Asia Cup 2018: Rating the six teams on a scale of 1-10

Pakistan

Before the tournament commenced, Pakistan were expected to sail through to the final without any fuss. There were talks going around about an India- Pakistan final. Everything was in Pakistan’s favor. It was after all their home ground and they knew the conditions better.

Their arch-rival India haven't played many matches in U.A.E. The other contender, Sri Lanka, was a depleted team. Pakistan never had any problem beating Bangladesh in the past. What was left to handle was minnows Afghanistan and Hong Kong.

As it turned out, Pakistan did win against the minnows Afghanistan and Hong Kong. But those were the only two wins that Pakistan could manage in the entire tournament. That too, it was a narrow win against Afghanistan by two wickets in the last over of the match. With a little bit of luck, Afghanistan could have terminated the Pakistan campaign then and there.

There was a lot of hype surrounding the match between India and Pakistan. Both teams were meeting after a long time and the emotions were rising high. But India dominated both the matches winning by eight and nine wickets respectively.

As a result of their last-over win against Afghanistan, Pakistan were in with a chance up to the last Super-Four match against Bangladesh. But, they lost that crucial match by 37 runs and crashed out of the tournament.

The poor form of their batsmen and their poor fielding were the main causes of their defeat. Sarfraz Ahmed had his problems in controlling his emotions and was batting at no. 4 which was too high a position for his batting abilities.

For their average performance in the Asia Cup, Pakistan deserve 5 out of 10.