Third Umpire: Pakistan Team Overhaul

Let it be said straight up, India outplayed Pakistan in every department of the game. More than batting, bowling or fielding, India had a game plan, rehearsed over the past five odd years down to a science; players groomed for the event well before rather than just slotted in a few weeks before. In an earlier blog I framed England and India as the two strongest teams, and Pakistan with a slim chance to make it to the last four depending on which side showed up for each match.

In honesty this clash with India was lost by Pakistan in the match before where they lost to Australia in a game they could have won. What Pakistan lost in the game against the Aussies was also the temperament to play the close hard games. If the Aussie game had been clinched, which it could have, then a more positive Pakistan would have turned up.
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We hear the pundits tell us that individually the players in green have the talent and the skill to play top class cricket, but collectively it somehow just does not gel! Three essentials lack in the Pakistan camp, leadership on the pitch, lack of a game plan, and a haphazard selection to the playing XI.

Lack of Leadership:

Captaincy is not merely barking out orders to the fielding side, its all about reading the moment, the situation and making the right tactical  choices to gain an advantage on the field of play. Lets take Hassan Ali as case in point. School team coaches will tell you that his is not approaching the task with any conviction other than to bowl fast and all over the place. On average in each over he barely managed to put the ball in the right place other than once, if that. The leadership was so absent at these moments when he was leaking runs that the captain never really told him t adjust his line and length. Leadership in terms of setting the right field and the right players in the positions they field at best was highlighted when in the Aussie game Asif Ali replaced Babar Azam (a specialist slip fielder) in the slips and presto he dropped a sitter of a catch!


Lack of Game Plan:

Okay admitted that reading the pitch wrong and electing to field first can happen to most captains. But Sarfaraz should know that chasing against India, apart from the emotional pressure is not one of our key points. Once having put India in to bat and only Amir had a thought process to his bowling. Hassan Ali, to some extent Wahab Riaz and Shadab had no plan to their attack. Shadab's first over was pedestrian to say the least and it became clear that if there was a plan only Amir read it. As for the others it was simply turn up, throw the ball where it lands and call it a day.

In the batting both against Australia and India, if there was a plan it was more a matter of individuals etching out short durations of such a plan. While selection of the team may be questionable, the ones playing on the day were touted for their experience. Surely knowing that having just lost two set players a three to four over consolidation phase would be in order?


Selection:

Since the tour to England started the whole approach of the selection committee has been a joke. We are into the fifth game of the World Cup and still there is not set playing XI with changes coming match after match. If people like Sohaib Malik were selected for their experience even though their performance in the past year or so have been terrible, where did that experience show in the matches thus far? If you want experience call Yunus Khan out of retirement, or perhaps Inzi himself can don some pads on?

Prior to the England tour the main playing XI should have been finalized and then during the tour final adjustments should have been made. In the batting side it is clear we do not have a finisher who can take the game to the end with power hitting, but backed by a technique so its not just slogging. Asif Ali was meant to play the role and in a sense given the on and off approach to each match, he has not had a place in the team. Our middle order is brittle and that is where Harris Sohail should have been retained in the main XI. These two should replace Hafeez and Sohaib who would come in only if there were injuries to others. Hassan Ali should either be given a final outing to see if he has the intelligence to bowl to the conditions or not. While I am not sure why an untested Husnain was taken only on the basis he has speed, given the team is what it is he cannot do worse than say Hassan Ali?

The truth is that the selectors have to bear the burden of this imbalanced side they have sent to the World Cup. They have to answer for the fact that why was the team selection put in place a year earlier and then groomed into playing as a team and not individuals. None of the mature teams who are  serious contenders for wining the World Cup cut and chop their team on a match by match basis.


For the remainder of the World Cup with very slim chances to make the last four, the Pakistan camp should be brave and bite the bullet and let there be changes they will stick to through the rest of the tournament. On the side lines we must see how England and India have planned their campaign and how a year before they were pretty certain of the 15 or 18 players they would take and who would be the core back bone of the team.  For Pakistan we should not pride on the label of being mercurial, to me its a polite way of saying 'lost' and 'living on hope'. The only hope I have is after this world cup a true rebuilding process starts and this trial and error approach needs to be buried with the hope we had of reaching the last four, which was always hanging by its finger nails.