HARARE: Pakistan suddenly find themselves in a spot of bother as they face a weak-looking yet spirited Zimbabwe in the series-deciding third and final Twenty20 International here at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

Fresh from their ODI and Twenty20 series triumph in South Africa where they toured prior to coming to Zimbabwe, Babar Azam and company received a big jolt on Friday when Zimbabwe, 11th in the ICC T20 rankings, stunned the tourists by 19 runs in the second T20 in Harare to level the series that before Friday did not hold any considerable significance.

After getting restricted to 118 in the second game, the Brendan Taylor-led Zimbabwe defying the odds, bundled out Pakistan the former top-ranked T20 team, for a mere total of 99 off 19.5 overs. This was also Zimbabwe’s first-ever T20 win over Pakistan.

Surprisingly earlier in the series opener held at the same venue, fourth-ranked Pakistan team barely managed to win by 11 runs while defending 149.

On Sunday, the tourists would be looking to sort their batting woes as in both games thus far, their batters have not fired. Barring wicket-keeper/batsman Mohammad Rizwan and Babar, the rest of the batsmen have struggled.

Middle-order batting has only raised the concerns of Pakistan think-tank in recent times. While veteran Mohammad Hafeez, who had a fine 2020 with the bat in the game’s shortest format, has so far struggled on the African safari, Asif Ali’s string of abject outings have only continued on the tour; add to this the failures of novice Danish Aziz who debuted in the first T20 of the Zimbabwe series. Moreover, right-handed young batsman Haider Ali has also not succeeded to impress despite having productively launched his T20 International career last year in England.

The tourists’ late order featuring a solid hitter like Faheem Ashraf also malfunctioned on Friday and could not cross the line in a moderate chase of 119.

All this must be causing headaches for Babar, head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and batting coach Younis Khan ahead of this year’s ICC T20 World Cup scheduled to staged during October-November in India.

In Sunday’s game, Pakistan, would be expecting that left-handed top-order batsman Fakhar Zaman regains his rich form he displayed in the recently held series in South Africa.

As far as Zimbabwe are concerned, they would be hoping to replicate their performance they proudly delivered in the second T20 match.

The pitch in Harare hasn’t been an easy one for batting. Runs have been hard to come by and the bowlers have churned out wickets at healthy economy rates. Batting first should be the way forward.

The chasing teams have lost 17 out of 25 matches at the venue. There are chances of rain around 10am local time and hence there could be interruptions. The temperature will be around 23 degrees Celsius.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2021