Hassan Cheema

They don't have the luxury of wallowing in murky, pre-YouTube nostalgia like fans of other teams do

Maybe it really is a new dawn for their batting. Or is it?

His recent success is not reflective of the bigger picture of legspin in Pakistan, but the national team will be hoping he remains the exception for a long time

If everything beyond the Nishtar Park Complex is ignored Pakistan can still host series, and perform better than they do anywhere else in the world. But is that a price the fans, and visiting teams, are willing to pay?

The response of the fans in the two games against Zimbabwe has shown that one-sided run-fests are not as attractive as they are made out to be

Azhar Ali has shown he can survive in the modern ODI game as a batsman, but still seems unsure of what his bowling captaincy style ought to be

Their ODI series loss to Bangladesh highlights several failings - the biggest being that man for man their best XI was a lesser team

Given the circumstances, they actually did the opposite in the World Cup, bringing fervour back to their fan base

It might be just a brief glimmer, but after a miserable build-up to the World Cup, Pakistan are bowling like their exalted predecessors

It seems fashionable when they fail to blame it on an absence of passion; the real reasons are probably much more prosaic

The obsessive tendency to paint players as corrupt following every defeat has served to deflect attention from the team's real problems

They seem to be hung up on what worked for the team in the 1992 World Cup, not realising that the rest of the world has moved past those strategies

Less-deserving players have been picked for the Pentangular and A squads at the expense of talented allrounders

Most of their matches are at venues that will suit their style of play, but their strategy is directed at tackling bouncier pitches

The return to tried-and-tested underperformers for the World Cup squad will undo all the good work done over the last 14 months

Even when they were at their worst, Pakistan had no trouble beating New Zealand

The current side calls forth memories of the golden era of 2010-12

The tournament would have greater context if it started including composite teams featuring promising Associate players from teams like Afghanistan and Ireland

They don't quite inspire the awe that their legendary predecessors did, but they will do well if they keep the cricketing traditions of the city alive

Forget South Africa, it's Pakistan who have tripped up in high-pressure matches for a decade now