However, what has really stopped them from reaching the very top is being devoid of strong leadership for a sustainable time frame. By all means, lack of dynamic leadership for a considerable time frame at the very top has hurt Pakistan's cricketing fortunes in a big way over the last decade or so.
Cricket across all three of its avatars is, was and will always be a team sport that relies on collective effort rather than individual brilliance.
A look-back at recent years will make the picture clearer. Pakistan chips and chops cricket captains in the limited overs format as frequently as one goes in for a monthly haircut. The recent axing of under-fire skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, which in all respects was inevitable courtesy the team's dismal ICC 2019 World Cup outing, was yet another example of Pakistani skipper facing the brunt when the going gets tough.
In the 90s, when Pakistan were one of the formidable teams in ODI cricket, the 'Green Brigade' were skippered by multiple captains - Wasim Akram(109), Waqar Younis(62), Saleem Malik (34), Aamir Sohail (22), Rashid Latif (25) and Moin Khan (34). The new millennium witnessed a similar trend with the ODI captaincy being shared by Inzamam Ul Haq, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Azhar Ali.
A closer look at the stats reveal that with the turn of the millennium, Inzamam-Ul Haq (87) and Misbah-Ul-Haq (87) have been the only two Pakistani skippers to get a fairly longish run as ODI captains. The other captains have all been merely used as stop gap arrangements.
It is a no brainer that ODI teams which have cemented their spot at the pinnacle in white ball cricket had one thing in common, a consistent spree of strong leadership which immaculately held command and control to groom a set of budding talents into future stars and nurture a spirit of camaraderie to gel as a cohesive outfit.
There are examples a plenty to quote from the limited overs arena. The all conquering Australian team had great skippers in succession with Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting leading them for a decade and a half. South Africa was fortunate to have Hansie Cronje, Graeme Smith and Faf Du Plessis enduring a long reign of command.
The Windies at their peaks of prowess had Clive Lloyd, Sir Vivian Richards and Richie Richardson. 'Men In Blue' over the last two decades has been hemmed by Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
Pakistan may have had astute thinkers and great tacticians but none could come close to the leadership traits exhibited by their charismatic skipper Imran Khan. One won’t be wrong in saying that Imran Khan was their last great leader who rallied his troops around and eventually helped the sub continent nation lift the Cricket World Cup in 1992. Post Khan, Pakistan had some noteworthy successors in Wasim Akram and Inzamam-Ul-Haq under whom they were pretty successful but never quite achieved the same glorious heights
Infighting among the star studded squads has been a major headache which has never quite got the blaming influence. Shoiab Akhtar, Saqlian Mushtaq, Shahid Afridi were all world beaters on any day but getting their best collectively was an art which many leaders could not possibly master.
A great leader goes beyond the realms of just leading his side and dons the role of being a centrifugal force that binds the team together and infuses.
Cricket is very much like an army regiment going on a mission to accomplish a specific task, winning the game on the green turf. You might have the cavalry to charge at the opponent ,you might have the armour and artillery to pound the enemy, but if don’t have a gritty and courageous general to get all the arsenal to fire in the right sequence, then it is very much a lost battle before going into the battlefield.
With yet another change of guard at the very top, it will be interesting to see how Babar Azam fares as the new man in charge of an ODI outfit which promises a lot but often fails to deliver to its potential.