It's very easy to sit in a TV studio and criticise the current team management and coaching staff, but how much of the blame should also lie with the previous Head Coach and team management?
The lack of preparation, the puzzling selections, players who seem to be not ready for the current series in Australia, but are Misbah and Waqar solely to blame?
So, as the title suggests, how much of the blame should also lie with the likes of Mickey Arthur?
I’m speechless.
For 50% of Mickey Arthur’s term as Test Coach he was stuck with Misbah as captain. This meant outside Asia swallowing:
1. A four man attack.
2. The repeated insistence on selecting veteran and unfit quicks like Imran Khan and Sohail Khan.
3. An elderly team, with veteran batsmen who failed too often.
4. A very long tail in which 6 out quickly meant All Out.
5. Overuse of Yasir Shah overseas, in part because the 3 quicks were overbowled, with Yasir conceding 150+ runs in an innings.
Mickey Arthur wasn’t great in Asia, largely because he failed to pick enough spinners.
But Mickey’s last Test was at Johannesburg, in the conditions most similar to Brisbane in the whole world.
By that final Test:
1. Eight of the starting Eleven were aged in their twenties.
2. All five bowlers were aged in their twenties.
3. The selection of two all-rounders had shortened the tail.
Then Misbah voted for Mickey’s sacking and emerged as his replacement. And immediately he threw out Mickey’s advances.
To be Precise Misbah immediately restored:
1. A four man attack.
2. The repeated insistence on selecting veteran and unfit quicks like Imran Khan and Sohail Khan.
3. An elderly team, with veteran batsmen who failed too often.
4. A very long tail in which 6 out quickly meant All Out.
5. Overuse of Yasir Shah overseas, in part because the 3 quicks were overbowled, with Yasir conceding 150+ runs in an innings.
And two of his three quicks were teenagers who could only be allocated a limited workload. And the other was an unfit 125K trundler.
Misbah turned stability into instability.
1. He turned an Eleven with Eight players in their Twenties into one containing just “3” (including Iftikhar!)
2. He turned a Five Man Attack With Five Bowlers In Their Twenties into a Four Man Attack With Zero Bowlers In Their Twenties.
