Pakistan just lost its ODI series against Bangladesh in the worst possible manner by 3-0. This is the first time that Pakistan has not only lost three consecutive matches to Bangladesh but also lost series to a weak team like Bangladesh with also getting whitewashed. This is possibly the worst nightmare for the Pakistan cricket.
For first time in history Pakistan cricket team fall to number 8th ranking in ODI’s by ICC. It never happened before. Usually they will get to as low as No. 6th or 7th ranking not more than that.
Several factors could be the cause of this dilemma faced by the Pakistan cricket in this series loss. The most common problem are the mismanagement of the team management, the captaincy issue, imbalanced Pakistan cricket team with poor performance by pakistan players and some extraordinary performance by the Bangladeshi tigers.
Pakistan hadn’t the balanced team in the recent matches. There is a big problem with opening batsmen who normally couldn’t provide a good start, then the middle order batsmen where no big partnerships could be created. Now deficiency of the big hitter Shahid Afridi was also greatly felt, as he usually provide the momentum to the team in the middle and death overs and always kept pressure on the opposite team while he was on the crease. Along with batting bad bowling was also reason for the defeat. Insufficient and incompetent combination of spin and fast bowling. together with shortage of five full-time bowlers was also a reason of failure. Team requires a wicket keeper who should have ability to score fast and consistence with good keeping.
Captaincy is a major problem after Misbah left ODI cricket. He was not only an extraordinary middle overs player but a great captain also who won a lot of matches for Pakistan based on his best interpersonal skills, planning and hard work. Also the team looked united under his command and competed as one unit. But lack of these competencies could be easily found in the new ODI captain Azhar Ali who had very little experience of ODI cricket and had played a few ODI’s only. He needs a lot more time, experience and practice to prove himself a better captain.
Pakistan team management which looks like root cause of all the problems is showing complete mismanagement. they only took short-term decisions regarding players, coaches etc and no long-term planning is formulated which has adversely affected the performance of the players as they can’t align themselves with rapid changing conditions in cricket these days. And when board officials and seniors will be biased in taking decisions for personal benefits and ego then no good results could be expected from the team.
And in the end credit goes to the Bangladesh Cricket Team. They played really well and has shown top class cricket throughout the series. They carried on the superb performance that they had previously shown in the cricket world cup which is also noteworthy. Along with that in the current series against Pakistan they also had the benefit of home ground and home crowd and which they took it positively as reflected by their performance.
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