Pakistan’s tour of Australia has rapidly fallen apart in predictable fashion.
The elderly players - including the skipper, Shafiq and Yasir Shah - who have been failing for the last two years outside Asia - have failed again.
The bowling has been entrusted - apart from the admirable Shaheen Shah - to Imran Khan and Yasir Shah who have failed here before, plus Naseem Shah who was raw and unfit, and Musa Khan who was selected without any red ball credentials past or present.
But all this makes me wonder whether Misbah actually understands his own cricket history. I don’t think he does.
Apart from Saeed Ajmal (who had an illegal action), the story of Misbah’s team goes something like this outside Asia:
Misbah and Younis were past their best and scored runs once or twice per series, and failed the rest of the time.
Hafeez was in his thirties and failed all of the time in Tests outside Asia.
Much of the heavy lifting was done by Azhar and Shafiq and Sarfraz, who were in their twenties. Rahat and Junaid took wickets in their early twenties.
Even in Asia, Yasir and Imran had most of their success......in their twenties.
I think that Misbah is misinterpreting this data. He sees what Azhar, Shafiq, Yasir and Imran did as younger men and expects them to reproduce it when they are the age at which their foreign contemporaries get dropped forever.
He thinks that the 2019 Azhar Ali is the 2016 Azhar Ali, but he isn’t. The 2019 Azhar Ali is actually the 2016 Mohammad Hafeez in Test cricket. A man whose best days - and even mediocre days - are all in the past.
Similarly, the 2019 Imran Khan is the bowling version of the 2013 Tanvir Ahmed, running in faster than he can deliver the ball.
The value of Azhar and Shafiq and Sarfraz and Yasir to Misbah’s teams was actually that any Test team needs to be built upon a core of 20-something year old players.
But I don’t think that Misbah understands this.
The elderly players - including the skipper, Shafiq and Yasir Shah - who have been failing for the last two years outside Asia - have failed again.
The bowling has been entrusted - apart from the admirable Shaheen Shah - to Imran Khan and Yasir Shah who have failed here before, plus Naseem Shah who was raw and unfit, and Musa Khan who was selected without any red ball credentials past or present.
But all this makes me wonder whether Misbah actually understands his own cricket history. I don’t think he does.
Apart from Saeed Ajmal (who had an illegal action), the story of Misbah’s team goes something like this outside Asia:
Misbah and Younis were past their best and scored runs once or twice per series, and failed the rest of the time.
Hafeez was in his thirties and failed all of the time in Tests outside Asia.
Much of the heavy lifting was done by Azhar and Shafiq and Sarfraz, who were in their twenties. Rahat and Junaid took wickets in their early twenties.
Even in Asia, Yasir and Imran had most of their success......in their twenties.
I think that Misbah is misinterpreting this data. He sees what Azhar, Shafiq, Yasir and Imran did as younger men and expects them to reproduce it when they are the age at which their foreign contemporaries get dropped forever.
He thinks that the 2019 Azhar Ali is the 2016 Azhar Ali, but he isn’t. The 2019 Azhar Ali is actually the 2016 Mohammad Hafeez in Test cricket. A man whose best days - and even mediocre days - are all in the past.
Similarly, the 2019 Imran Khan is the bowling version of the 2013 Tanvir Ahmed, running in faster than he can deliver the ball.
The value of Azhar and Shafiq and Sarfraz and Yasir to Misbah’s teams was actually that any Test team needs to be built upon a core of 20-something year old players.
But I don’t think that Misbah understands this.
