Pakistan are the reigning ICC World Twenty20 champions but they enter this year’s edition of the tournament as something of an unknown quantity.

    Their team has been rocked by internal politics after an unsuccessful tour of Australia while none of their players took any part in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

    However, the fact that they do not have any participants in the IPL means that Pakistan may have stolen a march on their opponents.

    Unlike most of the other leading cricketing nations Pakistan has been able to organize training camps with their full complement of players and the extra training as a unit may just prove to be their trump card.

    But Pakistan will face a tough task progressing out of their group as they face Bangladesh and Australia in their pool matches.

        Much like the French rugby team Pakistan has the ability to both dazzle and infuriate fans in equal measure.

    Pakistan can be devastating on one day but truly awful the next and it is this unpredictability which makes them so dangerous.

    Pakistan posses a team that is chockfull of potential match winners, not least of which is the mercurial Shahid Afridi.

    Afridi is not known as “Boom-Boom” for nothing and he certainly lives up to his moniker on the batting front.

    The 30-year-old is one of the most devastating hitters in world cricket as evidenced by a T20 international strike-rate of over 145.

    Afridi also holds the record for the fastest ODI century, after he thrashed his way to three figures against Sri Lanka in 1996 off just 37 balls.

    Afridi, who is a more than capable leg-spinner, has been appointed captain for the World T20, a poisoned chalice if ever there was one, but if he can galvanise his team-mates there is no reason they cannot successfully defend their title.

    Afridi has two of world crickets’ most exciting youngsters in his ranks in the form of batsman Umar Akmal and left-arm swing bowler Mohammad Aamer.

    The right-handed Akmal has made a dream start to international cricket with a test century on debut while his first one-day international century came up after just three matches.

    The 19-year-old Akmal will be expected to fill the middle-order void that was previously filled by the likes of Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan. It is a tall order but one that the prodigiously talented Akmal is more than capable of fulfilling.

    Aamer, who only turned 18 in April, is a genuine threat with the new ball.

    Able to swing the ball prodigiously Aamer has been picked out by former Pakistan legend Wasim Akram as a bowler to watch and praise does not come much higher than that.

    Aamer will form part of a bowling attack that includes the experienced pace duo of Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif.

    Both men are masters of swing movement and they have the ability to trouble the most experienced of batting line-ups. Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal will provide the main spinning option to give Pakistan one of the most well-rounded bowling attacks in the tournament.