Arafat Minhas Didn’t Just Beat England. He Showed Pakistan a Blueprint They’ve Been Searching For.

A 21-year-old in his fifth ODI scored 59 and took 6/40. Pakistan won by 87 runs. But the real story is what his performance reveals about a team that has spent years looking for an all-rounder who can do both.

Pakistan were 81 for 4 in the 19th over. Fakhar Zaman was out first ball. Babar Azam had scratched his way to 34 off 52. Saim Ayub and Salman Ali Agha were gone. Harry Brook had won the toss, put Pakistan in, and for twenty overs it looked like the decision would be vindicated .

Then Hasan Nawaz walked in and hit a six off Adil Rashid. And Arafat Minhas walked in and started hitting boundaries.

By the time the innings ended, Pakistan had 302 for 9. Minhas had 59 off 58 balls. Nawaz had 79 off 74. The two had added 78 for the sixth wicket, and Faheem Ashraf had chipped in with 39 off 26 in a 72-run seventh-wicket stand that took Pakistan from competitive to commanding .

Then Minhas took the ball.

The Collapse England Will Want to Forget

England were 91 for 0 in 14.3 overs. Ben Duckett was on 45, Tom Banton was on his way to 57, and the chase looked straightforward. Pakistan’s bowling had been expensive in the first T20I against New Zealand a few days earlier, and here it was again: no pressure, no wickets, no control .

Haris Rauf broke the opening stand by removing Duckett. Then Minhas took over.

Banton was his first wicket, caught off a miscued pull. Harry Brook, the England captain, was bowled for 5 by a ball that gripped and turned through the gate. Jordan Cox was trapped lbw. Will Jacks and Jamie Overton followed. Adil Rashid was lbw. And then Minhas ran out Gus Atkinson to end the match .

England lost their last nine wickets for 95 runs. Minhas finished with 6 for 40 from 8.4 overs. It was the second-best bowling figures by a Pakistan bowler in an ODI on home soil, behind only Shoaib Akhtar’s 6 for 16 against New Zealand in Karachi in 2002 .

My Take: This Is What Pakistan Have Been Missing

Pakistan cricket has spent years searching for a genuine all-rounder. Not a bits-and-pieces player. Not a bowler who can bat a bit. A player who can win a match with either skill on the same day, in the same game, under pressure.

Minhas did exactly that. And the numbers behind the performance make it even more remarkable.

He is 21 years old. This was his fifth ODI. He had never scored a half-century in international cricket before this innings. He had never taken a five-wicket haul in an ODI before this spell .

And yet he became just the third Pakistani men’s player to score a fifty and take a five-wicket haul in the same ODI, joining Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq. It was the 25th time the feat has been achieved in men’s ODIs, putting him in a group that includes Viv Richards, Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle, and Shakib Al Hasan .

The significance of that list is not just the names. It is the type of player it represents. These are match-winners. Players who change games in multiple ways. Pakistan have had fast bowlers who can win matches. They have had batters who can win matches. They have rarely had one player who can do both at the highest level, consistently, in the same afternoon.

Minhas is not yet consistent. One performance does not make a career. But the shape of this performance matters. He did not score a lucky fifty or take wickets at the death when England were already gone. He rescued Pakistan from 81 for 4. He broke England’s chase when they were cruising. He was the difference in both innings.

The Series Context Nobody Is Talking About Enough

Pakistan have now won both of their matches in this tri-series. They beat Sri Lanka by 37 runs in the opener, and England by 87 runs here. They sit on four points with a net run rate of +1.240, comfortably ahead of Sri Lanka and England .

One more win from their remaining two league matches guarantees a place in the final on October 31 at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Pakistan play England again on October 25, then Sri Lanka on October 27 .

England, meanwhile, are in trouble. They have lost both matches. Their net run rate is -0.892. They need to win both of their remaining games and hope other results go their way.

The temptation is to frame this as England’s collapse. And it was a collapse. But that framing misses the point. Pakistan did not win because England were bad. Pakistan won because a 21-year-old all-rounder produced a performance that England had no answer for.

What Happens Next

Pakistan’s next match is against England again on October 25 in Lahore. A win there would seal their place in the final and effectively end England’s tournament.

Minhas will not take 6 for 40 every game. He will not score 59 every game. That is not how cricket works, and anyone expecting him to replicate this performance immediately is setting him up to fail.

But what he has shown is that Pakistan have a player who can change the shape of a match in two different ways. In a tournament that serves as preparation for the ODI World Cup, that is more valuable than any single victory. Pakistan have spent years looking for a player like this. They may have finally found one.

The question is not whether Minhas can do it again. The question is whether Pakistan can build a team around him that does not need him to do it every time.