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?
A poster by ‘Pakistan cricket bachaao tehreek’ :)
Today Pak has lost another ODI to Aus. The rubber now stands at 4-0 in favor of Aus.
Could the problem with current team be playing with 3 former captains (Younis, Shoaib Malik, Afridi) 1 current captain (Yousuf), 1 former vice captain (Salman But) all in one playing XI?
One thing you learn from street cricket is that a former captain in a team behaves like a ‘khalifa’ :) Current team may have 5 khalifay with their personal egos and personal agendas at clash with Yousuf’s or team’s.
Shameful comment by a captain of a team having such a great history…! I am suprisingly shocked by the justification of defeat given by yousuf..! If the justification given by yousuf would accept then, just imagine the following scnerio….
“The baccha team in our locality is better than yousuf’s team as they are younger and much less experienced than the pakistani team (if they would play against australia, they’ll also be slapped by 3-0. According to the yousuf’s theory “performance doesn’t matter, age n experience matters”, the baccha team is better :-)”.
In my opinion, the reason for such a stupid and shameful statement could be that yousuf wants the support of rest of the players (grouping funda, ofcourse), to remain the captain.If he showed that he’s not satisfied with the players, the “pressure group” may showed that they are not satisfied with the captain too! “TIT FOR TAT”.Phir tou captaincy haath se jaati!!!!
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “it’s ok khail hi tu hai kiya zindagi maut ka masla bnana:D”
– “Acha hua hey,Elaaj hua hey..They were dying to play in India..lol..Why complain now and run to Pakistani people for support..”
– “Yousuf is a brilliant Batsman, but a poor low confident Captain, he cant lead for sure”
– “hamaray heroes sale nahe hoay bahoot afsoos hoa :D”
– “our hero’s r real hero. u people know y hv not chosen pk players bc indian board is afraid of our pklayers.every one is a special player 4 20/20…
n if they got selected they cab b a reason to derease the fame of indian players…
n we lost scg test bc of pooor captaincy…
y r losing by australis in wasim n waqar inzaman, saeed periods”
– “buhat acha hua aisa he hona chahiyey tha in lalchiyo k sath kis nay kaha tha k kuttay ban kar IPL mai jao buhat acha hua beghairat gai q thay”
– “Its A Part Of game,Take a Chill Pill”
We need Younis Khan back in action in all forms of Cricket for a lot more reasons than just his batting average, although, Yes I agree thats important.
The best thing about him is his aggressive approach, quite opposite to Yousaf’s ‘sab kuch Allahh pe chor do’ approach. He leads from the front, keeps on cheering up the team, build an environment for success on the field and makes the game a lot more fun.
I would even favour Afridi to lead the team in all forms of the game but Yousaf – no way. He can’t be a captain for Pakista, for god sake.