Pakistan begin their world cup campaign against minnows Netherlands at Hyderabad today and will hope that a banana peel does not await them. Pakistan who were the number one side till Asia cup have suddenly ran out of steam with injury to Naseem Shah who had been ruled out of the World cup.
Playing a World Cup against different teams at different venues is a challenge and Pakistan will hope they are off to a good start in their World Cup opener against Netherlands.
Pakistan had a horror start against West Indies in their opening match in the 2019 World Cup where they were bowled out for just 105 runs in 21 overs and with West Indies chasing that target in less than 15 overs dented Pakistan’s net run rate so badly that they missed out on an opportunity to make it to the semifinals.
Even though Pakistan are coming in to the World cup with four losses in a row, two in the Asia cup and also losing both their practice games to New Zealand and Australia, the match against Netherlands would be an ideal opportunity for them to get their act right.
Opening batsman Fakkar Zaman, who has been woefully out of touch, gets a good chance to get in to form by spending some time in the middle and scoring runs to get his confidence back. So would leg spinner Shadab Khan, who had a very poor Asia Cup, to get back to picking wickets as leg spinners do.
Pakistan have been in Hyderabad from the time they arrived in India and are very much used to the Rajeev Gandhi Stadium and will hope to get off to a bright start which will give confidence not only to their players but also their fans who have been mercilessly trolling the team since the big loss to India in the Asia Cup.
After Netherlands Pakistan play Sri Lanka who too are not looking good after being bowled out for just 50 against India in the Asia cup finals and will hope that they win both their matches before they play India in the big match on October 14th at Ahmedabad.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
