I don't follow the Pakistan team outside of watching India vs Pakistan but what in the world are people like Mohd. Hafeez and Shoaib Malik doing in this team? I thought they were 32-33 and were in the team for experience but they're 38 and completely useless with the bat, ball and on the field. Are there no youngsters who can replace them?
I also like to point out that the commentary particularly from Sanjay Manjrekar is ordinary bordering on pathetic. There is no "analysis" of the game anymore. It's everyone trying to be funny or taking potshots at others. Mayanti has a "fake" wannabe accent going during the innings break, Gautam Gambhir's useless talk about how he sleeps in the bus - ugh! Ganguly with his "young" Kedar/Shankar (they're 34 and 28 ffs) - it's such a $hit storm.
Malik should never have been in the squad, he was a very good player from his comeback in 2015 to 2017 but in the last two years he has been really poor and therefore his selection in the squad was questionable from the start. When you consider the form that Haris Sohail showed during the same time, it was baffling to see him be put on the bench for Malik, the only reason for this would be that Malik is more suited to the number 6 position while Sohail prefers to play higher up in 4.
Hafeez's place can't be called into question though. He has consistent for the past few years while also being useful with the ball, he's already played a couple of good innings in this world cup already.
The biggest problem in Pakistan's batting is Sarfaraz and his pathetic hitting ability. The only reason I can think of Haris not playing despite averaging close to 50 in the last two years is that he can't play low down the order because he is can't play aggressively, while Malik has shown a better ability to play with a high strike rate so he can sacrificed at number 6. Why we need either Malik or Haris to play there is because Sarfaraz playing that low is a liability because he can't play aggressively for his life, so you have to play him at number 5. If Sarfaraz had shown any semblence of ability to hit, he would easily play at number 6 and Haris could move up.
The only solution to this is for Hafeez to move down to number 6 and Haris come in at 4 (or simply play Asif at number 6, but he lacks the ability to build an innings). That depends on whether Hafeez wants to bat that down and also you are losing Hafeez's ability to build a good innings. Either way, our batting is completely fecked after the top 3.