T20 World Cup 2022: "Your middle order is like your middle class" - Aakash Chopra on Pakistan's weaknesses heading into the tournament

Aakash Chopra has picked Pakistan's middle order as their biggest weakness heading into the T20 World Cup 2022 to be played in Australia from October 16.

The Men in Green are clubbed with India, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh and two qualifiers in Group 2 of the global T20 tournament. Babar Azam's side have relied heavily on their captain and fellow opener Mohammad Rizwan in the batting department in recent times.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra highlighted that Pakistan's middle order could prove to be their Achilles heel. He elaborated:

"Where is the middle order? There is no one. Pakistan please be wary, your middle order is like your middle class, almost non-existent. Fakhar Zaman might come in place of Shan Masood. Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali and Haider Ali are all there but no one takes the path to success."

The former India opener added:

"The middle order has been almost non-existing, so much so that they are saying that Shadab can be played at four and Nawaz can be sent up the order at times. Whether it is Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed or Asif Ali - none of them has shown their quality, they have not made their place."

Chopra picked Pakistan's propensity to drop catches as another of their likely stumbling blocks.

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"Yeh ek aur ek gyarah hain" - Aakash Chopra on Pakistan's strengths

Pakistan's batting has revolved around Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan of late.

Chopra named Babar and Rizwan as Pakistan's biggest plus points. He observed:

"Their biggest strength is Babar and Rizwan, their openers. Yeh ek aur ek do nahin, yeh ek aur ek gyarah hain - their performances are extremely good. If we see their numbers, you will say wow. Both of them are on one side and the rest on the other."

Chopra picked Pakistan's bowling as their other area of strength. The renowned commentator stated:

"Their other strength is their bowling. They have Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim, Shahnawaz Dahani, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan. I have no doubt about their bowling. This team's real strength is their bowling and batting is all about just the two batters."

Pakistan have a well-rounded bowling attack, with wicket-taking weapons in both the seam and spin departments. Shaheen Shah Afridi's recovery from a knee ligament injury and his availability for the warm-up games will be a further shot in the arm for last year's semi-finalists.