Asfandyar Humayun Zephyr
Another opportunity to improve the test rankings was not capitalized when Pakistan messed up another home series just as they did almost a year back in October 2017 against Sri Lanka getting a whitewash. This time the guilty party is Black Caps who have put in the performance of their lives with Captain Kane leading from the front. A series that should have had a score line of 3-0 has resulted in a 1-2 loss for Sarfaraz & company, mind you the men in green did not put up their worst performance but in fact just lacked clinical finishing that led them to throw in the towel at crucial moments which allowed Kiwis to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Anyways no point in crying over spilt milk just as Pakistani team thought they could use a break, they are faced with a massive uphill battle against South Africa.
The Squad for tour of South Africa has been announced but for this tour I feel switching the captain for the test series might not be a bad idea andtrying out Azhar Ali might just reap rewards simply because his temperament allows him to be better suited for test captaincy.He seems to have the ability to exercise more focus and can concentrate for longer hours which is the basic fundamentals for a test captain.It allows him the ability to think how to get his team from a spot of bother which Sarfaraz clearly lacks and only thing Sarfaraz is good at is yelling at his team mates for no apparent reason.
Pakistan Batting Unitcannot have too many blocks but actually should look to get some runs more often than not. They tried their level best to block in the third test match of recent series and look where it got them. It is highly unlikely that the visiting batsmen will be scoring those big hundreds & double hundreds, well to be very honest these batsmen in the history of Pakistan cricket seemed to be the least skillful of the lot. It will be hard to score big runs on the green and bouncy wickets of South Africa. Rather top seven batsmen getting 30’s and 40’s and one or two getting past 50 on tricky pitches can allow the visiting team to get somewhere between 275-300 which gives the tourists a decent chance & will put immense pressure on the home side to make runs on a difficult pitch. If the Batsmen will be looking to see off swing & seam the chances are of a collapse than anything else as has been the case in the past tours. In 1997/98 when Pakistan first time toured South Africa Azhar Mahmood made the crucial difference and the reason was his more proactive approach & his aggressive batting style ratherthan leaving the ball outside the off stump. Now the batsmen selected for the tour from the names have to be ranked according to their fitness and recent form. Unfortunately most of them are not passing with flying colors to say the least and some of them are just barely surviving.
The Bowlers on the other hand will have to handle the most pressure of the visiting team as they have to take 60 wickets under 900 runs if Pakistan has to stand any outside chance in the series & to evade a whitewash. The bowlers who will move the ball by landing it on the seam should be given first priority in which case Shaheen, Junaid & Abbas (depending on his fitness) should be the first pick with Yasir as the fourth bowler. If the pitch is dry & there is spin on offer Pakistan should play two spinners & two seamers who can be Hassan Ali & Muhammad Abbas as they have bowled a lot in UAE recently so would be the tourists best bet on the dry pitch.
The other thing that needs to be assessed is the performance of the coaches, the batting coach has not really done much for the team as our batsmen only play postdated cricket. When it comes to white ball cricket, they lack skill and when it comes to running between the wickets, clearing the fence easily or rotating the strike our batsmen are at a loss.
Whether it is pace, spin, bounce. Mickey Arthurhas not lived up to his true potential as a coach and a mentor asprogress and improvement in one day internationals and test cricket ranking remains to be seen.
Although it is a long shot but I feel the tide might turn in their favor as we have seen in the past when the chips are down and everyone has written Pakistan off they just pull off their magic and from nowhere they make tough teams look like ordinary. Considering the difficult nature of the tour Pakistan chances of doing well are slim but as they say Cricket is a game by chance you never know Pakistan team who is not playing bad cricket at all just are lacking behind in final stages of the game and they just might produce some champions’ trophy magic in South Africa.
All the Best Team Pakistan!
Hope you make us proud !
