Why Pakistan’s Top White-Ball Players Are Declining

Shadab played the entire domestic season, yet there’s been zero improvement. The problem is that these players act like superstars in domestic cricket, making all the decisions themselves, while the coaching standards are too poor to fix their technical flaws. If anything, they need to play county cricket, where they’d face tougher competition and proper coaching.

Back in 2017, Shadab was Pakistan’s best white-ball prospect a genuine leg-spinner who could bat. Shaheen was an all-format prodigy. Both were MVPs in the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups. Yet, if your two best white-ball talents have regressed this badly, competing at the highest level becomes impossible.

The only way to fix players like Babar, Shaheen, and Shadab is by putting them in environments where their family has zero influence and they don’t receive superstar treatment from coaches and teammates. They need to be challenged, not coddled.