“Lots to sort for Pakistan”: Danny Morrison highlights unresolved areas for Pakistan after warm up loss vs England

Danny Morrison: The former New Zealand pacer didn’t seem pleased with excessive experimentation by Pakistan tonight.

Although not a T20I, the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2022 warm-up match between Pakistan and England in Brisbane was the eighth instance of these two teams facing each other in the last one month.

Put in to bat first by England captain Jos Buttler, Pakistan didn’t hesitate from excessively experimenting with their combination including resting captain Babar Azam and wicket-keeper batter Mohammad Rizwan. While vice-captain Shadab Khan led the team at the Gabba tonight, Shan Masood (39) and Haider Ali (18) were sent to open the batting.

Pakistan, who managed to score 160/8 in 19 overs, didn’t find any standout performer in their batting innings. The likes of Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed (22), Khushdil Shah (0) and Asif Ali (14) certainly missed out on opportunities to play formidable innings against a top opposition.

Fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi’s much-awaited return saw him giving away just seven runs in his two overs. Much like Afridi, pacer Mohammad Wasim also returned with economical bowling figures of 2.4-0-16-2. However, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz registered combined bowling figures of 10-0-134-2.

As a result, allowing England to seal the target in 14.4 overs. All-rounders Ben Stokes (36) and Liam Livingstone (28) enjoyed impact-generating outings but a thumping English victory came on the back of a 23-ball 59-run fifth-wicket partnership between Harry Brook (45*) and Sam Curran (33*).

Danny Morrison highlights unresolved areas for Pakistan after warm up loss vs England

Part of a star-studded 29-member commentary panel for this World Cup, former New Zealand pacer Danny Morrison took to social media platform Twitter to express concerns with respect to the Pakistan team.

Pakistan’s performance on paper requires a lot of improvement but they wouldn’t be too worried about the same knowing that they experimented on purpose for this match. That being said, Azam and his men would still be hoping for their middle-order to click together in this tournament.