After Pakistan lost the first Test-Match of the three-match Test-Series versus England in a really embarrassing manner in the Cricket Stadium of Multan, many fans and Cricket enthusiasts thought that the Green Shirts will lose yet another home Test-Series.
However, to the surprise of many people across the globe, the Shaheens showcased their top notch game and class and after making a couple of key changes to their Starting XI, Shan Masood & co clinched the series 2-1 versus a resilient England team on Saturday in the city of Rawalpindi.
Following the humiliating defeat in the opening fixture of the series, the PCB took a couple of huge and bold decisions of dropping the experienced trio of Naseem Shah, Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi from the squad for the remaining two contests and prepared a spin-friendly surface to counter the baz-ball approach of the Englishmen.
The Result – the Shan Masood-led team executed a remarkable and historic comeback in the series as they secured comfortable victories in the remaining two matches and clinched the series 2-1.
The spin bowling duo of Noman Ali and Sajid Khan turned out to be the heroes for the home side, as the duo picked up 19 English wickets across the two innings and wrecked havoc with their unpickable variations.
The Englishmen were not able to find any answers to the dominant bowling display of the Pakistani spinners as the Shan Masood-led team clinched the series despite suffering a defeat in the opening fixture.
Now the huge question which arises is, with this series win versus England, can Pakistan still qualify for the final of the WTC 2023-2025 cycle?
Does Pakistan have any chance of making their way to the final of the WTC 2023-2025 cycle?
Unfortunately for Pakistan, their race for qualifying for the trophy-deciding clash is over and they have been eliminated from that race. Despite winning their last two five-day format matches versus England, the Green Shirts have suffered from a poor run of form in the current cycle of the WTC and thus, it has cost them the chance to play in the all-important Final.
The Shaheens are currently lying in the bottom half of the overall standings at the 7th spot, with a poor PCT of 33.33.
They are scheduled to play three more Test-Matches versus South Africa, but even if they secure victories in those three-contests versus the Proteas, their win-percentage will still be less than the teams sitting in the top-half of the points table.
The Shaheens had an embarrassing outing in the three-match Test-Series versus Bangladesh, a few months ago. They ended up losing the series by a margin of 2-0 and if they would have performed in a good manner versus the Tigers, then things would have been different for them.
Also Read: PAK vs ENG: Updated WTC Points Table Following Pakistan’s Historic Victory in the 3rd Test-Match
For more information, visit the official website of ICC
