PAK vs USA: Ahead of Pakistan’s campaign in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, renowned broadcaster and cricket expert Ian Bishop has raised a key concern for the Babar Azam-led Pakistan. Once again recalling the long-standing debate of the strike rate in the T20Is, Bishop targeted Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and hoped that the two would change their approach in the T20 World Cup 2024.
Notably, the pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have been quite successful for Pakistan for a number of years. The two have scored tons of runs for their teams and stand tall atop the list of T20I pairs to have scored the most number of runs in the format accounting for a massive 3154 runs collectively in 66 T20I innings.
For a bit of perspective, the next best T20I pair is Paul Stirling and Andrew Bilbirnie from Ireland, who have jointly scored 2151 runs in 76 T20I innings.
Despite being so successful in amassing runs for their team, the two have been at the receiving end due to their poor strike rate. While skipper Babar Azam scores at a strike rate of 130, Mohammad Rizwan has recorded 128.17 as his strike rate in the T20I format.
Meanwhile, Pakistan tried Saim Ayub as opener alongside Mohammad Rizwan during the T20I series against New Zealand. He also opened the innings for Pakistan in the 2nd T20I against England, which saw him return with a sub-par 2 runs off 7 deliveries.
Talking about the potential of young players like Saim Ayub, Ian Bishop advocated their inclusion in the team with enough opportunities to set them up.
“If you’re asking me what I want versus what will happen to Pakistan, I will tell you that I need and hope that down the road, I don’t know if it’s immediate but down the road guys like Saim Ayub, I know Mohammad Harris is not in the reckoning right now, but he’s another young man. They’ve left back at home that I think until for T-20 cricket. But these guys are still very young and living the way,” Bishop said in a conversation with Star Sports.
Pakistan’s Babar Azam-Mohammad Rizwan needs to shift gears
The renowned commentator further opened up on the template that Pakistan has been following which needs to be changed a bit to tackle the challenge of the tricky surfaces in the World Cups.
“So, the experience of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, they probably will go back there. But again, that’s a template that needs to change with those two players who I think from what we’ve seen T 20 cricket going to even in a World Cup of challenging pitches, they need to shift another gear up in the way they approach their batting,” Bishop added.
Pakistan will play their opening game in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 against the United States on June 06. The Men in Green are slotted with the likes of India, USA, Ireland and Canada in Group A for the ongoing event.
