Pakistani batting: A lost cause

Nothing seems to be going right in Pakistan cricket. If it is not the Pakistan Cricket Board’s tussle with the courts, it is the complete lack of performance of the national team, especially its batting, which is letting the fans down badly. It is not just the 4-1 margin of defeat against South Africa in the One-Day International (ODI) series that has deflated the fans, it is the demoralising manner of the defeat, the lack of spirit and imagination of captain Misbahul Haq in marshalling his troops on the field, and the equally listless and painful display of the batsmen that has also been disheartening. Where once Pakistani batsmanship was defined by the class and elegance of the likes of Saeed Anwar and Inzamamul Haq, we are now left to wince at the sight of our batsmen struggling to barely clear the in-field. Time and again, their technical deficiencies and mental frailties are exposed, their poor show punished by dropping them from the side, only for the same batsmen to return after a brief hiatus, but with little sign of improvement in their game. Pakistan’s batting is going through a deep crisis but there seems to be no answer to this predicament. Perhaps, it is time to give hitherto untested players a chance instead of repeatedly relying on the same set of players. Sohaib Maqsood’s performance in the last two ODIs shows that there is a case to be made for injecting new blood. While new players might still struggle, at least initially, they cannot do much worse than the present set of batsmen.

The poor fielding of the team has also let them down badly with dropped catches and missed run-out chances being constant features. The bowling was largely competent, though marred by some diabolical selections, with the in-form Junaid Khan only coming into the side in the last two ODIs. As Pakistan get ready to once again take on the Proteas in the first Twenty20 today, many players will be taking the field with huge question marks over their future in the national squad.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2013.

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