Pakistan cricket in shambles, one format at a time

Pakistan Cricket

The Pakistan cricket team is going through one of their worst phases in the history of this sport. The white-ball and red-ball teams have been surrounded by regular shake-ups, continuous trolling and some abysmal performances. In the last four ICC tournaments, Pakistan failed to make the knock-outs on all occasions:

• Lost to Afghanistan in 2023, finished fifth. 
• Knocked out of the Group Stage by USA in 2024. 
• Did not win a single match in 2025, a tournament played in Pakistan and UAE.
• Exited at the Super eight stage in 2026, playing in familiar Sri Lankan conditions.

Their results in the longest format have been even worse. They have now lost 12 of the last 16 games, including four straight losses to Bangladesh, home and away. The team has now lost 7 straight away games and dropped to eight in the ICC rankings, one spot below Bangladesh for the first time in history. Question remains, How did it come to this?

The Ramiz Raja influence

This downward spiral of the national side started when Rami Raja took over as the PCB chairman back in September 2021. Although Raza stayed as the chairman for only 15 months, his decisions caused a huge dent for country's cricketing future. Pakistan were staring at one of the easiest schedules during the 2021-2023 cycle of the World Test Championship. They were supposed to meet West Indies, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka on the road combined with home fixtures against Australia, England & New Zealand. With cricket returning to Pakistan after years of playing away from home in the UAE, Pakistan defeated South Africa 2-0 at home in 2021 on helpful surfaces bringing all facets in the game. However, once Ramiz Raja took charge, he pivoted to the use of "drop-in" pitches in both International and domestic cricket with the logic that this switch will lead to more outcome-oriented games. 

What followed however, turned out to be catastrophic for Pakistan cricket. In the next eight games they played at home, Pakistan shamefully lost 3-0 to England, 1-0 to Australia and drew a two-match series 0-0 to New Zealand, surviving both games by the barest of margins. Regular 500+ scores followed by dull draws became the talking point as Pakistan won 4 out of their 6 games away but could not win a single game at home thus squandering a golden chance to push for a place in the final as they finished seventh in the 2021-23 edition. When the curators provided bowler-friendly tracks, their batters failed badly either to reverse swing or to the opposition spinners. Ramiz Raja's disastrous term as chairman came to an end abruptly but it left a permanent scar on the face of Pakistan's red-ball accomplishments which have continued to be underwhelming until now.

 

Ramiz Raja was sacked by the Pakistani government as the PCB chairman in December 2022

In the next cycle, Pakistan started with a 2-0 win in Sri Lanka under captain Babar Azam after which he was replaced by Shan Masood. Masood's first series in charge saw them lose 3-0 away in Australia. In August 2024, Pakistan welcomed Bangladesh for a two-match series scheduled at Rawalpindi when the stadiums in Lahore and Karachi were undergoing upgrades for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Bangladesh completely turned the whole script producing a dominating 2-0 performance where both the spinners and fast bowlers played much better than their counterparts. This was Bangladesh's first ever win against Pakistan in the longest format. England visited Pakistan again and posted a record-breaking 823 in the first innings at Multan on another docile track and won the game by an innings margin. 

Without a win at home in 11 games, Pakistan immediately flipped the switch in the middle of the three-match series. They played the next match on the same pitch used in the first game and employed three spinners which turned from Day 1 giving Pakistan a 152-run win in three-and-a-half days as Shan Masood used only Sajid Khan and Noman Ali in the second innings for 33.3 overs. Noman Ali took 8-46 and Sajid accounted for the other two wickets. Rawalpindi followed suit in the third game giving their spinners all 20 wickets and helping them to a 9-wicket win in two-and-a-half days. West Indies visited next and lost by 127 runs in Multan thanks to another 20 wickets taken by Pakistan's spinners. Pakistan suddenly started trusting the spin-friendly minefields after a hat-trick of wins. West Indies roared back in the next game at the same venue ending the series 1-1 with a 120 run win, their first win in Pakistan since 1990. Pakistan finished at the bottom of the pile in 2025. South Africa are the only team to have visited them in 2025. The two matches were played on Lahore and Rawalpindi where the wickets were much better in quality, helping the batters in the first innings and then bringing the spinners into action. The series ended 1-1 but it will be interesting to see what is their strategy against Sri Lanka and New Zealand at home next for this cycle.

Constant coaching and leadership changes

It is a well-known fact in the sporting circles that the changes in the Pakistan cricket Board are controlled by the national government. Given the volatile nature of their government, the alterations in the board positions are quite frequent as well. Even since Ehsan Mani stepped down in August 2021 following his three-year tenure, the Chairman position has been playing musical chairs. Ramiz Raja (Sep 2021-Dec 2022), Najam Sethi (Dec 2022-Jun 2023), Zaka Ashraf (Jul 2023-Jan 2024) and the incumbent Mohsin Raza Naqvi (Feb 2024-present) have graced the chair in the past 5 years. These changes have also led to a host of replacements in the coaching and captaincy roles. 

The Pakistan head coach position has become a laughing stock in the last few years. Many previous foreign coaches who were appointed and removed abruptly have criticized the nature of operation at the management level. The national selector's role has also gone through rapid transitions creating unnecessary instability for the sport in Pakistan. Misbah-ul-Haq stepped down as the head coach and selector in 2021 citing mental fatigues after staying in bio-bubbles repeatedly during the early-Covid times. Since then, below is the list of head coaches appointed by Pakistan until now:

Pakistan has used 10 different head coaches since 2021 in all formats

Below is the list of national selectors changed since 2021:

Aaqib Javed has held both the head coach and national selector's post in the last 2 years

Every new head coach brought in new support staff, consultants making it a total of more than 30 different personnel holding the coaching office in the last 5 years. Captains have also faced the same wrath, sometimes unfairly. For a long time, Babar Azam held the captaincy in all formats. After the ICC 2023 World Cup, Azam was asked to relinquish the captain's armband. Shan Masood became the Test captain, returning only 4 wins and 12 losses in 16 matches as captain. Rizwan took over in ODIs, delivering wins in Australia and South Africa but a winless Champions Trophy campaign at home and just 2 wins in his last 12 games costed him the captaincy. Shaheen Shah Afridi is the current ODI captain, losing his most recent series 2-1 against Bangladesh after winning against Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home.

The T20I captaincy itself was first granted to Afridi for just one series in New Zealand which they lost 4-1. Salman Ali Agha has since held the role leading them to impressive bilateral wins but a disappointing loss to India in the Asia Cup final and a Super 8 exit in the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 played in Sri Lanka followed. There are already calls of more alterations especially in the Test and T20I formats which can cause more issues in the coming days.

Pakistan A team's fixture planning

It's not always easy to give every domestic achiever a break at the International stage which is why the cricket boards prefer adding development arrangements for the junior A teams. These tours help in establishing a hierarchy of selection based on domestic numbers and get a glimpse of how these skillful players present themselves in different conditions and pressure circumstances. Boards generally prefer adding four-day and sometimes List A game time to track the progress of their upcoming talents before including them in the International set-up also signifying the priority and projection of each board towards the future.

Pakistan's A team, the Shaheens last played a First Class cricket two years ago, against Bangladesh. Their fixtures in the last one year include, a T20 tournament in Australia, a T20 Asia Cup Rising Stars tournament and a 3 T20, 5 List A series against England Lions, which was cancelled midway due to the ongoing war situation in the Middle East. Every other full-member nation including Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland played a First Class game in 2025 except for Pakistan. This clearly shows the priority of the PCB with regards to red-ball cricket. Without such exposure, there is no way you can polish young powerhouses. The dearth of quality bowlers clearly points to a lack of planning by the administrative authorities, the repercussion of which has seen their national side falling down to the eighth position in the ICC rankings. 

Selections based on superstar status not merit

A major factor hampering the growth of cricket in the Asian country is the criteria used to choose players and the whole debate surrounding the accomplishments around the recognized faces who feature constantly in the playing XI across formats. Talking about the Test format alone, in the last three years pace-bowlers like Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Naseem Shah have under-achieved against other bowlers who have been given chances yet we see these names returning frequently even after being dropped on various occasions. Afridi has played 7 games and taken 21 wickets @ 40.9, Hasan Ali 10 wickets @ 46.9 in 5 matches and Naseem Shah 9 wickets @ 42.55 in 3 matches since the Australian tour in 2023. In comparison Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mir Hamza and Aamer Jamal have all executed exceptionally but they get dropped very quickly to fit these ordinary red-ball bowlers. Pakistan plays each Test series at longer intervals so the selectors always manage to sneak in these non-performers silently. The consequence of this is being out bowled by the opposition comfortably as seen on the recent Bangladesh tour. With the deficit of red-ball games for the A teams, Pakistan do not get opportunities to try newer bowlers, even spinners. Noman Ali is now 39-years old while Sajid Khan does not look threating enough in away conditions as the primary spinner, although both of them have topped the wicket-taking charts for Pakistan in the same time period.

Their batting falls into a similar non-functioning category. Pakistan has been plagued by second innings collapses consistently as their batters have struggled to show required restraint and character to drive their team through tricky situations. Twice against Australia, twice against Bangladesh in 2024, once against both West Indies and South Africa at home and now again in the Mirpur Test match, these collapses have cost them several defeats. Only Mohammad Rizwan averages more than 40 in the last 16 matches with Shan Masood being the only other player to score more than 1000 runs in this period albeit with a batting average of 34.06. Their senior batters have failed on so many instances yet there has been little-to-no change in the middle order. Salman (35.53), Saud (29.9), Babar (27.26) and Imam (26) were still part of the side on their latest tour without any credible match-winning scores for so long. Babar has now gone 32 innings without a three-figure mark in Test cricket as Pakistani batters have scored only 9 centuries in this period of Shan Masood's captaincy.

Here comes the whole debate about the bizarre picks made in Test cricket by their national selectors. Babar Azam was dropped due to poor form against England mid-series and then recalled back after only two Test for the South Africa tour. Talents like Kamran Ghulam and Muhammad Hurraira were shown the exit door after playing just 6 and 2 games respectively. Ghulam who had a solid start with a century on debut was treated unfairly after playing on tough batting pitches while the same batting order was again restored after the West Indies series. Abdullah Shafique played 10 Tests in this period scoring only 390 runs while all the other middle-order batters have played in excess of 13 games. Bowlers Mir Hamza and Aamer Jamal, who impressed on the away tours of Australia and South Africa have completely disappeared but names like Shaheen, Hasan Ali and Naseem Shah keep making comebacks whenever they are fit. 

There is a growing speculation around Shaheen's dip in pace who now bowls at early 130 kmph but if you have the skill to trouble the batters, you can pick wickets even at mid 120s as shown by Mohammad Abbas all though his career. Abbas, who has taken 885 wickets in First Class cricket has played only 29 Tests in the last 9 years since his debut which in absolutely unexplainable if you ask me. Khurram Shahzad is another name who has the tendency to succeed in this format but always rarely gets a chance in the playing XI. Upcoming openers Azan Awais and Abdullah Fazal has shown the temperament required at the top stage in the recent series against Bangladesh but if the same strategy continues, you might see them faded into oblivion very soon after a few failures while the other experienced batters remaining untouched, a hint of which has been seen in Pakistan's format mediocre output in other two formats as well.

How can they correct the future course of action?

Pakistan cricket needs to take some very arduous calls in order to transform their returns in all formats but first they need a balanced approach to target both red-ball and white-ball cricket equally. The fundamentals of any cricket is build by participation and performances in domestic cricket. The PCB should grow their investment at the grassroots with a plan to introduce level-playing surfaces in their First Class and List A competitions. Such pitches will help enhance the cricketing technique of several players participating in the domestic tournaments.

The selectors and local coaches need to identify different players, both young and experienced fitting in each format. The same pool of players needs to be given a long run to adapt at the International stage and prove themselves with noticeable output. Different camps can be organized to enrich their playing style and help them learn more by picking the brains of senior retired legends. The most important next step will be to organize more multi-day chances for the Pakistan A side which can become the breeding ground for new talent plus it can also allow their experienced players much-needed match practice with the red-ball.

Can Pakistan bounce back in the World Test Championship after falling to the second-last position?

In the Test format, Pakistan should continue to build their bowling attack around Mohammad Abbas and Khurram Shahzad. In the meantime, they can short-list a few young, high-pace products like Ali Raza or Muhammad Musa, give them a season or two of domestic cricket and pick them for the national team. A left-arm angle or a hit-the-deck bowler can also add much needed variety to their attack. Similar plans can be employed to unearth next generation of spinners. 

Azan Awais and Abdullah Fazal have already showed excellent technique in the two games they played so far. Both of them can provide Pakistan much-needed solidarity at the top of the order. They should try some new faces in the middle order now especially in place of Saud Shakeel and Shan Masood who have flattered to deceive for a long time now. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan needs to get their act together quickly to navigate their side through these tough times ahead. A recall for Karam Ghulam should help in the middle order. Shamyl Hussain can be a good option for the No. 3 spot. 

Lastly, the administrators need to decide on the next potential captain and allow the coach-selector-captain combination a sustained period so they can apply their ideas and execute their vision in both familiar and unfamiliar conditions. The same formulas apply to other formats as well with a few tweaks but both the PCB and the Pakistani fans need to show some patience with the team since the situation is so dire that there is no shortcut which can uplift their results drastically. Can the Pakistan Cricket Board show enough daring and take these bitter calls or will they continue to prioritize personnel insterests?

References: Statsguru by ESPNCricinfo