Pakistan Team and Kevin Pietersen.
Pakistan Team and Kevin Pietersen. Image Credit: X

The former England batter, Kevin Pietersen, has displayed his surprise towards the performance of the current Pakistan side after they lost the first of the two-match series against Bangladesh in a situation where they dreamt of winning the game, if not drawing. The result came on the back of some questionable selection calls where they decided to, with an all-pace attack.

The loss has been quite demoralizing to the Pakistani side. At the start, the Shan Masood-led side struggled to get going in the batting department, losing three early wickets, before racking up 448/6 in their first innings, but that wasn’t enough as they gave away 565 runs, thanks to the 341-ball 191-run marathon knock from Mushfiqur Rahim.

The decision to leave the spinner out of the side proved to be the biggest blunder at the moment, especially on the fifth day when the experienced left-arm spinner, Shakib Al Hasan, and the off-spinner, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, shared seven wickets between them to roll over the Pakistan team for a low score, before registering a 10-wicket win, their first of the format against this particular opponent.

“What’s happening there?”- Kevin Pietersen on Pakistan’s cricket quality

The former England middle-order batter, Kevin Pietersen, has weighed on the poor performances of the Green Brigade in recent times as he questioned what went wrong in the country in the last few months.

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Under the captaincy of Babar Azam, they made the group stage exit from the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA), where they lost to the co-host, before managing a defeat against India from a comfortable winning position.

In the ongoing third cycle of the World Test Championship, their only series victory came nearly a year ago in Sri Lanka when they won the two-match series before the change of captaincy didn’t help them save the 2-0 series defeat in the hands of Australia. The bowlers looked out of shape and rhythm during the Rawalpindi game, while their selection displayed how bad they were in reading their home pitch.

The 44-year-old looked back at the time when he was part of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), playing for the Quetta Gladiators, and when the local players used to come up with quality performances regularly, and this current downfall had reminded him about the reason.

“What happened to cricket in Pakistan? When I played the PSL, the standard of that league was tremendous, the players had a very good work ethic, and the youngsters on display were magic. What’s happening there?” The Natal-born penned down in his ‘X’ account (formerly known as Twitter).

The pitches haven’t helped the pace department of the side at all, and the heat throughout the game has made the bowlers tired, losing so much energy as they kept on bowling their overs. Having a spinner would have given them an extended break, as they could break their bowling in short and sharp spells.

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Their former cricketer and ex-PCB chair, Ramiz Raja, has also criticized the Pakistan side as he felt their pace-bowling, which doesn’t have an expressive pacer, is on the decline, besides lambasting the batting struggles of the captain, Shan Masood. The defeat has dropped their position to eight among nine teams in the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2023-25, and now carries a very slight chance to qualify for the final of the tournament.

The second game of the series will be played on August 30, also in Rawalpindi, after the current construction work’s original schedule and shifted the game out of Karachi.