Match Preview – USA vs PAK 11th Match, Group A, T20 World Cup

Admin June 5, 2024

0 0 4 minutes read

Match Preview – USA vs PAK 11th Match, Group A, T20 World Cup

Game details

Australia vs Oman
Dallas, 10.30am local time

Big picture

“Pakistan the heavyweight, the USA the plucky underdog” isn’t a phrase that rolls off the tongue neatly enough, but those are the sobriquets that stick to these two sides when they compete in Dallas. The game of cricket is important, the game has enough spice off the field, but add to that the American uptick in the situation combined with a vulnerable Pakistani unit and the cricket news gives its own twist.

The USA’s victory over Canada in the first game clearly shows the danger that the athletes face. The spirit shown by the hosts, who turned what looked like a place loss into a comfortable victory, is a sign of a team high on confidence following their impressive 2-1 series win over Bangladesh in the pre-tournament. Familiarity with the venue gives the USA an added advantage, as they played Canada on the same field.

Meanwhile, Pakistan have struggled to get a proper training session, let alone a real match, warm-up or official. Rain in Dallas for most of last week forced Pakistan to move two practice sessions to temporary indoor facilities, and instead of arriving early to practice, Pakistan spent the last three weeks playing T20I series in Ireland and the UK. They didn’t put up a good show for a formidable team in their quest for the title, as inconsistent performances saw them lose one of three against Ireland, and were well beaten in both of their final games against England.

Pakistan’s woes have been compounded by the confirmed injury of Imad Wasim, who has been brought back into the squad thanks to his experience in the US and the Caribbean. Furthermore, as the last match against England made clear, the opening combination of Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam appears to be their only option, meaning that much of the experimentation carried out over the past five months has not borne fruit. A number of players struggling to find form means there are weak points throughout the lineup, with Saim Ayub, Azam Khan and Shadab Khan all missing out.

If the tendency to jump from victory to disaster without warning is a common characteristic of Pakistanis, belief and self-confidence are unapologetically American. You couldn’t have set a better scene or orchestrated the circumstances for an upset, or at least a Texan party.

Form guide

United States of America: WLWWW (last five games completed, most recent)
Pakistan: LLWWL

In the light

Aaron Jones he can be a problem for any bowling team, but he belongs to a particular game for Pakistan. Jones’ reduction of Canada’s pace and spin bowlers in the middle overs puts a lot of pressure on Haris Rauf, Pakistan’s most in-form bowler in that category. With Imad out and Shadab out in the nick, there is still the potential for Jones to lead a middle-over attack similar to the one that saw the US storm past Canada in the first game of the tournament.

As the final T20I match against England last week was brutally exposed, there is nowhere to hide Azam Khan. After a shocking performance with bat and gloves, he was sacked much to the chagrin of the Pakistani media and fans. Some of it was justified, some went overboard. But it is clear that Pakistan is struggling to answer the question of what to do with him. Picking him, partly because of his recent CPL pedigree, dropping him leaves them with options to bat in lower-order death-overs. Picking a player with low confidence brings its own set of challenges, not least of which is to hand him the gloves when Mohammad Rizwan – a stratospherically better goalkeeper – is a guaranteed starter.

Group news

The USA has no injury concerns following its win over Canada, and with the athletes playing at the same venue again, it’s unlikely they’ll overthink a combination win.

USA: 1 Steven Taylor, 2 Monank Patel (capt), 3 Andries Gous (wk), 4 Aaron Jones, 5 Nitish Kumar, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Harmeet Singh, 8 Shadley van Schalkwyk, 9 Jasdeep Singh, 10 Ali Khan, 11 Saurabh Netravalkar

Imad failed to shake up the squad that kept him out of Pakistan’s final T20I against England last week, meaning balancing the squad is a problem for Pakistan. It likely means that Shadab will retain his place to claim all the points, while Babar and Rizwan will move up.

Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan 2 Babar Azam 3 Usman Khan 4 Fakhar Zaman 5 Azam Khan 6 Iftikhar Ahmed 7 Shadab Khan 7 8 Shaheen Afridi 9 Haris Rauf 10 Mohammad Amir 11 Abrar Ahmed

Tone and context

Rain drenched Dallas the week before the tournament, but for the most part it hasn’t left since the World Cup began. That should continue on Thursday, as a full game is expected.

The wicket provided early movement in each of the first two games with decent bounce and carries, with the opening match – played at this venue – achieving the two highest scores of the tournament so far.

Math and trivia

Pakistan’s efforts to separate Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have failed on almost every front. Saim Ayub scored 229 runs in 15 T20I innings as an opener, at an average of 15.26 and a strike rate of 126.51. That average and strike rate is lower than Babar’s or Rizwan’s as an opener since January 2022.
Haris Rauf is five wickets away from becoming the second Pakistani player – after Shadab Khan – to reach 100 T20I wickets
Of the 23 sixes Aaron Jones hit in 25 T20I innings, 10 came in his innings against Canada in the World Cup opener.

Quotes

“Some things are out of your control. We can’t control the weather. In the circumstances, we used the facilities we had, and the batsmen and bowlers trained indoors. Our team practices were also done indoors, so we’re just trying to use the best options we have.”
Pakistan captain Babar Azam by doing when the Dallas weather refused to play football

Danyal Rasool is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent. @Danny61000

Source link

Admin June 5, 2024

0 0 4 minutes read