Pakistan may have succumbed to the immense pressure that comes with aT20 World Cup (WC)semifinal, but the manner in which it got there is nothing short of brilliant. On the day, Australia turned out to be the better team, capitalizing on opportunities provided by Pakistan to advance to the final. That is not to say that it was a one-sided contest, as both teams dominated different stages of the match but in the end Pakistan came up short; perhaps a few more runs on the board or less expensive overs by Hasan Ali and Shaheen Afridi could have changed the result. Nevertheless, this is not a typical Pakistan team getting knocked out of a tournament as it won all five of its Super-12 matches in spectacular fashion, the only team to have done so in the tournament. Beating India by 10-wickets in the opening match, in the presence of a pessimistic outlook about the team selection, new coaches and a new management at the PCB, was unprecedented. Not only did it break the 20-year old curse of losing against India in World Cup matches, it set the foundation for performances that were to come, and the men in green surely did not disappoint, comprehensively defeating a tough New Zealand side and an unpredictable Afghanistan squad. This WC allowed Asif Ali to silence his critics by putting on display top-shelf power hitting at crucial points in key games, solidifying his spot in the batting side as a dependable finisher. Muhammad Rizwan has proven his chops as a classy batsman who not only lends crucial support to Babar Azam as an opener, but also builds an innings by playing intelligently.
However, there are two key takeaways from this campaign that are encouraging for fans who want to see Pakistan win more matches and for a struggling cricket board that has been unable to produce a stable cricketing unit for many years. One, the revelation that is Babar Azam; not as a batsman for he had already proven himself as one of the best batsmen in the world currently, but as a captain who has led his side with confidence and composure, ticking all the boxes for what makes a good skipper. And second that this is a team which played as a cohesive unit with a team spirit not witnessed in the recent past. Mistakes have been made on the field that must be learned from and fixed, but for a change, one can confidently say that Pakistan possesses one of the top cricket teams in the world that can beat anyone.
