- Captain: Sarfraz Ahmed.
- Coach: Mickey Arthur.
- 2015 WC Result: Quarter-finalists.
- Best Result: Champions in 1992.
- Ignored for squad: Junaid Khan, Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Faheem Ashraf.
PAKISTAN
These guys are the real dark horses of the tournament. While India, Australia and England are tipped as top favourites, let’s not rule out Pakistan. Since decades, Pakistan has been known as the land to produce deadly left-arm pace and swing bowlers. And the trend still lives with the likes of Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz in the squad for the ICC 2019 World Cup and these pitches are perfectly suited for such bowlers.
No one will forget the ICC Champions Trophy that Pakistan won here 2 years back. Even though Pakistan are coming into this major global tournament with a 4-0 drubbing against England and only 2 ODI victories in 14 played in 2019, they still scored 300+ in all those ODIs against England and weren’t completely ‘outplayed’ in those games. Junaid Khan has easily been their best bowler in the last year or so, and he tweet a bizarre image with caption ‘Truth is bitter’ after being dropped from the squad.
The truth is that Amir hasn’t been picking wickets in the 15 ODIs he played since that Champions Trophy final while Wahab hasn’t even played an ODI for Pakistan since that fine, so it raises a lot of questions on the selection. It also puts a lot of pressure on the 19-year old Shaheen Afridi who has been good and even picked 4/82 in the 5th ODI against England, but he’s not going to win matches alone. A lot will be expected from Hasan Ali who was also Player of the Tournament in the Champions Trophy in 2017.
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Ignoring Pakistan’s worrying factors with the ball, we have a batting order that’s going to be tough to get past. Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam in particular have been in outrageous form with the bat, the latter being more consistent and reliable while the former being more ballistic at the top. Including 6 games against England and 3 warm-ups, the two have played 9 games each on this tour so far. Zaman has scored 438 runs while Azam has amassed 520 runs. It’s surely going to be a good tournament for them both.
Once these openers have been dismissed, there comes the experienced trio of Sarfraz, Malik and Hafeez. I sometimes feel that Shoaib Malik bats too low down the order and would like to see him bat higher and get an eye in before hitting the big shots at the end. He scored 41 and 4 in the two ODIs he played against England while Mohammad Hafeez even got a 50+ score. The ‘Professor’ is now 38 years old and he’ll be looking to have one last good tournament before bowing out of the game.
Pakistan Squad for ICC 2019 World Cup:
Sarfaraz Ahmed(WK/C), Asif Ali, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz.
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2019 World Cup Betting?
Fancy Pakistan at the 2019 World Cup?!
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— Read Scoops (@ReadScoops) May 23, 2019
The x-factor player? No prizes for guessing. It has to be Asif Ali. Whether death overs hitting or counter-attacking, this guy comes with the reputation of being a game changer, and that was seen in the couple of fifties he scored against England. He recently lost his infant daughter to cancer and will want to play well in her memory. Keep following ReadScoops.com to know Pakistan’s progress at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
