Think about Pakistan Cricket Team! Things that will pop up
in your mind will be aggression, greatest bowlers, innovations,
unpredictability and ridicules batting collapses of them and against them. For
long now, it has been labeled with Pakistan’s international outfit that winning
against them is easy if one can neutralize their bowling, because it has hardly
been seen lately that their batting lineup has won them a match.
Recently concluded tour of South Africa if not complete has
been a fail to very extent and Pakistan reputation as a batting unit has hit
another low. It was predictable that batting is going to struggle in South
Africa and hope for a competition resided with Pakistan’s bowling lineup. Some
feel that even bowlers didn’t turn up especially in test series, but it is to
understand that batsmen didn’t give enough to bowlers to play with.
It is not the case that Pakistani batsmen completely failed
individually barring Muhammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed, they just weren’t able
to put a collective effort, Batsmen hit personal highs and lows on indifferent
times and subsequently failed to build
formidable combinations of partnerships that ultimately led disastrous
results.
This conked out batting show should wake up selection
committee that it is time when they have to chew some stones. Selection of
likes of Faisal Iqbal and Imran Farhat is definitely a road block in Pakistan’s
proper resurgence at international stage. Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq’s
tiring lungs, Professor’s footwork and Umar Akmal’s temperament are among the
questions that are hard to answer of any selection Panel. Asad Shafiq and Azhar
Ali are coming good but Asad Shafiq needs to drop down his habit of throwing
away his wicket just at the time when bowlers start to feel he is a “not out”
material. Azhar Ali needs to bring his ability to score runs in third innings
across the all innings. Wicket keeper just has been a bonus wicket for South
Africa throughout test series. Kamran’s
butter fingers and every other option’s batting abilities worse than Saeed
Ajmal’s are suggesting that a search operation should be launched for right man
for the job, not a half man.
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| Umer Amin alongside Haris Sohail scored heavily in Domestic Season |
It is not selection committee only but team management is
also responsible for under-par performance of Pakistan batting side, dropping
Nasir Jamshed both in test and ODI series just at the wrong time and
persistence with Shoiab Malik are question marks on Whatmore and Misbah’s
strategies.
It is for a long now that Pakistan is yelling out that they
need Pillars in middle order, but what one needs to understand that these
pillars are not going to stand on their own, they need to be built. Throw Umer Amin, Haris Sohail, Usman Slahuddin ,Ramiz Raja jnr., Shan Masood, AhmadShehzad, Afaq Rahim, or Naveed Yasin in the field, let’s see what they turn
into. Make Gulraiz Sadaf or Muhammad Rizwan stand behind stumps and check their
surety behind and front of those planted sticks. Get Hammad Azam orAkbar-ur-Rehman to showcase some all round skills. Team management needs to act
too, may be drop Muhammad Hafeez a place or two, he has scored three half
centuries in T20 Internationals in a row from no. 3, let’s see if he can repeat
that in ODIs too.
Some change here some
improvisation there; something has to be done to get something. These pillars
are not going to stand on their own. For now it looks like that Pakistan
National Selection committee is stuck in a loop that it “needs experience for
job” and men able to do the job “need job for experience”.
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