Abdullah Shafiq has become the first batter in T20Is to bag four consecutive ducks, Saim Ayub, another PSL talent scored duck in the second T20I against Afghanistan.
Tayyab Tahir, the well known name in PSL, has come to score 13 runs of 23 balls in the second T20I, leaving everything to do for next batters to come.
It’s not only their runs but also the way, they lost their wickets was surprising. Azam Khan couldn’t have disappointed more with his batting as he is averaging 2 with the bat in T20Is. This is the story of a batter who is named the best talent from Pakistan.
In total, the current Pakistani top order batters – Shafique, Haris, Tahir and Ayub – have collectively scored 105 runs in their T20 career with Below 100 strike rate. That’s how the PSL talent has performed in international cricket.
Not only batting, their fielding is at its weakest. Most importantly, Azam Khan who advocated for allowing an overweight man like him to play cricket, it is clearly observable that he really can’t do wicketkeeping. At a number of occasions, he missed straightaway chances.
It appeared that Pakistan was playing with 6 men, Imad Wasim, captain Shadab Khan and Mohmmad Nawaz being best of the lot. First Shadab and Imad rescued the team from 63/5 when PSL talent left the team in a state of chaos for the second time in the series.
Their 67 runs partnership allowed the team to reach 130 runs mark which gave them something to fight for. But Afghanistan batters were too clinical to leave the victory for Pakistan after reducing to 130.
Slowly and steadily they chased down the score, Pakistan had their moments with the ball but the penultimative 18th over by Naseem Shah went for 17 runs and then and there the match ended in favour of the home side.
This is the first time in history that Afghanistan have won a T20i series against Pakistan and Rashid Khan has become the first captain to do so. Quite ordinary PSL talent has cost Pakistan a big series as they failed to provide stability with the bat.
Nothing substantial from the team yet but bowlers of Afghanistan have been good but on a serious note, any skillful bowler will enjoy bowling this new set of PSL talent who is without technique and plan yet playing high level international cricket.