England vs Pakistan: 5 things which went wrong for Pakistan in the One Day series

#2 Role of Azhar Ali in the team

Azhar Ali does not quite fit into ODI cricket

After Misbah-ul-Haq decided to call it a day from One Day Internationals, Azhar Ali was appointed the captain for the ODI team. While there were few apprehensions over this call, the selectors believed Azhar will lend stability to the team.

However, while Azhar batted solidly at the top of the order and churned out runs, but then his pace of scoring put too much pressure on the rest of the batting order. England which kept posting scores in excess of 300 in almost all the matches were never threatened by the pace of the scoring and thus their bowlers could settle into a nice groove.

This approach is a no longer acceptable in the modern game, more so in a side which does not have a settled unit around to take advantage of the solid base.