economy rate of 6.58.

In his 31 ODIs, he has scored only 218 runs at an average of just 11.47. He has taken just 23 wickets at a high average of 46.08.

The failure of batsmen raises questions about the ability of the coaching panel. How much more time should be given to these coaches?

Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis have had multiple roles in different tenures with the Pakistan team, but they have failed to produce positive result.

In 2019, PCB sacked Mickey Arthur after the World Cup defeat. Misbah was selected as the head coach.

Some former cricketers, especially Ramiz Raja, were against the idea of Misbah’s appointment because of his defensive approach. They said that the new coach should have a positive approach and be aggressive and time has proved that they were right.

In January this year in a press conference, former Test fast bowler Aaqib Javed lambasted the performance of the Pakistan team and called Misbah and Waqar “not coaches”.

Since the appointment of Misbah, Pakistan’s overall record has remained poor as the Green-shirts suffered whitewashes against Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand in Tests and T20I series and England in ODI series.

Without any doubt Babar Azam is a world class batsman, but hasn’t proved to be a good leader. Leading the side in unfavourable conditions and producing positive results under pressure look too tough for Babar.

Babar, however, returned to form with a record-breaking 158 in the third ODI. He became the first Pakistan captain to make a 150-plus score in ODI cricket.

Babar scored his 14th ODI hundred in his 81st innings. Hashim Amla was the previous quickest who scored his 14th century in his 84th innings.

Babar was the highest scorer of the ODI series with 177 runs at an average of 59. For the hosts, James Vince was the most successful batsman with 158 runs, averaging 79 with one hundred and one fifty.

England’s Saqib Mahmood remained the most successful bowler of the series with nine wickets, averaging 13.66. Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali took six wickets each averaging 24.50 and 25.50, respectively.

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