The year 2021 has been a tremendous one for the Pakistan team, we witnessed their consistency throughout this whole year. Whether it was the shorter format of T20 or the longer format of Test, they showed their real strength in both of these, but it was their performance in ODIs that put all of us in a lot of doubt. Let’s take a look at Pakistan ODI Cricket performance

The team played a lot of T20 cricket in 2021, along with Test cricket but they were made scarce of playing the ODI format of the game.

Pakistan ODI Cricket: Matches/Series Results

	Match Results	Series Result
Played	6	2
Won	2	1
Loss	4	1

Pakistan ODI Cricket: Series review

Pakistan Tour of South Africa:

The Men in Green played 3 ODI’S and 4 T20’S. In the ODI series, both the team fought tooth to nail, but Babar’s men came upon the top and won the series 2-1, by winning the First and Third ODI.

Babar Azam scored the century in First ODI while Fakhar Zaman consecutively scored two big centuries in the next two ODI’s, scoring 193 and 101 in the two ODI’s. He was also declared the man of the series.

Results:

First ODI: PAK won by 3 wickets.

Second ODI: SA won by 17 runs.

Third ODI: PAK won by 28 runs.

Pakistan Tour of England:

The tour of England in mid-2021 did not go as expected. Winning their first ODI series in England, since 1974, could’ve been the best time and a piece of cake in the absence of their full-strength team, which was quarantined just before the start of the series. But this dream of Babar’s Men was shattered to pieces when their mediocrity came into play. 

Not just their defeat but the manner of defeat raised a lot of questions in PAK cricket fans and ex-cricketers. They failed in all departments during all of the series. Babar Azam went on to be the highest scorer for his side, while Haris Rauf went on to take six wickets in the series.

FIRST ODI: England won by 9 wickets

SECOND ODI: England won by 52 runs.

THIRD ODI: England won by 3 wickets.

Pakistan ODI Cricket: Big moments

Perhaps, the most memorable in all of these ODI performances were the Century of Fakhar Zaman in the second ODI vs South Africa and PAK’s Second ODI series win in South Africa. The only Asian team to do so. Fakhar Zaman’s century against SA in the second ODI was a memorable one as it nearly got him to his second Double Century, but that clever sign-off by De Kock to his fielder made Fakhar zaman run out on 193.

Pakistan ODI Cricket: Low moments

Maybe the worst moments in all of these were the Defeat against England by 3-0. Facing a second-tier team of England, it should have been a lot easier than it really was but then the conventional PCT came into play and we achieved results we couldn’t have expected.

Also, the cancellation of New Zealand’s tour to Pakistan was a major setback to them. It was a normal cricketing day, just like any other and suddenly, it was ruined when the touring New Zealand Team suddenly packed their bags and went home. This all took place on the basis of a mere impossibility of confusion that they were going to be attacked. 

PAK suffered a huge blow to their efforts of reviving the international cricket that day, just before the start of the ODI Series against New Zealand. This resulted in England canceling their two T20Is, which were supposed to be played on consecutive days, and put the Australia series in doubt. 

Luckily, the Australia series will go ahead and New Zealand will tour the country twice in 2022 and 2023. 

World Cup Super League

Babar and his men currently rank 7^TH on ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League Points table, at the end of 2021. They acquired 20 points in 2021, because of their two victories against SA.

The top eight teams will qualify directly for the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup, hosted by India. To know how the WCSL works, check out this article below:

ODI World Cup Super League – How does it work?

Pakistan ODI Cricket: Star performers 

Batters 

Babar Azam

Babar Azam was again the one to watch out for in 2021, he scored a total of 405 ODI runs, at an average of 67.5. He scored a century and a 94 against SA and a 150 against England in the third ODI.

Fakhar Zaman

He ends 2021 as PAK’s second-highest run-scorer in the ODI format. He scored 365 runs at an average of 60.83 with two centuries. One of the centuries was his magnificent 193, which came in the losing 2nd ODI. 

Bowlers

Haris Rauf

He was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan in 2021, with 13 wickets to his name, at an average of 24.4. His economy shot at 6.23 despite being PAK’s highest wicket-taker. Apart from Haris, no other Pakistan bowler has taken more than 10 wickets. It is a good 

Shaheen Afridi

He played in all six ODIs for his team. He picked 8 wickets at an average of 41.37 and went at 6.3 runs per over. Out of those 8, six of them came against South Africa in Green Team’s series win 2-1. 

Also read: Report Card: Pakistan T20I Cricket in 2021