World T20 2016: SWOT Analysis of the Pakistan team

Pakistan had a disastrous Asia Cup T20. Their much famed bowling attack did its bit to give them a chance but, their fielding and batting, though, let them down immensely. Against India, they were bowled out for a paltry 83 and only the heroics of Mohammed Amir gave them any hope of actually winning the game. Even against Bangladesh, UAE, and Sri Lanka, their middle order of Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik and Sarfaraz Ahmed helped them get to a respectable total. Let us then take a look at Pakistan’s chances in the World T20.

Strength:

The pace quartet of Mohammed Amir, Wahab Riaz, Mohammed Sami and Mohammed Irfan look quite threatening. It was quite baffling to see Pakistan dropping Riaz after the first game. If all four of these fire, it will be very difficult for their opposition to get away. Even though Shahid Afridi looked out of touch with the ball, his drifters on more spin friendly tracks in India. Mohammed Amir looked in ominous form hardly giving anything to the batsmen to work with, he will be Pakistan’s leader of the pack in the World T20 and if they want to go past the Super 10, a lot will ride on him.

Weakness:

Pakistan’s batting has been their weakness for a long time now. Their top 3 failed to get any sort of start. Sharjeel Khan and Khurram Manzoor both failed to impress. Khurram has been dropped to make way for Ahmed Shehzad, who will hope to fulfil his potential. Sharjeel’s lacklustre show could be attributed to his “glory hunting” style of play where he simply attempted to score boundaries with no match awareness or the need to simply rotate the strike. Such style of play is really what was expected in the early days of the format, Sharjeel needs to evolve his game if he wants to succeed in the format.

Mohammed Hafeez would want to get back to run-scoring ways, his lack of form has really troubled the Pakistan team. The only bright spots in their batting are Shoaib Malik, Sarfaraz Ahmed and the mercurial Umar Akmal. The onus again will be on these three to carry the burden of scoring in the World T20.

Opportunities:

Pakistan did put India under pressure while chasing a paltry 83, so their bowling does give them an opportunity to floor the opposition. And even though they had a terrible Asia Cup, they will find solace in their performance against Sri Lanka where they chased quite well. New Zealand and Australia have shown some trouble against spin and exploiting those will really give Pakistan’s chances a boost to progress to the semi-finals.

Threats:

Pakistan faces an uphill task given their recent show in the Asia Cup. If Bangladesh, who everyone backs to make it to the Super 10, do eventually qualify for it, Pakistan will enter the tournament as the weakest team in the group, which will really put a lot of pressure on them to perform well.

Apart from that, they do have the risk of being blown away at the top by the formidable bowling lineups each of their opponents have, that would really put them on the back foot. It is really important that Pakistan do away with the chinks in their armour and out a brave show.

Squad: Shahid Afridi (C), Anwar Ali, Imad Wasim, Khalid Latif, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Sami, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Sharjeel Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz.

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