Pakistan suffered their first defeat of the ongoing tri-series against UAE and Afghanistan, as they fell 18 runs short during their chase against Afghanistan in Sharjah.
It was a marked success for Afghanistan as they defended a relatively under-par total, their four-pronged spin attack putting the stop on Pakistan by weaving a net through the middle overs and making things uncomfortable.
In an 18-run loss, Afghanistan were in cruise control after having Pakistan down 82/6 during their chase. However, during a series where the fielding has already been under the microscope after Haris Rauf’s earlier explosion during a press conference, Pakistan not being up to the mark was noticed by fans.
A regulation drop by Mohammad Nawaz and some extremely sloppy ground fielding which led to 5 overthrows early in the match were two key incidences, but only speak to a trend that has made itself very clear within the Pakistan men’s national team in recent years.
A statistical breakdown of Pakistan’s fielding has revealed how there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to efficiency and focus in the field, even compared to the vast number of countries that now play top-level T20I cricket.
Since the start of 2024, Pakistan have dropped 48 catches, misfielded 89 times, and missed 98 different run-out opportunities. In each of these categories, Pakistan belong to the worst three of the 41 teams judged during the timeframe, which is unfortunately backed up by the eye-test when it comes to the team as well.
Punishing overthrows and a simple drop in this T20I
Pakistan are just behind West Indies in terms of misfields, just by a singular incident, and are joint-eighth out of 12 Full Member ICC nations when it comes to catching efficiency, with a mediocre 81.4%. Other teams aren’t too far clear in this statistic, but fans of Pakistan cricket have long been frustrated with a lack of intensity in the field costing them as a whole.
Earlier this week, Haris Rauf wasn’t happy with the implications of bad Pakistan fielding. After a journalist had made such a comment, Rauf had shortly responded in return: “I think you might not have watched the match properly. We didn’t make such mistakes in our fielding. Maybe if you review it again, you will see that the match actually looked good.”
On Tuesday, Afghanistan were ultimately the better team as a strong partnership between Sediqullah Atal and Ibrahim Zadran laid the platform for a solid score. However, it was the spin forces of Afghanistan which controlled the match, as Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, and Noor Ahmad all took two wickets each.