Raise the game

The ICC Cricket World Cup has just started for Pakistan. The national team has only played one game and still has eight more to go. But already most fans and pundits have rejected the Pakistan team as mere pushovers, giving them little or no chance of qualifying for the semifinals of the quadrennial spectacle. All the doom and gloom surrounding Pakistan’s World Cup campaign isn’t without reason. Pakistan had entered the World Cup having lost ten One-day Internationals on the bounce. They even fell to newcomers Afghanistan in a warm-up game. Their catastrophic showing in the opening game of the World Cup against West Indies at Trent Bridge seemed like the last straw for their fans. The way Pakistan capitulated against the Windies pacer battery forced even the most ardent of Pakistani supporters to start worrying. Pakistan’s bating line-up which had raised hopes after a series of good outings in the pre-World Cup series against England flopped miserably against the likes of Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas and Jason Holder. They could just manage 105, which was never going to be enough. Pakistan’s pathetic performance in what was a vital game has made their task of reaching the last four a really tough one.Pakistan meets title favourites England in Nottingham today and the formbook suggests that they will lose again. But if Pakistan are to stay in the hunt, they will need to raise their game. They have to win at least five of their remaining World Cup games to have any chance of avoiding an embarrassing early exit from the World Cup. It’s not that they don’t have the resources to bounce back. They have batsmen like Babar Azam, who on their day can be counted among the best in the world. They have bowlers like Mohammad Amir, once regarded as the most lethal pacer in the cricket world. What Pakistan need is to instill the sort of self-belief that helped them bounce back from a similarly poor start at the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in England. Then, Pakistan clawed back from the jaws of an early exit to not just qualify for the business end of the tournament but also defeat formidable England and India in back-to-back games to win the coveted title. The team can do it again. But only if the players start playing to their potential in the forthcoming games. Otherwise Pakistan’s World Cup campaign is doomed.

from The News International - Editorial http://bit.ly/2JSbtkI