How crap were West Indies?

I'm always optimistic of what touring teams will offer in Aotearoa, regardless of their situation or form prior as I want to see the Blackcaps challenged. Sometimes such optimism of weaker teams is proved to be fair, more often than not these teams save their worst for Aotearoa.

West Indies had a decent 2017 despite not taking part in Champions Trophy and my optimism centred around their youth, youth that wanted to put the icing on a solid year. Instead they were ready to say ka kite to a long 2017 and touring Aotearoa looked like a bridge too far for Windies.

Now I take that optimism into Pakistan's arrival, although I'm also very aware of the Bermuda Triangle that Aotearoa can be for touring sub-continent teams, especially those of the younger variety. Pakistan will be better than West Indies and obviously had a fire emoji 2017 in tasting Champions Trophy glory, yet we also need to understand that Pakistan could very easily flop.

Shoaib Malik for example averages 9 in Aotearoa and Azhar Ali averages 11, while Sarfraz Ahmed's average in Aotearoa of 27.60 is well below averaging 58.50 in Australian and 62.66 in England. They are three of Pakistan's four players over 30years and they have tasted the curse of Aotearoa. Mohammad Hafeez is the third experienced joker in this squad and he's the opposite, averaging 41.11, while averaging 18 in Australia and 28.94 in England.

In Pakistan's experienced players you have a nice metaphor for their volatility. Ali will open and the other three will form the engine room of Pakistan's batting line up, with Malik and Hafeez likely to bat #4 and #5 while Ahmed comes in at #7.

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This volatility flows into the most exciting aspect of this Pakistan team and Pakistan cricket in general as they have a crop of young players who ooze talent, who played key roles in their Champions Trophy success. Fakhar Zaman is a 27-year-old with 9 ODIs to his name and he hit a century in the CT final, followed by a century against fairly weak Aotearoa XI earlier this week - his average of 44.44 comes with a strike-rate of 100.50.

Babar Azam will probably bat #3 and he hit 46 in the CT final. He's knocking around with a cheeky average of 58.60 through 36 games as a 23-year-old, as well as having as many centuries as half-centuries (7 of each).

Shadab Khan is a 19-year-old leggie who is coming fresh out of a stint in Big Bash League with Brisbane Heat. Khan played three games and took 2 wickets in each game, before taking 4w vs Aotearoa XI and this is in keeping with his ODI career in which he's averaging 25.47/4.98rpo.

Our Pakistani Leg Spinner receives his Brisbane Heat Cap from teammate Joe Burns.

A lot of attention will be directed towards Mohammad Amir - who is only 25yrs and is still one of the best seamers in the world and took 3w @ 2.66rpo in CT final - yet Hasan Ali is the other bloke to watch in Pakistan's seam department. Ali took 3w @ 2.92rpo in the CT final and has an ODI average of 19.82 in 26 games as a 23-year-old. Faheem Ahsraf and Rumman Raees will also feature as seamers, they have both played less that 5 ODI games and both average under 26 with the ball in List-A cricket.

What Pakistan have is a bowling attack of youngsters who have burst on to the ODI scene in impressive fashion and how that translates to a series in Aotearoa will be of great interest. In theory, they should flourish given what they have done previously and Aotearoa's conditions, but to go all-in on hype would neglect the difficulties many young cricketers have when coming to Aotearoa.

There's definitely reason to be optimistic and this is a nice step up from West Indies. The real challenge for Aotearoa is performing overseas in ODI cricket, which is exactly what Pakistan did in winning a Champions Trophy in England while Aotearoa faltered. Pakistan genuinely have the ability to not only offer a Blackcaps gauge, but to possibly offer a reality check to those living in the post-Windies fantasy land.

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Peace and love 27.