India have just come back from a long tour of Australia and with IPL just around the corner they would have liked more rest. Srilanka were in South Africa and with a gap of few days traveled to Australia for the Tri-Nation series and played their last match just 2 days ago. Bangladesh are the underdogs and don’t have much chances.


But is this isn’t just another tournament for Pakistan who have played non stop cricket for the last five months, If at all this tournament is important for a team, its Pakistan. Winning the Test Series against England comprehensively, but losing the ODI and T20 series, Pakistani Team’s future depends on this tournament.


This tournament for sure will be the last chance for Misbah-ul-Haq to show his capability in the shorter format of the game firstly as a captain who can attack more and secondly a batsman who can score quickly. After losing just one series as a captain Misbah Ul haq is under fire both from the general public and media. He will try his best to prove the critics wrong.


Asia Cup is also the first test of Dav Whatmore who took over as Pakistan’s coach just a week ago. Lots has been said about him, his experience coaching the Srilankan and Bangladesh Cricket Team, his strictness and his good reputation, but coaching Pakistan is totally different and will take the best out of him especially because Mohsin Khan was doing a good job.


This is also the first team selected by the new selection committee lead by Iqbal Qasim. Team selection tells the mind set Pakistan team has. They have tried not to experiment with the team retaining the same bowling squad which played against England and have included Nasir Jamshed and Sarfraz Ahmed instead of Imran Farhat and Shoaib Malik who were labelled as “Sifarishi”.


If Pakistan are able to perform well in this tournament,the stability under Misbah Ul Haq will continue for a considerable time as the next two series Pakistan will play are against Bangladesh and Srilanka. But If they don’t perform well for sure it will bring an end to a few cricketing careers in the ODI format, Pakistan will have no choice except to change the captaincy and bring in new players at the cost of Misbah Ul Haq or even Younis Khan.


They still have a choice though even If they don’t win the Asia Cup.  18th of March, when Pakistan play India. The emotional nation we are, winning or losing the Cup won’t matter if Pakistan is able to beat India, taking the revenge of Mohali 2011. So yes, Pakistan has lots to play for in Asia Cup.

And when Shahid Afridi swung and missed at James Anderson, Pakistan’s chase was over (Cricinfo 2nd ODI)

Pakistan on the other hand had to clue with the team selection. Shoaib Malik was included in the squad on the request of Misbah ul Haq, and to accommodate him Pakistan shuffled the whole team for the first ODI match. They went in with Umar Akmal as a wicket keeper, Dropping the inform Abdur Rehman, and Playing Wahab Riaz to make up for Malik’s position as a spinning all rounder who was batting as low as number eight. 



Even if Malik had to play, Pakistan could have gone in with Abdur Rehman instead of Wahab Riaz, as England’s vows against spin bowling were obvious during the test match series. Pakistan did play with five spin bowlers during the third ODI against Bangladesh, who looked playing spin better than England.


England scored 260/7 in 50 overs, Wahab Riaz was totally out of sorts, Shoaib Malik bowled just five overs and scored 7 runs of 23 balls, Umar Akmal came to bat with a backache and Pakistan lost by 130 runs.


For  the second ODI Pakistan dropped Wahab Riaz, Shoaib Malik and Asad Shafiq bringing in Aizaz Cheema, Abdur Rehman, and Azhar Ali. Last two were sensible moves which Pakistan should have taken during the previous match but they still went in with Umar Akmal as a wicket keeper.


With four top class spinners in the team, Pakistan played a nonspecialist wicket keeper who was poor behind the stumps, dropping two catches, one of Cook, who was at 28 but went on to score another century and the other of Eoin Morgan who scored a crucial 25 not out. 


While selecting the team Pakistan also forgot that they had Hammad Azam in the team who is a right arm medium pace bowler and a handy lower-middle order batsman and would have served well instead of Aizaz Cheema. Pakistan had 7 batsman, four pure tailenders but nothing in between. 


When Shahid Afridi was bowled by James Andersen Pakistan required 44 of 34 balls, but had no one to support Misbah ul Haq and lost the match by 20 runs which they could have easily won. 


Pakistani management for some reason has been hesitant to play Hammad Azam in the team, maybe because he is capable enough to take over the all rounder’s slot which has been occupied by under performing Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik and on some occasions Sohail Tanvir. They are a well balanced test side, but look totally imbalanced when it comes to ODI matches.


There are a few slots that need to be filled especially the opening partnership, they need someone who can stay there and play long. A young performing all rounder in the lower-middle order who could bowl economical overs and score precious runs, but more importantly and a quick genuine fast bowler who could rip through batting line ups on these slow low pitches.


All is not lost. They still have two ODI matches to go and can level  the series but this for sure is a wake up call for Pakistan.