On June 9, Pakistan slumped to six-run loss at the hands of arch-rivals India in a low-scoring match in New York.
Pakistan’s Super Eight qualification chance now hinges on winning big against Canada and Ireland, besides hoping that the Americans lose big to India and Ireland.
Also read: India edge Pakistan in low-scoring nailbiter at T20 World Cup
Even in that scenario, both the teams will end on four points each and it will boil down to which team has a better net run rate.
After two wins, the United States enjoy a healthy run-rate of +0.626 and just a victory against Ireland would suffice while Pakistan would need to win by comprehensive margins.
Not a single department clicked for Pakistan in the two matches so far and they will need a more cohesive effort in the remaining matches to give themselves an outside chance.
Pakistan's major concern going forward is the underwhelming performance of their batters as the likes of Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed played loose shots to make life difficult for them against India.
While Mohammed Rizwan took 44 balls to score his 31 runs, Wasim consumed 23 balls for his 15.
The only bright sport for Pakistan on Sunday was the performance of their bowlers with Naseem Shah (3/21) and Mohammad Amir (2/23) leading from the front.
But premier fast bowler Shaheen needs to take more responsibility upfront in the remaining two games to give Pakistan an outside chance. He has hardly been able to get swing in conducive conditions.
Going forward Pakistan will have to do some soul searching if they want to revive their faltering campaign.
On the other side, Canada are placed third in Group A with one win out of two games.
Canada suffered a defeat at the hands of USA but bounced back in style to beat Ireland by 12 runs in their next match.
Canada will also take heart from the defeat against the USA because they had posted an imposing 194, albeit in a losing cause.
Teams:
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan
Canada: Saad Bin Zafar (captain), Aaron Johnson, Ravinderpal Singh, Navneet Dhaliwal, Kaleem Sana, Dilon Heyliger, Jeremy Gordon, Nikhil Dutta, Pargat Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Rayyankhan Pathan, Junaid Siddiqui, Dilpreet Bajwa, Shreyas Movva and Rishiv Joshi.
