I know I am putting this post right after our ‘I am grateful..’ post but Pakistan has just lost a Test-Cricket series in Australia by 3-0 margin. So while I am grateful, I am a little bit disappointed too. Just a little bit. Actually today’s white wash didn’t disappoint me as much as captain Yousuf’s comments later on. He has said that ‘Our team is young and I am satisfied with their performance’. Yesterday he also gave a statement which basically said that in the past Pakistan had brought star studded teams to Australia and lost; atleast he brought a young team and lost so he is better than previous Pakistani teams. As long as our aim is to lose better than previous teams, we are aiming too low. Seems like the word win was not even in the aim. Can anyone imagine such statement from our previous captains like Imran Khan or Wasim Akram? That was probably the difference between the two teams. Australia is also a very new side but they were playing with a hunger to win.
Pakistan has now not won a single test match in Australia since December 4, 1995. During second test match of this series Pakistan at one time needed only 125 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand. At that instance I was naive enough to actually put a draft post at ATP celebrating Pakistan’s win in Australia after 15 years. I did not publish that post and then I fall asleep. I woke up few hours later to see the heartbreak hotel. Pakistan had lost remaining 9 wickets in 89 runs and lost the match. I was so glad of not publishing the post earlier and then deleted my draft write-up with a heavy heart.
Pakistan’s last victory in a test series was in 2006 in a home series against West Indies. It is easy to demand resignations, sweeping changes, sending all current players home and rebuilding the team from scratch but the scary thing is that Pakistan has no batting talent for test matches besides what we’ve got in the current team.
Who can name atleast 4 batsmen of test calibre that can replace the current bunch in test matches? Only Taufeeq Umar (Age 28, Test Average 39.29 from 46 innings), Asim Kamal (Age 33, Test Average 37.73 from 20 innings), Fawad Alam (Age 24, Test average 41.66 from 6 innings) and Yasir Hameed (Age 31, Test Average 34.52 from 45 innings)’s names come to mind. And then we have Younis Khan (32 years old) with Test Average of 50.09 from 112 innings. I think it won’t be long before we see Younis back in action in Test Matches. We need batsmen for test teams with solid 40+ averages.
In the current team following are the Test-Cricket batting averages of our stars.
(1) M Yousuf: 53.07 overall and 29.66 in current series
(2) Salman Butt: 30.96 over all and 46.66 in current series
(3) Khurram Manzoor: 29.63 overall and 38.50 in current series
(4) Shoaib Malik: 36.11 overall and 38.50 in current series.
(5) Umar Akmal: 48.16 overall and 33.16 in current series.
(6) Misbah-ul-Haq: 33.6 overall and 25.33 in current series
(7) Faisal Iqbal: 26.76 overall and 24.25 in current series.
(8) Kamran Akmal: 33.55 overall and 16.75 in current series.
Besides the current team, if I may say, the tier two batsmen are not worth of 2 day matches, let alone 5 day test of test matches. I closely followed the premier domestic QeA trophy matches this year and there is no batting talent for test matches to speak of. I know I am making a very general statement but this is truly what I believe and what I saw from QeA matches this year.
Now twenty20 format is a different ball game. We will find many batsmen in Pakistan very capable for Twenty20 but the technique and temprament needed from a test match batsman seems to have got lost in Pakistan.
Fielding and catching also needs to be improved tremendously. Pakistan dropped 14 catches in 3 test matches – the highest I’ve ever known to be dropped by Pakistan.
I won’t put much blame on bowlers as I think we have got ‘OK to better’ bowling talent in the team.
What do our readers think?
@jagga,
I’ll repeat to you what Tony Greig said a month or so ago. Any idiot with a stick of rhubarb can make a century on dead, flat pitches like the ones in the subcontinent.
As a fan, I would much rather see a spirited contest in which Pakistan loses, rather than tolerate mediocre batsmen batting for 3 days.
On another note, things for Pakistan players keep getting worse: the IPL has snubbed ALL of Pakistan’s players by refusing to field any bids for them! They sold out, and got slapped in the face in return.
About 10 years ago, late Omar Qureshi categorically stated in Dawn that Yousaf was not a captaincy material. He was proven right in this series. I can’t forget Warne’s dejection when Watson popped a simple catch to an empty silly midoff on an Asif’s seamer.. he said ‘this is perhaps the best seam bowling we have in Ausralia in years and this is the field he gets!!’ This should be the end of Faisal Iqbal and may be Misbah. It is true that Younis was the only winner from this series – now give him the team that he wants. Fawad should never have been sent back and Sami should be kept for one days.
Read this:
http://blog.dawn.com/2010/01/16/limited-thinking/
The most pressing problem, by far, is the uninspiring captaincy of Mohammed Yousuf. For whatever reason, he does not seem to think that cricket is, after all, a game, and you have to play to win, or go home.
Having watched the three test matches closely, I feel that he treats his captaincy and his own batting as a job, something that is simply his profession and not his passion, and along the same line of thought, he thinks his efforts, and not necessarily his success, should be appreciated.
Needless to say, that sort of attitude is completely ridiculous. Fans are not naive enough to expect their team to win everything, but they do deserve to see their team fight, and fight hard.
His statement about Australia being the definitive best test team is also ridiculous. Every single one of Pakistan’s fast bowlers has better technique and overall ability than any of Australia’s, and their only spinner, Hauritz, is a very mediocre bowler whose career is suddenly on the upswing only due to the gifts the Pakistani batsmen kept lofting to him. Even with so-so bowlers, Ponting placed his fielders right up to the batsmen’s faces, while with brilliant bowlers, Yousuf relegated all of his fielders to the boundary.
there are virtually no experienced players in the side…just look at the Indian test side their top five have averages of over 50…..you can’t go in with kids and expect to win in Australia…we need to retain experienced players instead of injecting these kids into top level cricket….heck a Test cricketer should be the cream of the crop and most experience and should have a good 10 years under the belt….you can’t keep bringing in new so called talent at this level….
http://www.oolaah.com
Faraaz
I think Yousuf is still the best batsman we have in the team. He is the most technically correct among the current bunch.
What I think brought team’s downfall was his complacent captaincy and then trying to defend himself with statements like ‘I am satisfied…’. His body language on the field was very subdued. In cricket attitude and psychology matters too.
Looks like it won’t be too long before people will ask for Younis’ return to captaincy or may be Shoaib Malik will be asked to do so.