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sPakistan cricket pundits proudly describe Pakistan’s most dangerous and unpredictable team. Sadly, cricketers aspiring to various coveted jobs in PCB are trying to cover up management and team shortcomings by sweeping glaring mistakes under the rug of unpredictability.
Before going to New Zealand, Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka in the Asian Cup final in unprofessional fashion and later hosted England for seven T20 matches as part of their preparations for the T20 World Cup, which England won by one match.
After mediocre performances with the bat in the Asia Cup and against England in Pakistan, cricket experts were expecting some changes in the batting line-up ahead of the team’s departure for New Zealand. However, player power prevailed and the ‘Friends Eleven’ left for New Zealand without much surprise.
In the absence of the well-established popular game of cricket in educational institutions, street cricket in Pakistan has grown with strip cricket over the years, which is quite different from professional cricket. Pakistan continues to move fast bowlers but their batting and fielding departments lack professionalism, strength and technique. Strip cricket offers you the opportunity to play the ball fast in the streets, but it is impossible to learn correct batting and fielding in street cricket, which cannot be mastered later.
I would like to draw the attention of cricket pundits towards the Fourth T20 played between Pakistan and New Zealand at Christchurch on 11th October in which Pakistan after winning the toss decided to bat first. Pakistan ended up scoring 130 for 7 in their 20 overs. New Zealand made the target in 16 overs at the cost of just one wicket. Martin Guptill single-handedly hit 6 sixes in 62 runs in the match as the entire Pakistan batting house failed to hit a single six out of 20.
If the Pakistani team is to continue playing in the same unpredictable manner, then there is no need to pay huge amounts of money to support the staff who look helpless in front of the strength of the player.
Elite sports played by professionals are not left to chance. Most aspects of the game are now scalable and controllable provided players are physically fit, technically correct and have rehearsed game scenarios many times, leaving nothing to chance.
We all understand the factor of bad luck, injury and lack of form that can affect an athlete’s performance. The player is given enough rest and replaced by another player until he regains his level, fitness and self-confidence.
Unfortunately, the player power in Pakistan cricket is so strong that it replaces all logic, training and selection plans. It is for this reason that Pakistan cricket embarks on the path of unprofessionalism. Driving it though to personal beating glory is unimaginative and can hardly come up with any out-of-the-box solution when the chips are down.
Pakistan is fortunate to have a solid bowling line-up that often saves the team from difficult situations. However, the T20 is a tough game with little or no chance of error. If Pakistan’s bowlers, fielders and captains continue to perform in the same fashion, one should not expect much from Pakistan on bouncy Australian pitches against fine bowlers backed by their professional batting and fielding.
In the absence of experienced Hafeez and Saleh Shoaib Malik, the responsibility for batting in the upper middle order fell on the shoulders of Shan Masood and Haider Ali who had to perform under pressure resulting from the Pakistani openers’ inability to clear the field in the first six. The sums The individual performance of the Pakistani openers is great but they spend a lot of money for personal glory at the expense of the team score.
As I am posting this article for TNS, Pakistan have been chasing down a record 173 out of Bangladesh at 19.5 runs in their sixth match. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan set the stage with their opening eighth century stand in the T20 and Nawaz quickly hit 45 to lead Pakistan to victory against a medium bowling attack.
Concerns remain that Pakistan will battle first against the quality bowling lines of Australia, England and India on bouncy tracks and in larger Australian grounds. It would be better if Pakistani batsmen spend some of their precious time on golf courses or baseball fields to improve their pinch hitting and batting swing before the start of the T20 World Cup. Otherwise, the result will be predictable.
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