I am nor here in order to cry over spilled milk, but instead I am gonna elaborate aspects on how I viewed this particular game, where I was fortunate enough to view the whole game from ball number one till end due to Eid Milad Un Nabi holiday and yet no electricity outage,
Lack of strategizing strengths and weaknesses
Clarity in planning was clearly observed while watching the game, where Pakistan was able to commence the momentum at the later part, whereas it was dormant stage during the middle portion, furthermore, I might "again" incorrect in my assessment and probably this was the right way of playing, but rotation of bowlers and surprise element for opponents to judge was nowhere to find, instead it was bed of roses runs chase for Kiwis, means we were unable to read the conditions, and after winning the toss, Pakistan elected to bat first on the placid track, whereas right now, it is not our batting but bowling which is required to be tested, but we tested our batting first.
Amalgamation of Planning with Management
Strategic planning merged with management, was something I found not available during the whole span of the game, neither we were able to deploy a surprise element against our opponents, which is definitely a big lay-down and a big turn off for me. Furthermore, we had recently played against same string of Kiwi players in our own home soil, hence we should have had recognized that what are their strengths and weaknesses, and hence we should have acknowledged that their major strength was definitely chasing, at first if you had made a weakness of batting first, then you should have had incorporated aggressive bowling where by aggressive I do not mean bowling negatively, but instead taking wickets and incorporating tight fielding, but sorry to say; we were "pleased" to greet with sloppy fielding.
Player management
This is related with above mentioned heading, as while analyzing our opponents, as unlike South Africa, we have played a lot of times off recent times with Kiwis, so it was an aspect where I have to confess, that Kiwis were able to surprise, although I am not surprised as well, because while whole of the Pakistan was viewing Asia Cup, I was finding Kiwis and England ODI series more interesting, and during that series, I was able to recognize that Kiwis were planning to incorporate Rawindra on opening slot, where we Pakistanis were surprised on Rawindra's onslaught,
Furthermore, Pakistani players were seen rusty, whereas unlike World T20 2021 which was played in UAE, Pakistan was going with match practice, but this time, Pakistan is going degraded confidence amid Asia Cup 2023, which was Pakistan's staged Asia Cup, but ended playing in Kandy and Colombo, just because of political gimmicks.
Injuries
Related to previous heading, it is also related aspect, just before the CWC23, instead of stability, we are haphazardly changing combination, just because we were unable to counter bench strengths, and hence those players who were supposed to be our ACES, are injured and this is a complete negligence off our management side, I am not going to elaborate political games, but instead it was our responsibility to safeguard their future, but we disowned them.
Assessing your strengths with weaknesses
This is another hole where we were not able to determine our strengths with weaknesses, and while opportunities and threats along with them, we are going on the path of rash points, when you got an opportunity to dictate your own terms on your own lines, just like SL game of Asia Cup 2023, we did the same mistake like we did during that particular game, not every responsibility should be handed over shoulders of skipper, instead the management should also be held equally responsible and respectively accountable for their own actions,
Planning for the long term
While we work on the budgeting aspects, we also place some amount for contingency expenditures, just because we should be ready to take action when a surprise arises, but aren't we taking this aspect in action while selecting herds of players'?
Had we practiced anything in Pakistan which is quite similar to playing in India?
Match practice is something which do not have alternative of any kind, and a replication of the net practice can't be lieu for a match practice, so how could we, after having so much of an exhausting last four months, could have had replicated environment and ambiance which we were able to experience in Indian environment? Taking nothing away from Pakistani team, but apart from Muhammad Nawaz, all of the squad which is playing right now are making their debuts on Indian Soil, so did we counter those aspects?
Have we analyzed the itinerary of the tournament?
The current tournament is in direct continuation from 2019 CWC, which was revived from 1992 Cricket World Cup, and hence current CWC 2023 is on the same itinerary where all of the 10 teams are going to compete with each other, and this is second succession of the same format, have we prepared ourselves for the same challenge the second time?
Learning from the historic events
Taking nothing away from teams competing, but West Indies; which is not participating in this edition, placed such a dent on Pakistan's NRR, which resulted in NZ qualifying when during the semi finals, when NZ and PAK were aligned, Pak were missed just on the barest of the margins just because of that first match gargantuan NRR blow.
Lack of Street smartness
I need not to mention this, because currently Pakistan educational and intellectual properties have been سلب just because we as seniors have evaporated the urge for juniors to ask questions, and similarly asking questions deemed as بدتمیزی towards elders, and similarly asking questions also requires elders to raise their own intellectual information in a well-mannered cadre, can we assure ourselves that WE AS ELDERS HAVE LAID A SOLID FOUNDATION for junior to look for their own pathways without disturbing their (elders) standards?
This is related to above mentioned aspect, because this ill-mannered cadre and treatment is the outcome that most of our juniors are same like (no offence to anyone) jackass, whose eyes are only allowed to view what is in forward direction, otherwise there is a wide world all around them, but we have ceased them to look forward to, I am not saying these lines to favor arrival for Sarfraz Ahmed, but that man was probably the last person whom I remember with my ٹوٹی پھوٹی یاداشت possessed street smartness, whenever things might look South at you, you had the tendency to change the game, just like what Steve Smith doing for Australia, Dawid Malan for England, and similarly Kohli for India, there might be differences but what Dravid is doing for India, is by creating a subtle bench strength, have we exerted some pain to cement a continual bench strength utilization?
"Mercurial Pakistan" - tale of the past
Pakistan team was supposed to be called as Black Horses of ICC tournaments, alongside the West Indies team, but now this Cricket World Cup, there ain't a West Indian team, neither we have a Pakistan team which possesses a threat nor a surprise element for any team, keeping in mind the itinerary for this tournament, each team would be playing 9 game each, and after playing 9 games, top four teams are going to commence towards the semis, means one bad game, just like we had in yester year CWC 2019, when the NRR dip towards the West Indian game, haunted us till we were playing the last of the group match against NZ, where NZ commenced to Semi Final on the basis of higher NRR.
I might be in-correct in my assessment, but I am not seeing Pakistan going towards the semis.
This is my own personal point of view that I am not observing Pakistan commencing towards the semis just because of lack a surprise element being found in current strata of players, match fitness and fatigue might also be an aspect but also we have done criminal injustice to them while not safeguarding our spearheads for such a long tournament.
