Is the Pakistan team destined to lose?
We haven't won a single bilateral series against South Africa. Changes have to be made to save our cricketing legacy.
Our team has been labelled ‘unpredictable’ by many. The trend is that once our players set foot on the field, no one knows how they might perform; making the chase all the more interesting to watch.
Of late, however, this unpredictability has faded away. Now there seems to be only one predictable conclusion to any match that our team plays – defeat.
Last night, team Pakistan maintained its record of not winning even a single bilateral series against South Africa (SA) to date. The team ruined the first ODI match where the last six wickets were lost over a meagre 17 runs and eventually losing the game by a single run. The team did, however, do fairly well in the second game by beating the Proteas and making the score in the series even.
The celebrations were short-lived and we returned to square one after losing two consecutive matches to SA whilst batting second.
Batting second has become a guaranteed recipe for disaster for Pakistan and we have endorsed this theory with all our defeats in the recent ODI series. It seems like in order to win, the only thing our competitors need to do is set a target exceeding 250 runs and our team does the rest itself.
Analysing the performance of such a team becomes really difficult considering the availability of talent is not an issue and yet the team continues to lose match after match. It seems what we lack is the ability to actually win matches.
Here are a few points which our team needs to work on unless it wants to face more losses in the future:
Misbahul Haq
In my opinion, the biggest mistake Misbah makes is that he approaches both ODIs and Test matches with the same strategy; giving him the same results in the form of tremendous losses.
There are people who hold Inzamamul Haq and Mohammad Yousuf responsible for Misbah’s late entrance into the international arena. If that is true, I would actually congratulate them for saving Pakistan from a lot more defeats, had he débuted earlier.
As far as his captaincy is concerned, Pakistan has played 27 ODIs over the last 12 months, out of which only 12 ended in victories. Moreover, four out of those 12 victories were against teams like Scotland, Ireland and Zimbabwe. The decision to send Sohail Tanveer in to bat last night before Shahid Afridi pretty much sums up the brainless captaincy Pakistan is being made to suffer.
Older players with experience
A very popular notion is to get rid of players who have reached over the age of 30, as they are no longer considered energetic enough to compete with younger players. However, I do not believe that it is that simple. If someone is good enough to perform and maintains good levels of fitness, why shouldn’t he be allowed to play?
Michael Hussey and Younis Khan are good examples of players who are over 30 but are still more agile than many 22-year-olds. Younis Khan and his experience is certainly being missed in the middle order.
Similarly, both Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi are over 30 years and have been the best bowlers for Pakistan for a long time. In this series also, both have taken eight wickets each and both gave impressive bowling averages.
A new, younger team
The idea of eliminating over-aged players from the team and replacing them with fresh blood is catching up amongst the masses. I, for one, don’t find that working for the team because the young guns on our side including Nasir Jamshed, Umar Akmal and Umar Amin, haven’t played impressively yet, despite being given repeated chances.
Ahmed Shahzad, on the other hand, has been remarkable whenever given a chance and has proved his mettle once again in the current series against South Africa. He was able to provide a winning platform to the team in almost all the matches, which unfortunately the team failed miserably at capitalising on.
The comparison of Sohaib Maqsood with the great Inzamamul Haq made by Waqar Younis in the commentary box and many others on social media did not make sense to me. Ramiz Raja made a similar comparison of Umar Akmal in his early days, with Inzamamul Haq. However, Akmal proved Raja wrong on multiple occasions showing his temperament which is in stark contrast to that of Inzamamul Haq.
Dav Whatmore
The idea of having a foreign coach has always been a controversial one as far as our cricket is concerned. Things heated up even more after suffering humiliating defeats both in the ODIs and Tests, such as the ones experienced at the hands of Zimbabwe. Consequently, questions were raised as to how useful foreign coaches like Dav Whatmore really are to us.
Dav Whatmore may be the right guy but he is not being used for the right job. As far as I am concerned, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) is the right place for him. This is precisely how India utilised Dav Whatmore when he was appointed director of a cricket academy in India. His job was to prepare cricketers for the highest level of cricket, rather than coach them at it.
To sum it up, we need to have a balanced team in all aspects, with the right mix of youth and experience. Along with that we need to have the right staff and players in the right jobs at the PCB as well.
It is apparent that Pakistan’s cricket is suffering and if nothing is done to save it our cricketing legacy will soon cease to exist.
Serious actions are required in this hour of need.
Of late, however, this unpredictability has faded away. Now there seems to be only one predictable conclusion to any match that our team plays – defeat.
Last night, team Pakistan maintained its record of not winning even a single bilateral series against South Africa (SA) to date. The team ruined the first ODI match where the last six wickets were lost over a meagre 17 runs and eventually losing the game by a single run. The team did, however, do fairly well in the second game by beating the Proteas and making the score in the series even.
The celebrations were short-lived and we returned to square one after losing two consecutive matches to SA whilst batting second.
Batting second has become a guaranteed recipe for disaster for Pakistan and we have endorsed this theory with all our defeats in the recent ODI series. It seems like in order to win, the only thing our competitors need to do is set a target exceeding 250 runs and our team does the rest itself.
Analysing the performance of such a team becomes really difficult considering the availability of talent is not an issue and yet the team continues to lose match after match. It seems what we lack is the ability to actually win matches.
Here are a few points which our team needs to work on unless it wants to face more losses in the future:
Misbahul Haq
In my opinion, the biggest mistake Misbah makes is that he approaches both ODIs and Test matches with the same strategy; giving him the same results in the form of tremendous losses.
There are people who hold Inzamamul Haq and Mohammad Yousuf responsible for Misbah’s late entrance into the international arena. If that is true, I would actually congratulate them for saving Pakistan from a lot more defeats, had he débuted earlier.
As far as his captaincy is concerned, Pakistan has played 27 ODIs over the last 12 months, out of which only 12 ended in victories. Moreover, four out of those 12 victories were against teams like Scotland, Ireland and Zimbabwe. The decision to send Sohail Tanveer in to bat last night before Shahid Afridi pretty much sums up the brainless captaincy Pakistan is being made to suffer.
Older players with experience
A very popular notion is to get rid of players who have reached over the age of 30, as they are no longer considered energetic enough to compete with younger players. However, I do not believe that it is that simple. If someone is good enough to perform and maintains good levels of fitness, why shouldn’t he be allowed to play?
Michael Hussey and Younis Khan are good examples of players who are over 30 but are still more agile than many 22-year-olds. Younis Khan and his experience is certainly being missed in the middle order.
Similarly, both Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi are over 30 years and have been the best bowlers for Pakistan for a long time. In this series also, both have taken eight wickets each and both gave impressive bowling averages.
A new, younger team
The idea of eliminating over-aged players from the team and replacing them with fresh blood is catching up amongst the masses. I, for one, don’t find that working for the team because the young guns on our side including Nasir Jamshed, Umar Akmal and Umar Amin, haven’t played impressively yet, despite being given repeated chances.
Ahmed Shahzad, on the other hand, has been remarkable whenever given a chance and has proved his mettle once again in the current series against South Africa. He was able to provide a winning platform to the team in almost all the matches, which unfortunately the team failed miserably at capitalising on.
The comparison of Sohaib Maqsood with the great Inzamamul Haq made by Waqar Younis in the commentary box and many others on social media did not make sense to me. Ramiz Raja made a similar comparison of Umar Akmal in his early days, with Inzamamul Haq. However, Akmal proved Raja wrong on multiple occasions showing his temperament which is in stark contrast to that of Inzamamul Haq.
Dav Whatmore
The idea of having a foreign coach has always been a controversial one as far as our cricket is concerned. Things heated up even more after suffering humiliating defeats both in the ODIs and Tests, such as the ones experienced at the hands of Zimbabwe. Consequently, questions were raised as to how useful foreign coaches like Dav Whatmore really are to us.
Dav Whatmore may be the right guy but he is not being used for the right job. As far as I am concerned, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) is the right place for him. This is precisely how India utilised Dav Whatmore when he was appointed director of a cricket academy in India. His job was to prepare cricketers for the highest level of cricket, rather than coach them at it.
To sum it up, we need to have a balanced team in all aspects, with the right mix of youth and experience. Along with that we need to have the right staff and players in the right jobs at the PCB as well.
It is apparent that Pakistan’s cricket is suffering and if nothing is done to save it our cricketing legacy will soon cease to exist.
Serious actions are required in this hour of need.