“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” – the famous basketball legend Michael Jordan once said. This epitomises the theme of a team game.
Sadly, this teamwork has been missing on most of the occasions from our Pakistan teams. The recent results of Pakistan teams in all three formats have been disappointing and prove a lot to be desired. Pakistan lost the T20I series 4-1. Accepted, they took some new players, but New Zealand were also missing their seven key players. The difference in the standards of both the teams was big. Despite the return of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, Pakistan came a cropper in the ODIs, humiliated 3-0. There are no excuses. Pakistan had more experience in their ranks than New Zealand. But it did not show in the results.
“Pakistan men’s cricket team has won just three out of 16 international matches in 2025. A wooden spoon in the Test Championship, no win in the Champions Trophy and failed to reach the Super Eight in the T20 World Cup last year. Fair to say Pakistan’s cricket is at an all-time low,” said Mazhar Arshad, a widely travelled statistician.
The latest scenario, despite being gloomy, can be changed. But it will need consistent, honest and stringent steps. The system is rotten and of old style and needs a reboot. From here on, we need to build our cricket teams in all three formats. Any wrong measure may bust them to further lows.
Pakistan’s white-ball tour is akin to crash and burn. For a team that at the turn of last year had won an elusive ODI series in Australia 2-1 — first win Down Under for 22 years — and then inflicted a first-ever home whitewash on a formidable South Africa, the results portrayed vicissitude of fortunes. Before the disastrous tour the same team had a winless Champions Trophy. This sudden dip is inscrutable.
“Tough times”
These results have pushed Pakistan cricket into a chasm. A gulf now exists between Pakistan and other teams. These are tough times for Pakistan cricket and can have adverse effects. Teams like Afghanistan and New Zealand are now above us and will surely demand better funding than us from the International Cricket Council’s revenues.
Now these results are beyond us, and can’t be changed. Let bygones be bygones. We have to revive our cricket standards. Teams need to be lifted, in all three formats. If we want to compete with other teams in the top tier then we have to lift our standards. These will need proper planning and inquest. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi is proactive and wants improvement from the core of his heart. His active involvement played a key role in Pakistan in not only successfully hosting the Champions trophy but also taking major forces head on to make the case strong.
When we talk about improvement, we need to first find out the reasons for the team’s sudden dip, especially in the white-ball formats. PCB has acquired the services of five greats as mentors. They should be asked about the reasons for the sudden dip. There should be a proper accountability on how the team doing so well has suddenly lost its way. Who were the people who did not select a proper opener and a spinner in the Champions Trophy squad when the whole world was shouting about it.
The trio of fast bowlers
We are sure that one reason for Pakistan’s sudden fall will be to not follow the style of cricket with which other teams are playing. Teams are scoring 350-plus as a norm, we are not even crossing 300 in ODIs. Teams are notching 200 plus totals in T20 cricket for fun. We are not doing that and are just confined to 160-170. Why has our much vaunted fast bowling has become so powerless in the last 18 months or so. The stalwarts like Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Haris Rauf have become sclerotic. Various coaches have complained they are not willing to listen and learn.
The trio of fast bowlers, and there are many more in line, are still the best. They need to be told that they are lagging behind. They are not up to the mark but are capable of returning to their best. If they do return, good. If they do not show them the door.
Whatever the decisions are taken after the inquest should be on merit and consistent. We have had five changes in T20I captaincy in the last 14 months or so. We asked Shaheen Shah Afridi to lead the T20I side in January last year but sacked him after just one series. Babar was brought back, and after an abject, humiliating surrender in the T20 World Cup, forced him to step down. In comes Rizwan, who led in Australia but was rested for the Zimbabwe series.
Salman Agha was given the reins in Zimbabwe but found himself out in the cold and was not even in the squad for the three T20Is against South Africa. But after the Champions Trophy disaster, Salman was brought back as captain.
It’s the right time
This cost Pakistan badly. We need to have one captain, at least until the World Cup. Please, please!
Once and for all, we must decide who are the players to carry to the Twenty20 World Cup in February-March next year. Do we need Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in the shortest format? If yes, they must be told that the tempo at which they play needs to be lifted. The strike rate they play with needs big improvement.
We need to know, now, who the 15 players are we want to take to Sri Lanka for the World Cup next year. We need to play them in all our series — barring any injury — so that they have the confidence and the readiness to play in the global event.
The decision should be epoch-making. The next cycle of the World Test Championship is about to begin later this year. Pakistan was fifth in the first cycle, and it deteriorated to seventh in the second and turned into an abysmal ninth and last in the third. Pakistan has been disappointing is an understatement.
We have to build the ODI side for the next World Cup in two years ‘ time. We have to create separate pools for all three formats. We have to groom our performers of domestic cricket and from the Under-19 team through “A” teams tours to countries like Australia, New Zealand, and England.
As the old saying goes, “There’s no wrong time to make the right decision.” It’s the right time to take tough decisions for Pakistan cricket. We must build Pakistan cricket teams, not bust them.
