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THE Pakistan cricket team’s lacklustre show in South Africa where they were whitewashed 0-3 in Tests besides losing the ODI and T20 series has dismayed our cricket-crazy nation and compelled the critics to call on the PCB to adopt urgent corrective measures.
Though the team’s graph in international cricket in the past two years had remained quite impressive with wins in England, Ireland and Zimbabwe, it is now back to square one with successive defeats against New Zealand in the UAE and now South Africa, which have raised serious questions about Pakistan’s ability to withstand quality opposition, especially in the longer version of Tests.
The truth is that at no point during the African Safari, except in a couple of ODIs which they won, did Sarfraz Ahmed’s men look competitive enough or show resilience or even appeared like putting their act together to challenge the hosts.
Read more: Sarfaraz Ahmed to captain Pakistan in World Cup 2019
Despite the talent, despite a bevy of coaches accompanying the team, despite substantial exposure, it was the same old story of embarrassing batting collapses, dropped catches and poor bowling while fans kept waiting for that moment of defining overseas triumph.
There is serious work to do with both bat and ball if fortunes are to change.
Green, fast-paced tracks ought to replace the featherbeds at home and in the UAE which have given a false feeling of superiority to the players.
While many have seen through the façade, the board continues to gloat over the team’s successes at ‘home’ which eventually leads to fiascos such as the one in South Africa.
The bowling, too, is one-dimensional. Pakistan need the tangibles as well as the intangibles to graduate from a good team to a great one.
Sound techniques, calm temperaments, unwavering attitudes, innate match awareness and a knack of winning the key moments are special qualities that define great teams and which Pakistan seem to lack.
With an average team age of under 30, they are young enough to start putting these qualities together if they are determined to turn things around before the World Cup in May.
Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2019
Read more
On DawnNews
Comments (45) Closed
Feb 08, 2019 08:46am
Once the men in green get back to the club house; have a feed of bun kabobs; cash their
paycheques; and decide to concentrate on playing cricket next time out: They will be
unstoppable... Good luck greens!
Gordon D. Walker
Canada
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Feb 08, 2019 08:47am
Pakistan has very good talent , great bowling attack. I am sure remove Inzamam as a selector , he has defencive mindset , that does not win you matches.
Inzamam thinks he is playing the match, quickly he realises that he has retired and everyone is not as gifted as him , things will fall in line.
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Feb 08, 2019 09:00am
Look, if all you had to do was play cricket day in and day out you too might become a
little complacent. The men in green need a long, expensive, all inclusive holiday.
Some rest and relaxation. Then back to show business with a new found vigour...
Gordon D. Walker
Canada
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Feb 08, 2019 09:01am
With our inconsistent batting not much should be expected from this team
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Feb 08, 2019 09:17am
The short; cogent; honest answer is no! All this team really needs is a new cricket oriented
team. Good luck men in green, you are going to need it...
Gordon D. Walker
Canada
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Feb 08, 2019 09:20am
Your point about the pitches needs attention. On the one hand, Pakistan boasts of creative fast bowlers and legends who innovated the modern art of fast bowling, and on the other hand, it does not provide any pitches where these bowlers can let grow batsmen who can play rising, seeming and swinging deliveries. Someone needs to explain why? Shane Warne and Nathan Lyon have shown that spinning talent does not need slow pitches. Then, why Pakistan can't let its batsmen play on pitches the kind they play overseas? PCB! Answer please!
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Feb 08, 2019 09:30am
"quite impressive with wins in England, Ireland and Zimbabwe"..... impressive indeed!
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Feb 08, 2019 09:33am
unfortunately it does not seem that Pakistan will go very far in the world Cup. They are good bunch but do not have enough venom and aggression and Captain still lives in Street Cricket. Kohli boys are the best team right now but best may not win the cup. However India is the only team right now which is a delight to watch. Take out Dhoni as they suddenly a good muscle without the bone.
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Feb 08, 2019 09:39am
Pakistan did quite badly in the Test series against South Africa but it played reasonably well in the ODI & T20 series despite losing both 2-1. Since the World Cup is an ODI tournament and being played in England where Pakistan has historically played well, one cannot rule out Pakistan's chances of staging an upset and winning it all. Although the Pakistani team will have to play hard in all matches as one unit, which is something they haven't been able to do in recent times.
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Feb 08, 2019 09:55am
In a way it is good Pakistan is getting clobbered before the World Cup because as the underdogs they perform well in a tournament. I would have to say India are the favorite, they have the right balance and their bowling looks better than ever. New Zealand are probably the second favorite. South Africa are strong too but they have a history of cramping up in crunch games. And of course England is in the top 4 because they are playing at home.
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Feb 08, 2019 09:57am
Easy said than done. There is no domestic cricket of any standard in the country, lack of international cricket, rampant corruption and nepotism in the society, it is a miracle that we keep on producing a cricket team with talented cricketers inspite of all that. Sports teams are a reflection of the economic and social status of a country and I will not be surprised if cricket follows the fate of squash and hockey soon if the political and economic situation of the country does not improve.
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Feb 08, 2019 09:58am
The truth is that at no point during the African Safari, except in a couple of ODIs which they won, did Sarfraz Ahmed’s men look competitive enough or show resilience or even appeared like putting their act together to challenge the hosts.......
Not correct as they were neck to neck in T20s and won last one convincingly.
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Feb 08, 2019 10:10am
Please bring back Junaid Khan and Rumman Raes. Don’t include Akmals they are drama. You might want to consider including Ahmad Shazad though I don’t know how well he has been doing in the domestic structure. Hussain Talat might be another good prospect. Imam needs a little coaching on increase his run rate and playing for the team and not for himself. And Sarfraz needs to come in earlier. Please take good care of Babar Azam, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf and Hasan Ali. These 4 will win you matches. And keep the 2 senior players, Hafeez and Shoaib.
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Feb 08, 2019 10:22am
I would be surprised if this team makes it to the semifinals.
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Feb 08, 2019 10:49am
To win in general one needs right mindset (attitude), though technical skill (resources) help.
Right now the mindset of Pakistan is negative with what is going on in the country and around the country.
Hope Pakistan finds a way to win as a country or as a cricket team
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Feb 08, 2019 11:18am
The way cricket is being managed, after the World Cup I doubt Pakistan cricket will be taken seriously. Our perception of being highly unpredictable has now become a hard reality and in this day of modern sports, this may be good for TV but certainly not for the game nor for the position it holds in our peoples mindset.
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Feb 08, 2019 11:47am
I don`t agree with the editor. Overall, the team did put up a strong fight given the conditions and opportunities that Pakistani cricketers get. Nevertheless, they should have performed better, maybe far better.
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Feb 08, 2019 12:06pm
Frankly, this team should not be let out of the club house...
Gordon D. Walker
Canada
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Feb 08, 2019 12:21pm
@JackJones, "And Sarfraz needs to come in earlier. " Why not have 2-3 proper batsmen in the team?
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Feb 08, 2019 12:30pm
The team wins and every one appreciates, sweeping under the carpet the technical mistakes etc which they did during play. Vice versa they loose and every body starts criticizing. The tour of south Africa, specially TT matches were witnessed by the stiff resistance by the team.This is no less an achievement.
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Feb 08, 2019 12:43pm
@manish, No doubt Pakistan has a young promising talent. But unfortunately, we don't have any good coaches to further groom and upgrade our bowlers and batsmen. PCB must seriously consider hiring coaches from West Indies or other places if you want results in the world cup. I am surprised how Micky Arthur is protecting his team with a total failure in South Africa.
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Feb 08, 2019 01:01pm
England going to win.
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Feb 08, 2019 02:24pm
@Gordon D. Walker, this was a holiday..all.test matches were almost over by 3rd day ...they won only 2 odi's
What more vacation do you want
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Feb 08, 2019 02:27pm
@JM, agree. bowlers need runs on the board.
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Feb 08, 2019 02:27pm
@manish, nothing to blame Inzi for.
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Feb 08, 2019 02:29pm
@khalil, generally agree with your observations and comments.
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Feb 08, 2019 02:51pm
@BAXAR, Best of luck getting them in the team unless they are related to Inzamam Ul Haq.
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Feb 08, 2019 03:02pm
@Gordon D. Walker, If the men in green goes on a long, expensive, all inclusive holiday, it will make a big hole in the pocket of Pakistan Cricket Board which is already rather stretched. Why not send a few millions from Canada as fan donation?
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Feb 08, 2019 03:19pm
Frankly I thought they did well in the ODI and T-20 series. One Duckworth Lewis result in the ODIs and that very strange meltdown in the 1st T20 set them back. They were good except in some parts.
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Feb 08, 2019 03:22pm
Pak will not do well at the WC, mainly because we have players who are more concerned about their media presence then ability on the field. It will be the same old story, we might beat a few big teams, but will be thrashed when it really matters, I have started to loose interest since the NZ series, where we lost matches which we would have won, and even in SA, the ODI and T20 series should have been won. They lack the temperament to finish off big games. Its sad, but this is the reality. I wish them all the best of luck, and will be giving my WC tickets to friends to enjoy.
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Feb 08, 2019 03:40pm
From the Asia cup 2018, it seems like pakistans bowling performance is waning series after series which should be a matter of concern for the Pakistan team management. Bowlers like usman shinwari, faheem ashraf should be given a rest till the end of wc, and be replaced by the likes of junaid khan and yasir shah. Their batting performance has be as usual the same (mid 80's type) and if they are serious they can make couple of changes especially in the middle orders, the most better option would be haris sohail in place of asif ali and hussain talat. Azhar ali should also be present as an additional opener available for the wc (keeping in mind the inconsistency of the fakhar zaman)
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Feb 08, 2019 04:07pm
@Sarai Alamgir, I agree bro. We always get disappointed against India in the wc's. I want them to break this streak, this would be no less than a world Cup win delight for us.
Love from I-o-k
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Feb 08, 2019 04:50pm
T20 was a bad luck loss and slightly poor captaincy.
One day was just not up to par
Test was poor.
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Feb 08, 2019 05:43pm
A hard, uphill, rough and tough road ahead for Sarfraz and party towards the 2019 Cricket World Cup journey in England. Remember, you can, if you think you could because once you believe in yourself, anything is possible.
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Feb 08, 2019 07:13pm
Shallow and superficial analysis. The problem with pak cricket is not bad pitches back home but poor selection. When you are not selecting the top performers of your domestic circuit how come you expect to win in tough conditions with a team which is drawn from psl? Time has come to give due share to top performers and show the door to players who make it to the team based on reference and nepotism.
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Feb 08, 2019 08:23pm
Is it just coincidence that as soon as IK won the premiership and changed the head of cricket, things went down??
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Feb 08, 2019 09:17pm
Test series was disappointing against SA and very disappoonting against NZ, however one dayers and T20s were a different story.
Even the 3-2 and 2-1 loss in one dayers and T20s wasnt as bad as it looks on paper, both the T20 losses came in matches that went right down to the wire.
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Feb 08, 2019 10:30pm
get proper qualified people working at all levels of PCB -- even the Pakistani players should have a minimum of 4 year Bachelors degree due to our educational standards.
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Feb 09, 2019 12:36am
this cricket team and PCB are only for not to win any WC or any Trophy
2. only to do win world coup to India
3 subserviant of india ball picker of india
etc etc
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Feb 09, 2019 12:49am
Only glaring shortcomings and deficiencies have been outlined in the article without putting forward any semblance solutions or strategies worth the name. The only 'remedy' suggested in the article is to "replace the featherbeds at home and UAE", which is secondary in the face of reasonably good results on "fast' pitches in the recent past. The primary factor hurting the team is a) Psychological handicap facing the team members concerning their future in the team(s) for a reasonable length of time regardless of temporary loss of form or prowess in one format as compared to the other ones; b) Proper selection procedures for deserving candidates.
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Feb 09, 2019 01:00am
@manish, Honestly speaking Pakistani cricket level is not as competitive as India, England, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. Even if PCB takes immediate action on restructuring Pakistan cricket, It will take at least three years to see any improvement
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Feb 09, 2019 01:04am
Don’t just look at the score line. Two of the three tests were close contests despite the batting and we competed well in the ODIs where RSA won the third game courtesy of D/L method - the series could have gone either way imo - and we could have won the first two T20Is, the games were that close. Our test problems are primarily due to unpredictable and inconsistent batting. As for limited overs games we are struggling because of our poor lower order batting. Need another proper batsman apart from Babar and another genuine batting all rounder apart from Imad. Then the balance of the side will be about right imo.
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Feb 09, 2019 06:17am
@khalil, so well said , sports is a reflection of society in a way , need development to improve sports and arts
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Feb 09, 2019 07:11am
Keep polishing the last fluke world cup trophy!
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Feb 10, 2019 03:56am
Stop politics in PCB. things will improve.
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