A little perspective goes a long way into keeping calm

[Dr_Bassim]

First of all, first things first.

Pakistan has played awfully in this match and have probably been mauled to the point of extinction. All the swag of Hasan, Amir and other bowlers seems to have been nullified and this is a proper whacking.

Nevertheless, its always good to have some perspective regarding sports and cricket in general.

Firstly, in cricket, two teams cannot win at the same time and one team has to be better than the other one. And tonight India were better, rather much better than Pakistan to force Pakistan to analyze themselves. And Pakistan were downright awful. In fact I'd force myself to saying this is the worst Pakistan has played in a long time.

Secondly, all is not lost as depending on the result of Bangladesh's match, we might have a virtual quarter final shootout against Bangladesh to get to the final. And in case Bangladesh loses, we can just take it easy and beat Bangladesh to get to final.

Third point to note is that the final is still there for the taking. Notwithstanding the mauling received so far, cricket is a great leveller. What happened in last 2 matches against India means zero or zilch and final will be a separate occasion. I honestly believe, Pakistan can bring their "A" game into the final, provided they make effort to reach it in the remaining match. And results of past are all forgotten , for it is the team who takes the trophy, who gets the applause and wins the tournament.

Keeping the above points in mind, I do believe the Asia Cup so far has given us a lot of learning points and we need to focus on those points to improve our team further, because it seems we are stuck in a rut since the Champions Trophy final, especially against better teams.

The jury is still out on Imam and no matter how many people are convinced he is the real deal, the boy just seems a meek individual against teams who will block his scoring shots. Runs against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe B are good but not good enough. However, he is young and can be given a bit more time.

The real player brought to earth has been Fakhar from the heights of Champions Trophy final and performances against an inept Zimbabwe side. He looks a shadow of the player he seemed to be. I might be called out for this, but I believe he is an above average player, but he is not good enough to regularly score against good sides.

Muhammad Amir is not good enough. It is simple as that. We can make as many excuses as we want, but the sad story is, if you don't pick up wickets, good teams will murder you and not let you rest on good economy rate.

I've always said Sarfraz is an average captain and if tonight's performance doesn't justify that for his die hard fans, than nothing ever will convince them that his captaincy is bang on average. He seems more and more of a liability everyday, so I fear to think how Pakistan think tank will work around that.

However, all is not lost. We have the final to look forward to.

And people while keeping perspective remember, it is easier to defend 340 then to defend 240 odd.

If the batting had not looked like they were batting for the first time, we might have made India work for this win.

Discussions most welcome.

 

[JaDed]

True, in tournaments like these finals matter a lot.

 

[Pete Rose]

Some of the issues you raise cannot be solved during this tournament. So if Pakistan somehow manage to win the final again, most of these personnel will still be around.
The one thing I would say to some of the fans and safe pessimists is that we are a seventh ranked team, so we need to have a little more patience with some of the younger players.

 

[El Generico]

Agreed, at the end of the day the final is the only match that matters. None of these matches would mean anything if Pakistan can make it to and win the final.

 

[JaDed]

Some of the issues you raise cannot be solved during this tournament. So if Pakistan somehow manage to win the final again, most of these personnel will still be around.
The one thing I would say to some of the fans and safe pessimists is that we are a seventh ranked team, so we need to have a little more patience with some of the younger players.

PCT deserve that for making our Rayudus,dhoni and Jhadavs not exposed.

 

[Pete Rose]

PCT deserve that for making our Rayudus,dhoni and Jhadavs not exposed.

It’s our grand plan.

 

[Savak]

This tournament has highlighted the gap between Pakistan and India. True we have been at par or better than the likes fo Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and are no 2 but still the gap b/w India and Pakistan is wide.

What pains me is that we never learn the lessons and our performances against India in the last 10-12 years where they have won 70-80% of the games against Pakistan. Their batsmen operate at the average SR of 90 and then accelerate to 100-120 whereas our batsmen operate at an average SR of 60-70 and then accelerate to 80-90 by the end.

Also our bowlers just run in and attack blindly Imran Khan not realizing that in these conditions they cannot easily take wickets. The Indian bowling attack in comparison after 10 years of experience in the IPL just bowls wicket to wicket, bowl to their fields, dont worry about not getting wickets up front and know the no of dot balls they bowl will put the batsmen under pressure and force them to give their wickets away.

Our bowling attack needs to adapt and understand if wickets are not coming on wickets which don't aid swing, seam then the next best thing they can do is to atleast bowl to their field and build up pressure with dot balls.

 

[boomboom6]

Regardless of what happens in the final if Pak even gets there which they don't deserve to, India is the best ODI team in Asia.

Far more consistent side. We are not on their level. Far from it. Beating them in CT was fun but lets not delude ourselves.

 

[Buffet]

Agree with OP. Pakistan can still do well and win final if they make it to final. One game doesn't define any team.

 

[deems]

Relax guys, think of the bigger picture

These boys have what it takes to the bring the world cup home next year. Pitches are true here in the UK. True bounce will assist our batsmen like Fakhar and Asif Ali the power hitter. Babar will play his glorious cover drives and Faheem will chip in with a few big hits.

Moving on to the bowling, Hasan and Aamir will find their mojo and Faheem will obviously be well backed up by Junaid Khan who for some odd reason find the bench only. Shadab will be good as he'll be experienced by then. I feel the management deliberately went with extra pacers keeping the world cup in mind and want to focus on these combinations.

Biggest factor of all, we'll play a full series with England which will allow us to acclimatise and have the best shot at bringing the cup home.

 

[Dingolfy]

Did you see how you guys fielded in this tournament? If you field like this in England against quality teams, its lights out for your boys.

 

[cricketerB94]

Did you see how you guys fielded in this tournament? If you field like this in England against quality teams, its lights out for your boys.

In England, the temperature is not in access of 40 degrees normally and hence the palms are not sweaty.

I observed that Pakistan's catching is beyond ridiculous in previous 2 games while the ground fielding is not bad.

This could be because of sweaty palms and lights issue in UAE. But they need to rectify this issue and it should not be an excuse for a professional team.

 

[Minnowbasher]

The only picture I can see is us losing to Bangladesh on Wednesday. Allah n.a. karay but if we play like we did today we have no chance.

 

[FastBowlingAllrounder]

We should play an experimental side against Bangladesh, hoping for the best, and if we make it to the final, we should play that same side.

Either this, or play Amir, lose the match, and drop him.

 

[dhonixi]

Whatever happens in the final of Asia cup, but one thing is certain. Pakistan is not going to win next year world cup due to its format. Pakistan needs lucky days to win matches. And wc'2019 will not allow that.

 

[light]

2019 WC is the real test. If Pak does win the WC, no one will be able to tell you guys that its a fluke. However, it's not going to happen, me thinks. The format is designed in a way that no fluk-team will win it. Best out of the best will. Right there and then you will kind of get to know who the top 4 ODI team is. Teams like AFG/BD can sneak into Asia cup final, but in no way in hell will they get into even the semi-final in a format like that.

 

[amvbfm]

Even if we win the final (although imo that is wishful thinking) India has brutally exposed our deficiencies and to be fair we do not deserve to win the final. But then as the OP pointed out, competitive sports can be unfair and in limited overs cricket everything can change in one day. However, I would completely disagree with the 'silver lining', 'things aren't too bad' sort of takeaway that is the basis of this thread. Things are bad. Firstly we need to admit the vast difference in the skill levels between the two teams (yes we won the CT final but that was an outlier imo where everything aligned perfectly for us), be it batting, bowling or captaincy.

As for the game being a 'great leveler', I would again call it wishful thinking. The term great leveler is a layman's explanation for regression towards the mean. Given the wide difference in skills between the two teams I do not see that regression happening in the course of three games (and that too in Asian conditions where India are complete batting beasts). On the flip side of the coin you have Imam and Fakhar whose outlandish batting averages are a product of the nascency of their careers and feasting on minnows. So instead of expecting them to consistently produce big innings in the final and beyond I would expect them to underperform against good sides until their averages settle near their real potential (between 35-40) over the next few months.

I also strongly disagree with the OP about the final being everything. Even if we win the final it must not result in brushing past results under the carpet. That will only result in fluky, unsustainable performances like the one in the CT. The very first step towards improvement is recognizing and accepting your mistakes and weaknesses and then working on them and that is what we always fail to do.

For me, Pakistan's main issues, as always are their batting and captaincy. As much as I would like to believe we have found a permanent opening solution, I do not think Imam has what it takes to be an 'all conditions' ODI opener. Fakhar on the other hand is a much viable option despite his limited game, but to play someone like him we need solid players at 2 and 3 as he will fail as much as he will succeed. The middle order is paper thin, with Shoaib Malik barely holding it together. Asif Ali, is a double edged sword who must be used judiciously as a floating impact player (and given our think tank I have no hope of that) instead of being used consistently at number 6. If we can afford to play someone like him at all, I would rather play Shadab above him in the order. I don't think our bowling is a problem. Despite what happened yesterday, I still think our bowling is good enough to bowl out the Indian team if handled properly. And that for me is our greatest problem: captaincy.

I am neither a fan, nor a hater, but I really think that Sarfaraz, is doing more harm than good to the team as captain. His own game has dipped appreciably over the last few months and his captaincy which was never his strongest suit has gone from bad to worse. Although I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when he made some quick bowling changes he gave it away on a plate with his field settings. I just cannot understand why you would play without a slip, and then with your field spread while defending a modest total and knowing how important the top 2 are in their batting order. It felt as if he gave up somewhere around the 15th over (his shoulders slumped and there was none of his usual chirpiness after that) and then so did the bowlers. For all of the talk about him being a fighter I have always found him to be a really soft player who just cannot handle pressure. Put him under pressure and his usual response is to either take it out on his players or just give up like he did yesterday. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any solution to this unless we are prepared to make some bold and unorthodox changes. If we stick with him then there will definitely be more days like yesterday but it is also unfair to expect him to change his behavior or to become a good tactician overnight. Personally, like always, I think this problem will be addressed with inaction and conservatism on PCB's part.

Despite everything above, I wish that Pakistan qualify for and then win the finals but the realist in me scoffs at that idea, and for good reason. So I hope that if we do qualify for the finals, we at least give them some competition and for once our captain leads from the front.