Pakistan looks to bounce back from a warm-up loss to Zimbabwe when they begin the defence of their World Twenty20 title against Bangladesh on Saturday. It says much about what has happened to Pakistan cricket since they beat Sri Lanka in the 2009 World Twenty20 final and a defeat by Bangladesh this weekend is thinkable.
Against Zimbabwe, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq scored just 9 runs between them. Failing in a warm-up match is no barrier to the coming matches, but Pakistan have lost the influence of Younus Khan, their captain of last year's World Twenty20. He was one of several players punished after the team's poor performance in tours of Australia, New Zealand and the UAE.
The defeat has meant they have come to the Caribbean without Shoaib Malik, newly married to Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, and Rana Hasan, both banned for a year. The whole expectations is on Afridi and Razzaq. Afridi did at least take 4 wickets against Zimbabwe and cause batting collapses in this format.
Wasim said, they need someone like Afridi as captain in Twenty20 cricket, who has aggression needed in a leader and will always sparkle. A 7-wicket loss to England in a warm-up in Barbados on Wednesday did little for Bangladesh's hopes of beating either Pakistan or Australia and so qualifying for the second round. But Bangladesh once beat Australia in a ODI in Cardiff and if captain Shakib Al Hasan or Mohammad Ashraful come good with the bat, another shock could be in sight.
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