Areas to work-on for Pakistan before England match.

After Pakistan's devastating loss against West Indies in their opening game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, the team needs to address several issues before they face England.

Pakistan will be facing England on Monday at Trent Bridge. Conditions will not be very different from the last match as Pakistan will be playing on the same ground again.

Pakistan go into this match needing to perform well and if batting first they are in dire need to put up a big score. The team is last in the points table and has the lowest net run rate after their 105 run performance against West Indies. The team might be able to accomplish this as Trent Bridge is a ground known for big scores. 

However, as we saw in the recently concluded ODI series against England, a 300+ totals were easily chased down. 

What might work in Pakistan's favour is that its always a different ball game in the World Cup. The tournament has a different pressure and  scores of 300+ would not be easily gettable in the World Cup as the were in that recent series. So, at the beginning of the game rather than aiming for 380, the team should go for 300 and once the platform is set they can launch some big hits in the latter part of the innings and get to the promising total.

For this, the openers need to see off the new ball and rather than going after every delivery they would have to leave some in the beginning, something also mentioned by former skipper Wasim Akram.

The dismissal of both openers against West Indies was because of their slow reflexes. As an opener, one needs to be quick in his reflexes especially in English conditions. This could be the threat for the team in the upcoming matches because if our openers do not get rid of their lazy approach with the new ball, the team might have to face the same situation in the upcoming matches.

Pakistan’s fielding has not been up to the mark recently. On batting friendly conditions where bowlers are not getting any help from the pitch, one outstanding catch could lift the bowling attack. Fielding could create the difference at the end between two sides as we have seen in the past because it does create pressure on the opposition and the total of 300 could get to 325 without sharp fielding.

If Pakistan works on the above-highlighted areas, we will definitely see a different team in the upcoming matches. This team is very much capable of doing it, they just need to be mentally ahead than the opposition and make things happen.