It's in our DNA: Youthful Pakistan races to T20 domination

Pakistan has dismissed rival teams the most times — 31 in all — while, in the last two years, it has defended a total of under 150 for 40 times out of 44, with three failures and one tie.

Sunday's win against New Zealand in Dubai was Pakistan's ninth victory in a row — its biggest winning streak.

Brash young players, peak fitness and a winning mentality “in its DNA”, Pakistan is the current king of international Twenty20 cricket.

The last two Sundays have seen Pakistan race to series whitewashes in the game's shortest format against Australia and New Zealand.

It has also registered 11 consecutive series wins — a world record.

The rapid-fire cricket of T20 mirrors the helter-skelter nature of life in a country of 220 million where people.

Former captain-turned-commentator Ramiz Raja believes Pakistan's Twenty20 flair comes naturally.

Read: Pakistan whitewashes New Zealand 3-0 in T20I series

“It's partly our DNA,” said Raja. “But our successes have a lot to do with skills and fitness. Pakistan is a good team in this format, bowling out the opposition at will.”

With its powerful and penetrative bowling unit, Pakistan has dismissed rival teams the most times — 31 in all — while, in the last two years, it has defended a total of under 150 for 40 times out of 44, with three failures and one tie.

Sunday's win against New Zealand in Dubai was its ninth victory in a row — its biggest winning streak.

“Pakistan takes this format very seriously and plays with regular players most of the time,” said Raja.

The greatest of all the surprises is Pakistan's fielding — not a strong point in the past. Its fielders have effected 25 runs outs in the last 28 matches.

Pakistan's wicket-taking ability is second to none, having bowled out opposing teams (all 10 wickets) on 31 occasions — the most by any team.

-- Youth changed Pakistan --

Following its first round exit from the 2016 World Twenty20, Pakistan has a new captain in Sarfraz Ahmed while the coaching reins were handed to South Africa's Mickey Arthur, a former Australia coach.

Chief selector Inzamam ul Haq, one of Pakistan's greatest batsmen, had no reservations over selecting youngsters.

It completely changed the scenario as since September 2016, Pakistan has won 29 of 33 Twenty20 internationals with only four defeats.

The current year has been phenomenal for Sarfraz and his young side, winning 17 of its 19 matches with two losses.

So what has changed?

Analysts say it is linked to the youthful nature of the country.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan figures, 42.4 million out of the nearly 97 million registered voters in this year's poll which saw former cricket captain Imran Khan become Prime Minister were between the ages of 18 and 35.

“The prime reason for the success in Twenty20 is the power of youth,” ex-captain and coach Waqar Younis told AFP .

“Young players are hungry for success, they do the hard work and want to achieve and that has changed the whole picture.”

Pakistan's latest pace sensation, Shaheen Afridi, is only 18. He became the youngest bowler to take three wickets in a Twenty20 international against New Zealand in Dubai on Friday.

World number one Twenty20 batsman Babar Azam became the quickest to 1,000 runs in the shortest format in just 26 innings, beating India's maestro Virat Kohli's feat by an innings.

Azam is only 24 and so is Hasan Ali and Faheem Ashraf while leg-spinnner Shadab Khan is only 20.

“The key difference is that we are a very young team and our fielding stands out and that has made us a good team,” said Sarfraz.

“We have introduced youth and the results are obvious. We want to rise and rise and maintain that position.”