Pakistan will be up against Sri Lanka in Match No. 10, which is a dead rubber. Both teams have struggled in the Asia Cup Twenty20 (T20) 2016 series and have just not been able to perform to the best of their potential. After Pakistan’s critical loss against Bangladesh by five-wickets, which sending them crashing out of the Asia Cup final contention, there has been heavy criticism by experts and former cricketers of Pakistan Cricket. T20 Captain Shahid Afridi has been on the bitter end of it, along with the team selectors. After Pakistan’s loss to India in their first match and then the hosts Bangladesh, this reaction was inevitable though.
Friday’s match against the Lankans, will be a chance for Pakistan to earn some respect among their fans and they will be playing for pride as well. Going into the ICC World T20 2016 in India in this shape will definitely hurt Pakistan, and they will certainly want to change that. A win against Sri Lanka, who themselves haven’t shown much resistance and looked out of sorts, will certainly lift the spirit inside the Pakistani dressing room. Most importantly, a decent performance, more so with the bat will provide momentum before heading into the WT20. Waqar Younis, said they were ready and willing to make changes in the squad before Pakistan play their final game in a tournament which was quite necessary for them to know where they stand.
Top-Order – Well, the most worrisome area for Pakistan over their last few T20 matches has been their top-order. Sharjeel Khan and Khurram Manzoor have failed to perform and have been consistently ineffective. The desire to go out there and score big has not been there. Mohammad Hafeez’s bad form has made matters worse. He has not made use of the opening power-play, when he played as an opener in his side’s first two matches against India and UAE and has lost his wicket cheaply. And when the batting order was all over the place as Wasim Akram pointed out, even then he couldn’t score much. Therefore, Khalid Latif might get a place in the team when they face Sri Lanka.
Middle-Order – One of the very few positives for the Pakistan team in this Asia Cup, has been the performance of their middle order. The middle-order has shown signs of fight back. Infact Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal and Sarfraz Ahmed have not only taken them to respectable totals in important matches, they have shown they can chase well under pressure too, like in the match against UAE. But what is needed is a collective team performance at least in terms of batting.
Lower Order – In what has been Pakistan’s strength in a not-so-successful competition, the bowling has been impressive and up to the mark. Shahid Afridi, though should look to answer his critics with his bat, if he gets a chance. He really needs to get some runs under his belt. The pacers have been excellent form, especially Mohammad Aamer who has shown individual brilliance at times to produce breakthroughs whenever Pakistan needed them. His yorkers and swinging deliveries have made it really tough for the opposition batsmen to play him. Mohammad Irfan has supported him well, from the other end. Mohammad Sami has been fairly good, apart from the last match; where he bowled two rather match changing no-balls at an important stage of the game. Anwar Ali proved to be very expensive against the hosts Bangladesh and therefore left-arm orthodox, Imad Wasim might get a look-in in place of him but that would depend on the conditions at the stadium.
Pakistan Playing XI: Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Khalid Latif, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed (Wicket-keeper), Shahid Afridi (Captain), Anwar Ali/Imad Wasim, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Irfan