3 Surgical Repairs Pakistan Need To Do After Champions Trophy Group Stage Exit

3 surgical repair in Pakistan cricket [Source: AP Photo]

The inevitable happened and Pakistan team crashed out of the group stage of the Champions Trophy after shambolic performances Vs New Zealand and India. The host of the tournament suffered heavy defeats against both the teams and will now play against Bangladesh in a dead rubber on Thursday.

Just like Pakistan, Bangladesh have also been knocked out and the match on Thursday will not hold any significance and hence, time has come for Pakistan to look beyond the tournament and as their Chairman said, they need surgical repairment. Here are 3 major issues they need to solve after the Champions Trophy.

1) Time to sack the selectors?

Aaqib Javed and his selection panel should be questioned after their questionable team selection for the Champions Trophy. The conditions in Dubai and Pakistan demanded one extra spinner in the squad, but the selectors were adamant and went ahead with just one front-line spinner.

Also, Saim Ayub got ruled out of the tournament and the team management went ahead with just one proper opener in Fakhar Zaman, who also got ruled out due to an injury. With no second opener, the team urged Babar Azam to open, a move which backfired on the selectors. If the surgical repairment has to be done, it has to start from the top.

2) Drop Out of form star players

Poor form of Babar, Rizwan, Shaheen

As the stats suggest, the Golden Trio of Pakistan cricket have been woeful in the tournament so far. As a matter of fact, they have been poor for a while now. While Mohammad Rizwan could still be exempted due to his decent captaincy record, there is no doubt that the team management should take strict call on Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi.

Babar hasn't scored an ODI hundred since August 2023 and Shaheen has also been lacklustre as of late. Pakistan could do better if they inject fresh blood and energy in the team.

3) Inject intent within the team

Pakistan cricket seem to be stuck in the past decade as they are still playing ODIs, the way it was played in the early 2000s. The team played 61 dot balls Vs New Zealand in their tournament opener in a run-chase of 321.

Any other team would have gone for the target right from ball one, but Pakistan had some other plans as they showed little to no intent and threw the game in the first 15 overs itself.

Time has come for them to change their ODI template and inject some intent within the team which is lacking in most of the players.

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