They don't even particularly seem on the improve - they just lost to Italy in a 50 over game ffs and Harry Manenti made a ton.
This isn't quite fair. They just checked out mentally and were exhausted for the Italy and Uganda matches.
Remember this is a team that did not play any international cricket for over 2 years due to COVID, who have now suddenly been on the road playing non stop for over 2 months. First a pre tour in Namibia, then Challenge League B in Uganda (where they won 4/5 games), then prep tour in SA, then WT20 Qualifiers (where they were poor, but still beat Singapore and PNG), then another prep tour in Kent, and then that CL B third leg in Jersey. They were on top of the CL table till they lost to Jersey, and that's when the weels came off, and they lost to Italy and to Uganda (after conceding 397) within the next 3 days. By this point we had already lost players like Atkinson, Wasif, Adit and Pascoe to injury, while players like Haroon and Zeeshan were playing through the pain. Ehsan Khan got stretchered off the field in Uganda and even Nizakat had a few visits to the hospital. It's been a long hard summer and when the ODI WC dreams were dashed after losing to Jersey they seemed to just pack it in and go through the motions.
They've definitely improved as this tournament has gone on. They seem refreshed and can see light at the end of the tunnel. The opportunity to play India and Pakistan has fuelled them, and within a couple of weeks they'll finally be back home with their families having a well earned break.
9th best team in Asia is probably fair, tho we have a very good record vs Nepal. We had never beaten UAE in a T20I till last night, fantastic time to break that streak.
