When their schedule for a tough trip to the desert was announced, West Indies would have breathed a sigh of relief with the T20Is beginning prior to the ODIs and Tests. After all, this had been the only format which still kept Caribbean spirits intertwined together. However, the 3-match series ended with the World T20 holders on the receiving end of an embarrassing whitewash.
Their opponents, Pakistan, outclassed them in all departments of the game by a convincing margin on sluggish UAE pitches. For a side whose white-ball fortunes kept plummeting at every given opportunity, the unforeseen dominance could provide a major fillip to the team management. Ahead of the ODIs where the stakes might be a bit higher, their new found liberation should bring a palpable sense of optimism.
Let us go through five of the most interesting things that we learned from the T20I series.
#5 – Chasing unlike old times
The correlation between Pakistan and chases had been on a downward spiral even by their traditional standards. With even a slight spike in the required run-rate often threatening to engulf their nerves, there was a need to inculcate a habit of controlling run-chases and prove that the final ODI against England at Cardiff arose from diligence rather than serendipity.
Though the target seemed pretty low on both occasions when they batted second, the modern-day template of going hard at the initial stages before consolidating through the middle-order was followed with precision. The urgency shown by Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik while running between the wickets should augur well for an evolving batting lineup.
#4 – Jaded and uninspired demeanor
Normally renowned for their unbridled enthusiasm towards the shortest format, the West Indies players appeared bland and uninterested for the most part of the series. Recently appointed skipper Carlos Brathwaite found it difficult to motivate the unit with the bowling attack, in particular, looking bereft of ideas on surfaces which were not batting-friendly by any means.
Talisman Sunil Narine’s ineffectiveness to prise out wickets on a consistent basis should present a cause for concern regarding the efficiency of his remodeled action. The seam bowlers often conceded boundaries by straying down the leg side and the fielding did not turn out to be adequate as well.
#3 – A truly ‘Wasim’ show
Unlike his esteemed namesake, Imad Wasim might not steam in and confound opposition batsmen with magical deliveries. However, the left-arm spinner operated shrewdly to tilt the momentum in Pakistan’s favor even before the Power Play overs could be completed.
The Welsh-born all-rounder pocketed nine wickets from the three games and deceived the hapless West Indies batting lineup with relentless accuracy. Not the one to rely on extensive turn, Wasim managed to weave webs around them by simply adhering to the contemporary style of limited-overs bowling. With his straighter ones doing majority of the damage, the 27-year old could be an asset in the ODIs as well.
#2 – Caribbean power-less on slow pitches
One of the major reasons behind their success in the World T20 was an emphasis on targeting the fence without complicating the issue. However, the conditions were drastically different at UAE with the ball gripping and staying low which meant that the focus had to be shifted towards piercing the gaps.
Not ready to change their approach, West Indies’ top-order collapsed spectacularly to leave the rest of the batting lineup without any choice but to let the Pakistani bowlers dictate terms. With the scorecard reading 22/5, 19/3 and 17/3 in the three matches respectively, whatever willingness that finally crept into them soon subsided as it became too late to pull off any sort of rescue act.
#1 – The Sarfraz Effect
A busy cricketer behind the stumps as well as in front of it, Sarfraz Ahmed went a long way in proving himself as an appropriate fit for captaincy. Whether it was handling the different types of bowlers or setting the fields at various situations, his energy seemed to have rubbed off on the others too. The wicket-keeper batsman even promoted himself above Umar Akmal in the second game and did not mind setting an example for his teammates.
When he took charge of the T20I team during the solitary match against England in Manchester, the expectations surrounding Sarfraz had already risen with him talked about being a possible contender to rejuvenate a struggling Pakistani ODI side. By leading them to four successive victories in this format, he might just have piled the pressure on Azhar Ali by shoring up his reputation as a reliable skipper.
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