KARACHI: The one-run win in the third and final ODI of the home series may have been Australia’s narrowest winning margin against Pakistan, but the visitors were ahead of their hosts in almost all aspects in the series.
It finished 3-0, and deservedly so, as the Australian’s outperformed Pakistan in all departments. In bowling, any team in the world would miss three bowlers of Junaid Khan’s, Saeed Ajmal’s and Muhammad Hafeez’s calibre and Mitchell Johnson is a threat to even the most in-form of batsmen. In the field, Australia have always been superior to almost every other team, while Pakistan have always struggled. But it was with the bat that the men in green disappointed the most, even despite the incredibly reduced expectations.
A new low
Some claim the batting has been this poor for some time now, and it was arguably the world’s best bowling attack that papered over the cracks. With the bowling shorn of its main assets, the weaknesses in batting were brutally exposed as the batsmen were pulled apart, one after the other after the other. They argue that the days of Saeed Anwar, Inzamamul Haq and Muhammad Yousuf are long gone and that batting mediocrity has prevailed for a while now. However, the numbers do not agree with that notion.
The batting, despite receiving its fair share of stick, was considerably better as recently as last year. It is not that the batsmen have failed to get off to starts this year; had that been the case, this could have been chalked off as a blip, as merely a dip in form, and preparations for the challenges ahead could have begun in earnest. This, however, is something altogether more worrying.
The batsmen have been getting off to starts but have not been converting them; there have been only three centuries in 2014, only one against a top-8 team; Fawad Alam’s eventually futile 114 against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final.
No player has scored more than a single century this year. For comparison, Pakistan’s top century-maker last year, Muhammad Hafeez, scored five; while Kumar Sangakkara, Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla and Aaron Finch have all scored three each this year.
The numbers keep getting graver. Misbahul Haq and Hafeez were the top two run getters in the world last year in ODIs. This year, there is no Pakistani batsman in the top 15, and Ahmed Shehzad at 19 is the first on the list. Alam, on 34, and Umar Akmal, on 36, make the only three Pakistan representatives on the top 50 list; coincidently the three are also the only ones to have reached triple figures for Pakistan this year. Last year, six Pakistani batsmen were in the top 50.
Of last year’s batsmen, only Akmal has truly stepped up his game, improving last year’s average of 30.3 by more than 10. Alam’s return to the side this year and Akmal’s form are the only two bright lights as the others have either stayed stagnant or regressed.
Not leading from the front
Even the man dubbed as Mr Consistent early on in his career has failed to live up to his usually impressive numbers this year. Misbah, last year’s top scorer, had 15 half-centuries to his name in 32 innings, this year he has just two in 10. In these 10 innings, he has failed to trouble the scorers on a couple of occasions, while he was dismissed on zero only once in the 32 innings last year. This all culminated in the skipper dropping himself for the dead rubber, but it had little effect as Pakistan made a meal of a simple 232-run chase.
With the World Cup around the corner, the decline will surely be troubling for the team management and players as sources of runs dry up at an alarming rate. On difficult Australian pitches, the batsmen would need to improve considerably if Pakistan are to repeat the feats of 1992 down under once again.
COMMENTS (9)
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@MJ: Well, this is true that he performs with the bat once in a blue moon. But don't you think with the oldies are not leaving space for youngsters, a youngster MUST perform straightaway as soon as he gets a chance. For example, Umar Amin, Sharjeel Khan and Ehsan Adil are three players who get so many chances and have not been able to inspire us. I am not asking to make a 100 or take 5 wickets on debut but atleast show something that you can become as asset instead of a liability.
Coming back to Afridi, I reiterate that I am not a big fan of Afridi but I find him a very useful and a utility player. His bowling has also improved over the years and now he can claim that he is a genuine bowler. Yes, with the batting talent he has, he could do wonders but so many players fall under this category eg Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shahzad. But its a different story...
On the basis of he being not performing with the bat, you can not exclude him if he is performing well with the ball.
And above the top, you need some inspiring personalities in your team - remember Amir Sohail, he was never ever a class like Anwar but his personality had some charisma which opponents feel, we can call it "Bharam" :)
Misbah like players are so good but you need to have some Gullu Butts in the team as well....
@Zaki..
How would we know if anyone is better than Afridi or not if we don't give them a chance? If PCB gives that many chances to any of our top 10 players from the domestic leagues, as they are giving to Afridi, I can guarantee you that they will do much better than what Afridi has been doing lately. When Afridi does well with the bat (once in a blue moon) he boasts of his batting skills. When he fails, he claims that he inclusion in the team is justified because he is actually included as a bowler. When he does well with neither, he claims that someone in India did black magic on him. On top of that he polarizes the team and causes friction from within. The sooner we get rid of him, the better.
Why people are against Afridi? He has already spoken loudly that bring a better player than me and throw me out. And its so funny that we have not been able to find a single player who is better than him! Isn't it enough to make someone feel proud? I am not a Afridi fan but just trying to portray the factually correct picture..
Muhammad Amir's ban will be finished next year and he will be an automatic selection! amazing, this is the proof of how good our backup players are! He was out of the scene for 5 years and he is still our strike bowler :)
We are seriously lack talent both in batting and bowling and PCB must understand this before its too late...
Those who keep on talking about the old days are not doing justice. Cricket has changed now, even Miandad was famous of taking singles but at that time 3 singles in an over was enough but now a days you need to make atleast 5 singles plus one odd boundary. That made cricket very fast and totally dependent on your fitness and skill. Plus, now a captain has to perform - I do agree that leadership skills are very very essential but a useless player can not captain your side.
People giving Kardar's example is once again not doing justice, we were lack of options at that time.
Misbah was scoring runs thatswhy everyone accepted him even though his Tuk-Tuk slogan got more fame than Go-Nawaz-Go... but since he is not amongst the runs so he feel bad and its a good sign that a player sense his responsibility!
I wish him good luck in the Tests!!!
Afridi making dumb comments again and again. Sick and tired of Afridi. He is a politician not a player and should have been kicked out of the team years ago. Misbah and team will perform a lot better if Afridi is not in the dressing room.
Misbah needs to take a break and focus and concentrate on his batting technique first and then think about playing coming WC, cause you cannot just be apart of the team with no batting ontribution just on the basis of captaincy which is also too much defensive side. You need aggressive captaincy in WC.Afridi is a better choice for captain then Misbah
What will it take to keep Afridi out of the team? He will perform in 1 or 2 games and then completely disappoint in the next 10. What does he have to do to get dropped?
No matter who the new leader is, he should be a level headed and educated man not a harsh, rude, crude, egotistic and media hungry man. He should be an example and role model for our youths in this gentleman's game. Pakistan's most respected captain was Kardar who was neither a good bowler or good batsman but was an exemplary leader. There should be some min basic qualifications to be the captain of the team. There should also be a gag order imposed on the captain and players for making any public statements or interviews before, during and soon after a tour to start politics.