Smart cricket needed to cancel out Aussie advantage: Jalaluddin

Former cricketer believes Pakistan need to be at their best to avoid series loss

KARACHI: Former Test cricketer Jalaluddin believes hosts Australia have the upper hand in the ODI series and will Pakistan a tough time in the remaining matches.

Pakistan lost the first and third ODI after failing to deal with the Australian batting and Jalaluddin said that regardless of what the visitors throw at the hosts, it’s the latter who will come out on top because of better team management.

“No matter what Pakistan do or have, Australia will always be a better team than Pakistan as they have better management, better team, better fitness and a better approach to the game,” Jalaluddin told The Express Tribune. “Our team is still has a long way to go as they are not learning the techniques of the modern game.”

The 57-year-old further added that the Men in Green tend to celebrate too early which leads to inconsistencies in their gameplay.

“Pakistan always celebrate early and they lose the consistency which eventually ends up in defeat. They are in need of good management and coaching of the modern game which has the solution for every problem,” he said.

The Karachi-born also emphasised the need to improve the fielding. “If a batsman has played a shot and he has in mind that it will be a four and if the fielder stops the ball resulting only singles then the morale of the batsman drops,” he said. “We only have few good fielders and even they sometimes make mistakes. We certainly need to work on that.”

He also said that in the T20 and ODI formats, chances of making a comeback in the match are very slim if the first three batsmen lose their wicket and that Pakistan, who have no problem in dismissing the top-order, should learn to build on it.

“Pakistan should increase the pressure once they have dismissed the top-order. Failure to do so will result in the same outcome as the first and third ODI,” he said before adding that Pakistan have a good mix of spinners and fast-bowlers and that they should take advantage of relatively spin-friendly pitches in Sydney and Adelaide.

“Pakistan no doubt will be having an advantage of spin-friendly pitches as they have good spinners. Muhammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Imad Wasim are in spectacular form and will prove to be the difference between the two sides.”

He also added that the top-order batmen should bat more aggressively. “They will have to take risks instead of defending and getting dismissed. If they succeed in scoring 100 plus runs without losing many wickets then they certainly have a chance in the series.”