Pakistani imports fall flat as CPL 2020 concludes with Knight Riders win

Pakistani players do great in T20 leagues in general and Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in particular, but the event’s 2020 edition was a rare failure for them.

As unbeaten champions Trinbago Knight Riders ran away with the CPL 2020, Pakistan’s top exports to the Caribbean league – Asif Ali and Sohail Tanvir - barely dragged themselves out of the tournament.

Tanvir, once considered one of the best T20 bowlers in the world, represented St Kitts and Nevis Patriots – the side that finished last in the tournament (CPL’s version of Lahore Qalandars, basically) and won just one of their 10 matches.

The left-arm pacer from Rawalpindi did have a hand in the Patriots’ horror showing as he picked just five wickets in as many matches at an average of 29.6. Even Tanvir’s bat produced just 34 runs in the entire tournament.

The far bigger failure, however, was Asif Ali who scored just 118 runs for Jamaica Tallawahs in the entire tournament, with 47 of that total coming in just one game (the first game), which shows how spectacular a fall from grace his must have been over the next nine matches.

Over the next eight innings he scored a mere 71 runs at an average of 8.8 runs per innings.

READ: After an early flourish, Asif Ali's form plummets for Jamaica Tallawahs

Despite his horrific form, the Tallawahs refused to drop him, even selecting him for the all-important semi-final where he once again contributed a mere four off four balls.

The cream of Pakistan’s T20 talent was unavailable for CPL 2020 due to it clashing with Pakistan’s tour of England.

Meanwhile, the Knight Riders bulldozed their way to the final where they crushed St Lucia Zouks by eight wickets. The champions did not have any Pakistan players but they had three Pakistan-born players in the form of Ali Khan (Attock-born, represents USA), Fawad Ahmed (born in Marghuz, Australia) and Sikandar Raza (born in Sialkot, represents Zimbabwe). 

Comments

Submit