Cowards simply brush aside spin, and Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan’s spin play was peculiar
Rashid Latif, a former captain of Pakistan, attributes the country’s recent change of three chairmanships and five selectors to political meddling in Pakistan cricket. He yet believes Pakistan can turn things around and win the game.
Cricket in Pakistan is being destroyed by ongoing political intervention. I’m aware that saying this could spark a debate, but we recently lost the T20 World Cup. These players are T20 cricketers, and they approach the game that way. All of the players, with the exception of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, lack experience in ODI cricket.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has had three different leaders in the last 12 months. Ramiz Raja was the previous leader, followed by Najam Sethi, and presently Zaka Ashraf is in charge. Not to mention that we have had five selections during the same era. Shahid Afridi, Micky Arthur, Haroon Rasheed, Mohammad Wasim, and now Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Because there was no vision, the selectors should also be held accountable. A year ago, Saud Shakeel, Abdullah Shafiqe, and Hasan Ali were not in the running; now, they are participating in the ODI World Cup. You cannot blame Saud and Abdullah for not having played a high-stakes game before. Our main player for the previous three years, Fakhar Zaman, was abruptly dropped. Despite the fact that I agree that he wasn’t in great shape, I believe he should have batted at position four to face Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.
The only player that is capable of playing the counterattacking shots is Fakhar, but he was warming the bench. The current ODI blueprint for Pakistan is dated. They want to stick to the traditional ODI format of preserving wickets until the final 40 overs and then attacking them. The rules of the game have changed, yet we are still mired in the past. This group is not engaging in contemporary cricket. There are no specialists on our team, and the starting XI contains no X factor. Additionally, selection is lacking in merit.
I could go on forever. Shaheen Afridi appeared to be exhausted, but I’m not sure if he’s hurt. Haris Rauf will need to develop consistency in his ability to strike the target distances. The four-over period in T20Is can turn you into a celebrity by hitting all the right notes in 24 balls. But you need the mental tenacity that was lacking in Ahmedabad for ODI and Test cricket. When playing against smaller teams, Shadab Khan excels, but he suffers against teams in the top five. When players like Kuldeep Yadav, Rashid Khan, and Tabraiz Shamsi are in the nets, players like Rohit Sharma, Jos Buttler, Glenn Maxwell, and David Miller will pick Shadab without even batting an eye.
Our medical staff’s appointments are also in doubt. Naseem Shah had a shoulder ache from the Afghanistan series, which he took over to the Asia Cup, and is now hurt. Shaheen fell in the championship after we rushed him during the T20 World Cup last year. Also not taken seriously were Muhammad Hasnain and Ihsanullah’s injuries.
The days when players would play with bandages are long gone, wo patti baandh ke khelna wala jamana gaya. One exception was Anil Kumble. Today, if you are only 80% fit, you should not play and should be replaced.
Returning to the India match, it was strange how two of our veteran batters, Babar and Rizwan, handled Kuldeep and Jadeja. They were unable to read Kuldeep, so they abruptly began to play sweep strokes. Asian cricketers do not use sweep strokes. When English and South African players didn’t select Abdul Qadir or Shane Warne, they would play sweep.
Take a look at how spin is played by Shreyas Iyer and Rohit Sharma. Use your feet; you have two of them. Khuda ke liye. Kuldeep and Jadeja might have given them five singles in one over with just one hit down the ground. But we were actually attempting to sweep them aside. Additionally, there were two near misses.
Consider me traditional, but I believe batters who simply sweep against spin in are cowards. Because they are afraid of the bowlers, they are playing sweep shots. We appeared cautious when playing Kuldeep since we were attempting to simply complete his ten overs. Kuldeep was not picked by a single Pakistani batsman, and if he is not rested in a few games, I believe he will finish the tournament with the most wickets taken.
The fact that India passed on Ashwin surprised me. He ought to represent India in every match, in my opinion. I don’t believe we could have even reached 190 on the scoreboard if Ashwin had participated. I could go on and on about all the things that went wrong on Saturday, but anyone who writes Pakistan off does so at their own risk. Even if Pakistan’s batting meltdown was typical of them, I won’t be surprised if they win the tournament. Having said that, there is no denying that if we want to work well together, we want a strong government. Our cricket will not advance with all the cutting and changing at the top.
