3 Reasons Why Pakistan Hasn’t Found Its Best ODI Combination Yet!

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Reasons Why Pakistan Hasn’t Found Its Best ODI Combination, Remaining Matches Of PSL 5, PCB Younis Khan Zimbabwe, Shoaib Malik Babar Azam, Pakistan's First ODI Against Zimbabwe, First #PAKVZIM T20, #PAKVZIM T20 series
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Searching for their best combination Pakistan has out shined Zimbabwe in the ongoing One Day International (ODI) series in every department so far. During the first two ODIs the men in green chose to play with what they would want to call their best 11 and fielded 5 recognized batsmen (Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali), a wicket-keeper batsman (Sarfaraz Ahmed), 2 bowling all-rounders (Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf) and three fast bowlers (M. Amir, Hasan Ali and Usman Shinwari). Nevertheless, keeping the next world cup in mind, here is a look at the reasons why Pakistan hasn’t found its best ODI combination yet!

Read: 3 Things Pakistani Selectors Must Do For Professor’s Sake

1. Only One Recognized Spinner
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Shadab has done pretty well ever since making his debut last year however, there is no way Pakistan can afford to go in with one recognized spinner only because ODI wickets around the globe are flat in nature and hence, require teams to employ spinners who are capable of exerting pressure by not letting the ball come onto the bat and by stopping the flow of runs.

Playing Yasir Shah alongside is one option available to them however, Yasir for most part has been disappointing against top oppositions in limited over versions of the game.

Read: Faheem Ashraf, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez Kept Pakistani Twitter Abuzz Today

2. No Sixth Bowler
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Shoaib Malik frankly, is only a shadow of himself as far as his bowling ability is concerned. Fakhar Zaman too is not the kind of bowler you would want to employ in a pressure game. Therefore, Pakistan need a better player to fill the sixth bowler’s slot in the playing eleven.

Read: 3 Questions Answered In The Early Part Of Pak-Zim ODI Series

3. Only One Big Hitter in Top 3
7 Batsmen Who Can Partner Fakhar
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Fakhar, Imam and Babar feature in Pakistan’s top 3. We all know Imam and Babar are no big hitters and hence, Fakhar is the only batsman from the lot capable of making use of the first power play. Therefore, expect Pakistan to falter every time the south-paw fails to deliver particularly, when they have a big total to chase.

Read: Next ICC World Cup: 7 Batsmen Who Can Partner Fakhar

Possible Solution:
Pak-Zim ODI Series
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Haris Sohail, M. Hafeez, M. Nawaz and Imad Wasim are all capable of filling the sixth bowler’s and the second spinner’s slot. Still, perhaps in the long run the green shirts will have little choice but to look towards Haris Sohail who apart from being a useful sixth bowler is also capable of maintaining a decent strike rate in testing conditions while batting up the order.

Read: 6 Pakistani Cricketers Who Will Be Under Pressure To Perform In Zimbabwe