Pakistan went down to New Zealand for the fourth consecutive time in five-match series on January 19 (Friday). They are now 0-4 down in the series with one match still to go. The team led by Shaheen Afridi has performed very poorly on this tour and the left-arm pace bowler's first series as captain has turned out to be forgettable so far. Batting, bowling and fielding - They have been poor in all three departments of the game and unfortunately, nothing has changed for them since the World Cup.
When Pakistan couldn't make it to the semifinal of the ODI World Cup last year, heads rolled with skipper Babar Azam stepping down as captain from all formats of the game. Team management also changed with Mohammad Hafeez taking charge as the team director while Wahab Riaz was appointed the selector. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) opted for split captaincy then with Shan Masood taking over in Tests while Shaheen was appointed the T20I captain.
But Pakistan's fortunes haven't changed at all as they have lost a stunning eight international matches since November 4 and have been winless since last 76 days. They won against New Zealand in the World Cup and since then, have gone down to England in the mega event itself in the last league stage match of the tournament, to Australia 0-3 in Test matches and have so far lost four T20Is against New Zealand. All of these losses are away from home.
Pakistan, however, fought well in the Test series against Australia and perhaps, at one stage, were in a dominating position in the third and final Test in Sydney. But their batting never clicked throughout the series and that cost them the Sydney Test eventually. Come the T20I series against New Zealand, Pakistan continued to be poor as they conceded in excess of 190 in the first three matches of the series after opting to bowl first. Apart from Babar Azam who smashed three consecutive fifties, no other batter could even stay in the middle to put up a fight as they lost the five-match series.
When the Kiwis invited the visitors to bat first for the first time in the series, one expected Pakistan to do well and post a mammoth total on the board. But this time, only Mohammad Rizwan, opening the innings, put up a fight smashing an unbeaten 90 off 63 balls while none of the other players could score runs at will. They posted only 158 runs on the board and despite having New Zealand tottering at 20/3 at one stage, lost the match by seven wickets with Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips notching up an unbeaten 139 for the fourth wicket.
The fifth and final T20I of the series is now set to be played on January 21 and it remains to be seen if Pakistan will be able to end their winless run in international cricket. Or will New Zealand be able to whitewash them?
