Why is Pakistan cricket not what it was earlier?

  • January 23, 2024
  • 12:39 AM

Lost Aggression in Pakistan cricket team

Earlier when one thought of Pakistan cricket team, he would visualize animal-like aggression, whether it would be the fast bowlers like Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, and even to some extent Wahab Riaz. They always tried to intimidate the batsman with their fiery balls, and their aggressive sledging techniques. The batsmen also used to spit fire with their aggressive attitude, with Aamir Sohail being the prime example for it, and who can forget the 1996 world cup spat between Aamit Sohail and Venkatesh Prasad, which ended with Venkatesh Prasad dismissing him of the next ball. Have a look at this incident in the video below.

Honestly, these battles on the field with sledging and hostile environment on the ground used to make the Pakistani team a feared entity, which is no longer the case with current players who can hardly be seen engaging in such acts or in any way trying to intimidate the opponents. In tournaments like the World Cup, the players need to show aggression, which in a way may act on the opponent’s mind and can cause them to commit mistakes.

Video below: Aamir Sohail v/s Venkatesh Prasad in the 1996 World Cup

Defensive approach of Pakistan cricket

With the rising of T20 matches, almost all of the teams have started being super-aggressive in their batting, with the batters trying to utilize the starting powerplays with fielding restrictions to get maximum runs and hitting sixes. Pakistani batsmen on the other hand, have been found to be playing old-school cricket, where the focus seems to be on staying at the pitch and scoring with minimum risks towards the start and attempting to go aggressive towards the end of 50 overs, and a testament of this fact has been that Pakistani batsmen had not hit a six in the first 10 overs in the ODI matches played in the year 2023, until their 2023 world cup match against Afghanistan.

Pakistan used to have explosive self-less batsmen like Aamir Sohail, Shahid Afridi, Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzaq in their glory days, which is a big gap in their batting line-up now. Have a look at the video below, which shows how Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir used to approach batting.

Video below: Aggressive batting by Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir

Chaotic Management of Pakistan Cricket

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has for always been surrounded with controversies and accusations from the former and current players for poor management and decision-making. There has always been news of rifts between the captains and the PCB.

The PCB chairman position has been a volatile post to hold. Ramiz Raja, the last PCB chairman was sacked from this position in December 2022, just an year after his appointment. He was supposed to hold the office for 3 years but got sacked after Pakistan suffered a humiliating domestic test series white-wash against England, though there are speculations that ouster of Imran Khan’s government in April 2022, had lead to Ramiz Raja’s exit from PCB. He is currently serving as a commentator in the ICC World cup 2023. 

PCB has been said to be always under impact of the government, therefore making the position even more wobbly. With the management being so unstable, the players are destined to get impacted.

Also read: Ramiz Raja removed as PCB chairman | ESPNcricinfo

Struggle with bowling for Pakistan Cricket team

Pakistani bowling has not been up to the mark recently, especially when it is compared against teams like India, Australia and South Africa, who have been great with their execution, low economy rates, and good average. 

Pakistan has had a legacy of being a great pace-bowling side as legend fast bowlers like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aqib Javed, Shoaib Akhtar, who brought fear into the opponents minds even while they were in their run-ups to bowl. Who can forget the fiery run-ups that Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar used to have, and how they along with Wasim Akram used to bowl the most dreaded swinging yorkers. 

The current Pakistan team has Shahin Afridi who showed glimpses of the past legacy of these fast bowlers with his pacy and swinging deliveries, but after his knee injury suffered earlier in 2023, he has lost that kick in his bowling. Haris Rauf, the fast bowler who consistently is able to breach the 145+ mark speed, has still been baffled by the batsmen as they have took on him aggressively. Naseem Shah, was promising for Pakistan’s bowling, but unfortunately had to miss out on the World cup 2023 due to injury.

Pakistan is struggling even with their spin bowling. It used to have great spinners like Abdul Qadir, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmad, Danish Kaneria, and even Shoaib Malik. The current team misses having that spark in spin bowling with dismal performances from the spinners like Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz and Iftikhar Ahmad, unlike other teams who have world-class spinners in their ranks like Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin for India, Abdul Rashid and Moeen Ali for England, Maharaj for South Africa, Adam Zampa for Australia. 

Video below: Pakistan's golden era of fast bowling

Forgettable fielding by the Pakistan cricket team

Earlier Asian teams were not known to be good or athletic fielders, which has now changed with India, Sri Lanka, and even Bangladesh, and now Afghanistan, where these teams have become excellent fielding sides, with great fielders like Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Shubham Gill, and others.


Pakistan on the other hand, still seems to be stuck in the 1990s and 2000s era, where it was not a big-deal if fielders were not agile and athletic. Pakistan cricket team has for long been heavily criticized for their poor fielding, as they seem to be dropping easy catches, giving away boundaries, giving over-throws and giving away easy runs. Pakistan has dropped 3 critical catches so far in the world cup 2023, which included chances for Kusal Mendis and David Warner, and both went on to score centuries in those games. 

Pakistan’s boundary fielding has also been school-boy standard, as they missed to stop multiple boundaries. We have all seen the legendary meme of a Pakistani spectator standing in the background staring at a Pakistani fielder after he dropped a catch against Australia. Have a look at it below. The internet is filled with videos of Pakistan’s fielding mishaps.

Ever the Pakistani captain Babar Azam took a jibe at his team’s fielding by saying “Whenever you are fielding, it is only with attitude. And I don’t see any attitude from the team.”. 

Also check our other posts:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top