If Pakistan thought they were at rock bottom before they turned up in New Zealand, the hosts spent the entirety of the T20I series disabusing them of that notion. Sandwiched between one surprise win in the third T20I, Pakistan picked up hidings in Christchurch and Dunedin before travelling up to the North Island for another couple at Mount Maunganui and Wellington. Each game demonstrated how rapidly Pakistan were sinking, and how much further they could still possibly plunge.
Little that could happen in the ODIs will convince anyone they have resurfaced. Not least because this is the point in the calendar when ODIs matter least of all, weeks out from the end of a Champions Trophy that went very differently for both sides. The ODI World Cup remains a couple of years away, and the satisfaction of a bilateral ODI trophy in the midst of IPL season and the PSL just a fortnight away will be ephemeral.
Besides, the ODIs these two played in Pakistan in the Champions Trophy as well as the build-up to it were a true enough indication of their respective current qualities. With each side boasting full-strength sides – unlike, at least for New Zealand, this series – New Zealand convincingly beat Pakistan on three occasions, going on to win a tri-series as well as making a run all the way to the final of the Champions Trophy. Pakistan, at home, won just one game in five and crashed out of their prestigious home tournament five days after it began.
Pakistan have brought in their more experienced players and boast a largely full-strength squad, insofar as that means much given the pathos of the visitors’ current cricketing state. Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Naseem Shah are all back, while Haris Rauf was added earlier this week.
Besides, somewhat bizarrely, Pakistan come into this series with a surprisingly good bilateral away record. The ODIs in Pakistan’s leg of their season may not quite have gone according to plan, but before that, they won three successive bilateral series away from home, losing two games and winning seven as they bested Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It was partly why there was such unbridled, and ultimately, ill-placed optimism in the build-up to the Champions Trophy; this was the one format Pakistan still felt they were highly competitive in.
