Karachi Kings, the defending champions of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2020, have had a disappointing campaign thus far, which was unexpected given their recent leadership change.
After the Kings’ management chose to remove Imad Wasim as captain, Babar Azam, the player who guided Pakistan to a historic victory over India in last year’s T20 World Cup, is now the team’s leader.
As a result, the Kings have struggled mightily in the previous several matches held in Karachi’s National Stadium.
To date, they’ve been beaten by Multan Sultan by seven wickets, by Lahore Qalandars by six wickets, and by Quetta Gladiators by eight wickets.
We believe they are failing for the following reasons:
Too much dependence on the highest order
In order for the Kings to gain runs on the board, they seem to depend heavily on the top order of Sharjeel Khan and Babar Azam.
The efforts of Babar Azam to preserve his ‘brand’
His “brand identity” in international cricket is that of the guy who gets runs for his side when they need them most, much as he does in domestic cricket.
To compensate for his lack of power in the power play, the 27-year-old prefers to stay on the field longer than the other hitters.
Muhammad Amir is not present
While the pacemaker hasn’t had a particularly good run recently, his absence is felt across the team. Amir is one of the tournament’s leading wicket-takers, but he’ll be out for a long because of an injury he picked up only hours before the start of the competition.
Failure in the middle order
Babar and Sharjeel are being too relied upon by the Karachi Kings’ middle order, but they aren’t scoring enough runs to alleviate the strain on the following hitters.
Because no middle order players have been able to contribute 30 runs to the overall score, the team has been severely hampered after Babar and Sharjeel’s dismissals.