23:04 IST:
For Pakistan, a recurring concern has been the make up of their batting lineup. Stacked with players chosen for high-intent, power-hitting ability. While this offers explosiveness, it has repeatedly exposed their struggles with the fundamentals of batting, which are rotating strike, finding gaps, and defending under pressure. As a result, when early wickets fall, incoming batters rarely settle, unable to rebuild through singles and doubles and often hesitant to go big straightaway. Partnerships never truly developed, with only two batters from the top 5 in double digits, despite the depth in their batting lineup. Had there been no fireworks from Shaheen Afridi towards the backend, the scoreboard would have read very sorry-looking numbers.