Well beaten

The Pakistan cricket team’s disappointing streak of performances shows no signs of coming to an end. After an embarrassing group stage exit in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, a tournament in which the country was the host nation, Pakistan has suffered back-to-back series losses during its tour of New Zealand. After a 4-1 defeat in the T20 series, the Kiwis swept the boys in green 3-0 in the ODI series, sealing a dominant display. In the final ODI, New Zealand triumphed by 43 runs after setting Pakistan a target of 265 to win. As is often the case with the country’s losses, Pakistan’s innings got off to a shaky start as opener Imam-ul-Haq was forced to retire hurt for just one run after being struck on the jaw by a fielder’s throw when attempting a quick single. And while Babar Azam and Abdullah Shafique eventually settled into a 72-run partnership, with the former scoring a half-century, the stability was short-lived. Pakistan failed to build a platform as the Kiwis kept taking regular wickets, winning the match by a comfortable margin. This is pretty much how the prior two matches in the series went, with New Zealand batting first and setting targets that the Pakistani batters lacked the grit and discipline to reach, struggling against New Zealand’s pacey bowling attack. Kiwi bowler Ben Sears emerged as one of the standouts of the series, claiming five-wicket hauls in the final and second ODIs.

In many ways, the results of Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand are not all that surprising. Pakistan has historically struggled against seam attacks away from home and New Zealand, on current form, is a far better team than Pakistan, reaching the finals of the Champions Trophy while Pakistan was getting knocked out in the group stage. More concerning is the fact that it seems as though Pakistan has learnt nothing from the Champions Trophy setback and, if anything, appears to only be getting worse. While bowlers are usually the country’s fall-back, they too struggled throughout the series, barring the third T20 which Pakistan won. Surprisingly, fast bowlers of the calibre of Shaheen Afridi were unable to excel on the pace-friendly pitches in New Zealand. Overall, the team’s performances were disjointed and one got the sense that not enough had gone into preparing for the foreign conditions or the opponent at hand. The only bright spot from the tour appears to be a mini-revival in Babar Azam’s form. The star batter hit 78 runs in the first ODI and backed it up with a half-century in the third. Another positive is that the boys in green managed to avoid a whitewash, winning at

least one game.

However, if Babar is the only one getting back into form, it will not make much of a difference in terms of the team’s overall performance. The country will keep losing series and exiting tournaments early. While Pakistan has never been the most well-structured, organised or prepared of teams, what it has been able to count on over the years is outstanding individual talent. But even that seems to be fading now. The game of cricket has also changed a lot in the last decade or so. Pre-game analysis, squad rotation and in-game management play much bigger roles now. These have never been Pakistan’s strengths and it has failed to adjust to the requirements of the modern game, leaving it quite exposed. And these are not problems that can be addressed by the players alone. They will need those above them, coaches and PCB administrators, to help set them on a path where their talents can shine.