LAHORE: The Pakistani middle-order batting has been under a scanner for the past few months, and it got a lot of flak from the fans for its lacklustre show in the ACC T20 Asia Cup 2022, the seven match T20I home series against England and the group-stage matches of the tri-series featuring Pakistan, Bangladesh and hosts New Zealand in Chirstchurch, New Zealand. The last being the only series where the Shaheens emerged victorious on Friday.
Though some individual performances from the middle-order batting can be recalled form the memory-lane but no such match can be quoted where the middle-order batters rallied to win a match for the Pakistan team since the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE and Oman.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) earned more public ire after the Pakistan team for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia was announced last month and ace all-rounder Shoaib Malik and Imad Wasim were ignored. Chief Selector Mohammad Waseem had claimed that the best squad was picked keeping in mind the conditions in Australia – the host country of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. Pakistani cricket fans looked dissatisfied with the team-selection only due to the selection of certain middle-order batters who had lost confidence of the fans but not the management.
The onus of burden was on the middle-orders batters like Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah to justify their inclusion in the World Cup-bound squad through their glittering performance with the bat. Notwithstanding some individual performances from all-rounders Shadab Khan and Muhammad Nawaz in the tri-nation series in New Zealand, a lot was wanting from the middle-order batters.
It was not until the final of the tri-nation series in Christchurch on Friday when Pakistan middle-order showed a glimmer of hope through a match-changing knock of 31 off 15 balls from Haider Ali and match –winning innings of 38 (22) runs by Muhammad Nawaz. Iftikhar Ahmed also played a responsible knock of 25 off 14 balls and finished the match with a six off Tickner across the mid-wicket fence.
The thunderous knock of 31 runs from Haider Ali turned the tables on the hosts New Zealand who had almost pushed the Pakistan team to the wall by the 12th over when Mohammad Rizwan fell with the total at 74-3. Haider Ali added quick-fire 58 runs off 26 balls with Muhammad Nawaz and by the time he fell of a slower ball from Tim Southee in the 16th over with the total on 132, Pakistan team could see the victory well-wrought on the clear Christchurch skies. The victory in the last match of the tri-series meant that Pakistan lifted the trophy before entering the T20 World Cup.
Haider Ali, after the match, said that the innings has boosted his morale and thanked the team management for keeping faith in him despite failures. He said the Pakistani middle-order batters were ready for the T20 World Cup 2022.
Haider Ali’s morale should be high after the win but the victory will also have restored fans’ confidence, hitherto lost, in the middle-order batting. Pakistani fans can hope that the middle-order batting will deliver in Australia and keep hopes of yet another World Cup trophy alive in Melbourne where former captain lifted the ICC men’s ODI World Cup 1992.
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