Pakistan is a very difficult team to write about at the moment when they get ready to face Zimbabwe in Sri Lanka on Monday in the ICC World Cup.
Pakistan would be almost certain to get inot the last four of the tournament but it has not only beat Zimbabwe today but their own controveries and problems too.
Pakistan came in the World Cup with a lot of controversies; both within the team and outside of it. Then three successive win helped by tremendous performance by Shahid Afridi made it look quite promising. Then came the match against New Zealand and all its prestige was blown away by the super fast Ross Taylor.
Zimbabwe should not be a tough nut to crack but think of Pakistan's own 'naughty nuts'. Since Kamran Akmal is in the news more for dropping chances than grabbing those, it was reported than Shahid Afridi is mulling to play Kamran's brother Umar Akmal as wicketkeeper batsman. Then the younger brother Umar came up with some sort of pain reportedly to force the team management to keep Kamran back in team.
Truly sub continental example of 'bhai bhateejawad' or nepotism.
Now, the Pakistani team management is said to have taken this problem seriously and would not succumb under such tactics.
One may think why it is so important to discuss this 'Akmal syndrome'. Because Ian Chappell says even if Kamran would have been batting better than Sir Donald Bradman, his performance behind the stump should keep him away of the ground.
Back to Pakistan's main team. It has still to resolve the problem of openers, which have failed to provide even a single partnership nearing fifty. The batting is heavily dependent on the middle order and particulalry Younis Khan and Misbahul Haque. Not playing Kamran at the top would also require some thinking by Pakistani team management whether to replace him with a batsman or bowler. Pakistan two other explosive all round batting star Shahid Afridi and Abdurrazaq are not firing.
In the bowling department Pakistan need a lot of improvement as except for Shahid Afridi no other bowler seems to be penetrative enough. The beating Shoaib Akhtar got against Ross Taylor must have forced him to think about variations.
Zimbabwe started badly but its performance is getting better. Fielding is one department in which Zimbabwe is surely superior to Pakistan. But its bowling and batting might not be enough.
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