Pak vs wi

Babar and Imam continue scoring buckets of runs, and Shaheen continues to take new-ball wickets. But what about the rest?

And Pakistan continue to seal series win after series win; this is their fifth in six series since the 2019 World Cup. Babar and Imam still score buckets of runs, and Shaheen strikes with such regularity you could set your watch by it. The tempting arc to draw from here would be Nawaz becoming an integral part of Pakistan's ODI planning and preparation, but if that were to happen, it would be a fairly dramatic departure from how involved he has been thus far. And on the odd occasion, you might see something that counts as a bonus, like aKhushdil Shahcameo or a Mohammad Nawazmasterclass, as have happened in this series against West Indies. If you're really fortunate you might happen to have a ticket on the two out of ten days when everything is in Fakhar Zaman's strike zone. It is, of course, better for this series to be played than not, even if for the longest time it felt as if no one really wanted to play it if the ODI Super League hadn't forced them to. And if, in 2022, you queue up in the heat - as the Multan crowd has gamely done a couple of times this week - for a Pakistan ODI performance, it's not because of the tantalising hope that maybe, just maybe, this might be the day the middle order comes to life. It's what Pakistan sell, and it's what Pakistan deliver in this format at the moment.