Basit Ali blasts Pakistan’s poor bowling show against New Zealand

KARACHI: Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali strongly criticized Pakistan’s poor bowling and fielding against New Zealand in the inaugural match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

Centuries from Will Young and Tom Latham helped New Zealand set a 321-run target against Pakistan at National Bank Stadium in Karachi.

Speaking on ARY News’ special transmission of the Champions Trophy, Basit Ali praised New Zealand’s batting, noting that the black caps divided their innings into two phases—30 overs and 50 overs—and played the final 20 overs like a T20 match.

He criticized Pakistan’s fielding, stating that players’ body language and approach suggested they had already accepted the 300-plus target, which he considered a poor mindset for such an important match.

Ali was of the view that during the game, Pakistani bowlers seemed more focused on saving themselves from getting hit for boundaries, and instead gave away too many singles, rather than trying to dismiss the New Zealand batters.

The former cricketer emphasized that it is the coach’s responsibility to address such defensive strategies.

He explained, “When a batter is allowed to score singles, it emboldens him.”

Basit Ali urged the bowlers to adopt a strategy that prevents batters from taking easy singles, thus forcing them into early, risky shots and mistakes.

Unfortunately, he pointed out that two Pakistani bowlers failed to do this, partly because they are not regular bowlers.

Basit also expressed dissatisfaction with the current crop of Pakistani all-rounders, pointing out that in the past players like Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez, and Shoaib Malik, who were initially strong batsmen before becoming bowlers, excelled because they understood a batter’s psychology.

In contrast, current all-rounders like Khushdil Shah would only bowl according to batter’s psychology if they had a solid grounding in batting, which Basit believes is lacking.