Middle-order is an issue for Pakistan, cannot be so heavily dependent on top three: Deep Dasgupta

Former Indian cricketer Deep Dasgupta feels that Pakistan’s real problem has been their middle order. The Men in Green collapsed to 120 for 8 from 93 for 2 in the Asia Cup 2022 final, and their middle-order yet again failed to step up when it mattered the most. Mohammad Rizwan was the only one who was successful with the bat, scoring 55 off 49 deliveries, and even he perished trying to up the ante in the final few overs.  

Apart from Rizwan, Pakistan got some contributions from Mohammad Nawaz throughout their Asia Cup campaign, but the likes of Khushdil Shah, Ifthikhar Ahmed and Asif Ali did not come to the party and their lack of experience was quite visible in the tournament.  

Pakistan cannot be so dependent on top three: Deep Dasgupta 

Dasgupta noted that Pakistan’s major success has come through the contributions from Babar Azam, Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman. He reckoned that Rizwan cannot be playing at a strike rate of 110 after getting set in a 171-run chase. He added that Sri Lanka had a proper plan for Mohammad Nawaz as they brought in the off spinner against him, while he also recalled the Indian batting memories from 2019 seeing Pakistan dependent on their top three heavily.  

"Their problem everyone mentioned at the start, is that the middle-order is an issue. Pakistan’s success in the format has been on the back of Babar scoring runs, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan. Today, two of the three failed and Rizwan scoring runs at a 110-strike rate in a 170 game, that also does not help,” said Deep Dasgupta via 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.  

“Mohammad Nawaz [was] fine in the game against India, but Sri Lanka were ready for him. To counter the left-hander, they brought in Dhananjaya de Silva. The bottomline is their middle-order - they cannot be so dependent on their top three. This is the same situation India was in, in 2019 - you played very well, everyone looked confident, semi-final came and the top three did not score. The same is happening for Pakistan,” he added.