According to former Pakistani head coach Mickey Arthur, the team should split up the opening pair of Mohammad Rizwan and captain Babar Azam. Fakhar Zaman should bat first, he suggested, since bowlers would have to modify their bowling angles to Fakhar Zaman because he bats left-handed.
During Pakistan's Asia Cup Group A encounter against India, while Azam and Zaman were out in the power play, Rizwan attempted to up the ante but rocketed a short ball off Hardik Pandya straight to third man. Pakistan finally made 147 in 19.5 overs.
Since they lack middle-order experience, the trio is mostly responsible for scoring runs. However, they haven't always performed at their peak while batting first, as evidenced by Pakistan's three losses with the bat after participating in the T20 World Cup 2021.
"I believe they ought to (separate Babar and Rizwan). Fakhar's inconsistent ball placement irritates the bowlers a little. It has to do with the various angles—you have a left-hand and a right-hand. Spread out Babar and Rizwan, then reposition Fakhar Zaman at the top "After the game, Arthur spoke on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time Out programme.
If Pakistan sticks to their current batting strategy, Arthur thinks they will continue to struggle. "When I was playing for Pakistan, and we were more successful in T20 cricket, we used to set the goal of getting 160 by batting first and then rely on our bowlers to squeeze. We used to build as efficiently as possible, and it worked out well for us."
"We had Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik in the midst of that team, as opposed to the team we have now. They are a relatively inexperienced group in the middle right now, and if you get them three wickets down early, I think they're going to struggle."
The addition of Ravindra Jadeja by India at number four, according to Arthur, prevented Pakistan from using left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz, who had already claimed the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the middle overs, to finish his overs.
"The fact that there was a left-hander in the middle was crucial for me because it prevented Pakistan from bringing (Mohammad) Nawaz back. Nawaz had to be restrained to the rear as a result. They undoubtedly paid a price for that in the end."
Azam might have utilised his spinners, Nawaz, and Shadab Khan more effectively in the game, Arthur said. They could have gone through at least one over of Nawaz, or even one over of Shadab (Khan, the legspinner), because I know, having studied and set up against Rohit, he doesn't play legspin particularly well in the powerplay, or his strike rate to legspin is a lot less. This is primarily because they knew they had only 12 overs of pace with the side they had picked.
"Therefore, you had the option of bowling Shadab or Nawaz. In the PSL, Nawaz typically bowls for his team during the powerplay. That would have been a fantastic Virat and Rohit match-up. Consequently, the actual quicks' overs would have been put off until a little bit later in the game."