Kangarooed
Having been pounded at Perth and mauled at Melbourne, Team Pakistan was sullied at Sydney. And that completes their whitewash Down Under. But it isn’t the first time that a Pakistan touring party has been cleaned up by Australia. Since 1972 till date, Team Pakistan has suffered a 3-0 rout at the hands of the Aussies for six times — including once at the neutral venue of the UAE. In contrast, Pakistan have just once — in a home series in 1982 — inflicted a whitewash on Australia. That the last time Pakistan won a Test match on the land of kangaroos was way back in 1995 speaks of their “unforgettable” performance.
Coming back to the current series, Pakistan were outclassed — kangarooed — as always. They lost the first Test by a mammoth 360-run margin, following up with a 79-run defeat in the second Test and an eight-wicket drubbing in the third one. All the matches finished within four days in what illustrates the plight of the team under a new captain, Shan Masood, and new team officials, led by Director Muhammad Hafeez. Pakistan’s batting is mainly to blame for the clean-sweep. None of the batsmen could cross the three-figure mark, with 88 by Muhammad Rizwan and 82 by Aamer Jamal being the top two scores. Former skipper Babar Azam remained completely off-colour right through the series. There was a sliver lining though in the performance of debutant Jamal who has emerged as a good all-rounder. Apart from his gritty 82 off 97 studded with nine fours and four sixes, he had two six-wicket hauls, one of them on his debut Test.
As already written here, the clean-sweep has not come as a surprise, given the history of Pakistan’s performances Down Under. The pace and bounce that the strips in Australia offer and the swing that the conditions there generate have always proved too much for Pakistan’s batsmen to handle. It’s the same old story!
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2024.
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