Is it an end of Malik’s era? Probably, as it may seem. After an unimpressive show in ICC World Cup 2019 so far, it is highly likely that Shoaib Malik has played his last ODI innings on Sunday against India. Malik has already announced that he will retire from the ODIs at the end of the World Cup. Team sources say that Malik, in team meetings, had been saying that he wanted his last World Cup to me remembered but it has turned into a nightmare for him, as it may seem. The veteran of 287 ODIs was backed by team’s head coach Mickey Arthur on Saturday, who hoped that Malik’s experience would be important for Pakistan in the game against India. But, Malik couldn’t deliver what Arthur had hoped.
And, following his unimpressive run, it seems unlikely that he would be retained by team for remaining matches in the tournament and Asif Ali would come to replace him.
The senior batsman has scores of 8,0 and 0 in the last three innings of the tournament, so far. He has scored just three 50s in last 30 ODIs, scoring 608 runs at an average of 25.33 since start of 2018, which shows an obvious decline in his performance.