Cricket is NOT by chance. Whether it is Test Cricket, ODI format of cricket or the latest T20. You need strategy to perform better for a winning fight. Shorter the format, better strategic skills and abilities are needed.
Talent is only the ability to perform. But the actual performance occurs when there is a plan and a strategy to make use of the talent. T20 is lot more about strategy. You can win a match by a great knock of a player or two. But you need to have proper homework and plan in action to sail through the tournament.
In the recent match of Pakistan with West Indies, there was not strategy with Pakistani camp. On the other hand, West Indies team had worked on every strength and weakness of Pakistani team. We can conclude following from this match:
- There is no batting power play strategy in existence. Preceding players are not aware of their responsibility in case the breakthrough occurs rather quickly. As soon as an in-form batsman is gone, collapse occurs.
- When there are substandard bats-men in the team, such a situation must occur. If a bats man is not a good test cricketer, there is more probability that he would fail in other formats of the game. How to handle pressure is well needed by the middle order batsmen. And when they are not up to the mark, they fail almost every time.
- If we analyse the performance in last some years, we can conclude that Pakistan’s bowling is quite over-estimated. Our bowlers are too inconsistent in accordance with world class standards. We do win the match if any of the bowler just devastate the opposition. And that bowler lives for many matches without significant performance and then again he finds a lucky day.
- If we get some early success in a match, our captain/team starts taking it for granted. They probably assume themselves in winning position. And this ignorance helps other to build their superiority.
- As it has been associated with Shahid Afridi, it appears that every player and thus the whole team goes into ground finding his luck on any given day.
All needed now is to work on mental strength and discipline of the players. We undoubtedly have talent. What we are missing is to make use of this talent properly.