The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Hello, good morning sports fans, I hope you’re well looking after yourselves and are in good health. Sports fans, we need to talk about an issue important in the world of sports, cricket to be precise.

Cricket fans and in particular Pakistan cricket fans, you will be aware this is the first series that ex-captain Babar Azam is back in charge of the white-ball teams (T20 and ODI teams).

First up for Babar’s men was a series on home soil against The Black Caps. On paper, a very tough assignment indeed. New Zealand are a side when it comes to tournament cricket are there, there about when it comes to the later stages of big tournaments.

In this current series however, due to the ongoing IPL tournament, they are being captained by Michel Bracewell and are having to do without players such as Kane Williamson, who is playing for IPL side Gujarat Titans.

Despite the tourists being depleted, they gave more than a good account of themselves after they drew the five-match series 2-2. This series result in Pakistan has drawn a lot of criticism.

In my humble opinion, some of this is justified and some of it isn’t. Hosts Pakistan used this series to test out some combinations and they also used this as a chance to look at players who have been warming up the bench.

Players like Imad Wasim and Mohammed Amir were high-profile players making a return to the test side, but former vice-captain in the previous regime Shadab Khan was another play to return to the set-up.

PSL winning captain Shadab, on the international stage did ok with the ball, but it was with the bat where he showed promise for the 2009 T20 World Cup winners. After having a middle-order consisting of Asif Ali, Shoaib Malik and Mohammed Hafeez, Pakistan have not had a middle order of this calibre since.

With players like Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan, this can go some way to addressing this issue. The aforementioned trio were a fearsome middle-order as they were power hitters when they needed to.

Imad and Shadab, both have shown they have such prowess. To compliment them two, there is Fakhar Zaman, who in the recently concluded series against New Zealand was batting at four.

There is good and bad with this. Putting Fakhar lower down gives the middle of the innings some impetus, but it takes away what he gives at the top of the order. At this point, some of the Pakistani faithful will say you forgot Cha-cha, Iftikhar Ahmed.

Sports fans, I didn’t. A middle-order batsman he is, but I have a big issue with him, and that’s his strike rate. Sure he can hit a long ball, but arguably he takes four or five deliveries to load up for that one big hit.

Having said that, in Australia Iftikhar earlier in the tournament played a few brilliant knocks. As a sports writer and admittedly a fan, I have the easiest job. I can pretend to be Azhar Mahmood but have the safety of jumping back to my computer and resuming my role as editor-in-chief of the-sports-buff.com.

So to conclude, Pakistan need to solidify their middle order (we already knew that). A genuine world-class spinner wouldn’t go a miss, although when on song, Shadab Khan is no mug with the ball.

The emergence of Osama Mir is also a boost in this regard. Finally, Pakistan don’t have a fast-bowler all-rounder. India have Hardik Pandya, and Australia you can argue have Pat Cummins, but they do have players like Cam Green and Mitchell Marsh.

They used to have this kind of player in the form of Waseem Akram and Abdur-Razzaq and even current coach Azhar Mehmood was a fast bowler and very handy batsman.

I would like Mohammed Wasim to be moulded into this role, but if anything it looks like it’s going to be Shaheen Shah Afridi who will be deployed in that kind of role.

So, this is what I have observed after watching the current series. Do you agree with my findings? Do let me know in the comments.

Here at the-sports-buff.com, we have enjoyed serving you the readers. Thank you for your support and your feedback. We are aiming to grow, and we need your help.

We please need your support as we look to grow our team further and improve our site. With as little or as much as you can do to our site to grow, so it can be one of the pioneers of sports that we know it can be, we appreciate it if you could donate, as much or as little as you can.