“Nahi yar, ye kaisay hosakta hai (no man, how can this happen?)”, Usama Mir had been asked by an incredulous Shaheen Shah Afridi. Mir had allowed Afghanistan another easy single despite the ball being played straight to him inside the circle at mid-on.

Shaheen may well have been speaking about the match as a whole or echoing the entire country’s sentiments as the wheels fell off Pakistan’s World Cup campaign with a historic defeat to another neighbour in blue.

Defeat to THE neighbour in blue earlier had started a run of three consecutive defeats that leave Babar Azam and his men looking odds on to get knocked out at the first hurdle.

Defeat to South Africa is the painfully likely scenario and while it may not mathematically end Pakistan’s chances, it will leave them requiring several miracles.

Let’s get the excuses for this miserable campaign out of the way, because to be fair, there are more than a few valid ones.

Injury to Naseem Shah has drastically unbalanced Pakistan’s pace attack — by far their most potent weapon. Hasan Ali has performed admirably as his replacement, but both Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf look much less threatening without Naseem to support them.

Even more relevant is that none of the Pakistan players had played in Indian conditions before. On the other hand, most of the other teams are chockfull of stars that spend nearly two months every calendar year playing in the Indian Premier League.

India offers the largest diversity of conditions in the world and most other players know how to alter their techniques and have plans in place to deal with the unique challenges presented by the different venues.

On the other hand, Pakistan players are mainly going in blind every game. It is all well and good to study the data and plan accordingly, but the game is played out there on the pitch, not on excel sheets.

To make matters worse, most the conditions that India tends to offer do not cater to Pakistan’s strength of pace and swing. The pitches are either conducive to spin or to attacking batsmen, and Pakistan haven’t found many players who are much good at either since Shahid Afridi retired.

All of this combined with the fact that more than half of the side has never played in a World Cup before, and it can be seen why Pakistan are struggling.

Yet it won’t be Pakistan if their wounds were not largely self-inflicted. They have long insisted upon standing still and playing a brand of cricket that most teams have moved on from. Their lack of sixes in the powerplay has become a stuff of legends (Abdullah Shafique’s maximum against Afghanistan was their first in 2023), but there are more ways than one to skin a cat. Pakistan, however, struggle to score quickly at the start of the innings in any shape or form.

Imamul Haq would have been a legendary opener 20 years ago, but his kind are now obsolete. Imam had shown signs of becoming a modern cricketer worthy of that name and was scoring at a strike rate of nearly 95 last year, but has frustratingly reverted to type and is scoring at a strike of 81.8 again in 2023.

Any other team and Imam would have been dropped long ago, yet Pakistan continue to persist with him, even dropping Fakhar Zaman when maybe Imam should have been the one sidelined.

Thus, it is no coincidence that the premium openers of the four sides currently occupying the qualifying slots have all afforded their sides some blistering starts.

New Zealand’s Devon Conway has two knocks with strike-rates over hundred in this World Cup, David Warner has three, and both Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock have four.

The last time Imam scored at better than run-a-ball was back in March 2022, more than 18 months ago. The fact that he has scored at that sort of strike-rate only five times in his six-year career suggests he just isn’t capable of scoring this quickly.

For most sides, that would make him utterly unpickable. He is in the side at best due to poor planning and at worst due to his close connections with skipper Babar and chief selector Inzamamul Haq.

The only Pakistani in the tournament’s top 25 strike-rates so far is Iftikhar Ahmed, who ironically is the closest thing Pakistan have to a modern cricketer despite him being the oldest player in the side. However, he has only played 72 balls in the tournament so far.

To make matters worse, Pakistan’s spinners have been perhaps the worst of all sides. That Iftikhar, with an economy of 5.1 and average of 102, has been the best spinner of the four Pakistan have tried says all there is to say.

Babar and Inzamam’s decision to not have Imad Wasim here — who is Pakistan’s best spinner and is also among their best, if not the very best, finishers with the bat — highlights how merit is not the only criterion of selection.

Babar and Imad’s relation soured during their time at Karachi Kings and that has meant that Imad cannot buy his way into the side right now.

Pakistan have suffered a lot in the past from divided dressing rooms and disharmony among the players so there is certainly a case to be made for not selecting players that may jeopardise the close-knit nature of this group.

However, at some point merit must surely take precedence over personal preferences and whims. At this level, the real treasure cannot just be the friends you make along the way. Babar and Inzamam must face awkward questions about why Imam is still in the side and Imad is still out of it.

Pakistan now take on South Africa, who are everything they are not and can go top with a win.

In De Kock, the Proteas have a belligerent opener who can win their side games at the start. In Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, they have two lower-middle-order batsmen who can take the game away from any side at the death.

In Marco Jansen, they have a fast-bowling all-rounder who can provide balance by contributing to both innings. In Keshav Maharaj, they have a spinner who can keep things tight and take wickets at the same time.

This seems quite the mismatch, and yet stranger things have happened when Pakistan are involved — plus for all the things that they have that Pakistan don’t, a win over the Netherlands isn’t one of them.

That Pakistan seem so out place in India is through no fault of their own, but need to only look in the mirror to see who is to blame for them seeming so out of place in 2023.