Is the lack of a full strength team still a valid excuse for the Australia series?

[hadi123]

When we lost 5-0, I saw so many people on here burying their head in the sands claiming that result was only due to the fact we were missing some of our best players. These people are clearly people who like to find excuses and try to mask over problems by lying to themselves. Me, [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] and some other realists pointed out the truth.


The performance in the England series and today in the warm-up game (yes, it was just a warm up and IDC but still a loss to Afghanistan) with a more or less full-strength team really should show our fans where we are as a team, and that the bitter truth is we are simply a mediocre team. I remember the brilliant [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] wrote a very detailed post explaining reason by reason why we couldn't use the "weakened team" as an excuse for our diabolical performance vs Australia, but these same fans who never learn still were too busy deluding themselves.

So, PPers, my question to propose is this -bear in mind, our best performers in that series weren't deemed good enough for the World Cup squad

Do you all really believe that a full strength team would have fared any better against Australia back in March?




Shout out to [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION], he is becoming one of my favourite posters.

 

[Ronaldo7]

Yes it was a valid excuse.

 

[Chokli]

If you fix that teams bowling it was probably a stronger batting unit than this one.

 

[Hasan123]

Australia beat our 1st 11 black and blue. David Warner alone being out is a bigger blow than any of our players being out during that series. All these excuses of flat pitches, certain games not mattering, players being out, unfair umpiring, and other pathetic excuses are just masking the fact that we are not good enough. We need to accept this rather than making poor excuses.

 

[The_Odd_One]

The excuse has no legs to stand on because Australia played their C team as well and the replacements did better than the regulars.

 

[Hasan123]

So let’s ask ourselves what is a bigger miss

Missing

Starc
Hazelwood
Warner
Smith
Cummins (didn’t play every game)

Or missing
Hafeez
Fakhar
Babar
Shadab
Sarfraz


If you honestly pick the Pakistan players you do not understand cricket.

 

[jonny darko]

winning is a habit, so is losing.

Once you get stuck in a losing rut, it's tough to break out of.

 

[Mamoon]

I feel honoured to be mentioned multiple teams, but the reality is that I am wrong more times than I am right.

Unfortunately, people will always fish for excuses because they cannot make peace with our mediocrity, but the fact is that the top sides (India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand) only have to perform at around 70% of their capacity to beat us, and the gulf between us and the likes of Bangladesh and Afghanistan has become quite narrow as well.

The top sides need to have a complete meltdown with either bat or ball (or both) for us to beat them. It happened in the Champions Trophy but it doesn’t happen every day.

A lot was said about this so-called new generation of PSL superstars who are not intimidated by anyone and will kickstart a new era in Pakistan cricket, but they are exposed in Jan 2018 when New Zealand smoked them 5-0 only a few months after the Champions Trophy.

People ignored that series because it was supposed to be a one-off, but then the Asia Cup happened.

The T20 drama will also end soon and I think it is over already, thanks to South Africa and England. People can brag about the streak and Sarfraz’s captaincy all they want, but the only reason that streak lasted for 3 years is because we didn’t face India.

 

[CadPakFan]

No it wasn't, we didn't even try out any new players apart from Hasnain.

 

[Chokli]

I think our second string side put up more of a fight than our first XI would have

If you had added one or two genuine spinners to that second string XI that series would have ended 2-3 instead of 0-5

 

[Gharib Aadmi]

No this team inst good, no more excuses for them, we need to clean house after the World Cup and say Khuda Hafiz to at least half the team forever.

 

[QalandarFan]

I think our second string side put up more of a fight than our first XI would have

If you had added one or two genuine spinners to that second string XI that series would have ended 2-3 instead of 0-5

Honestly I agree if we had good spinners instead of Yasir who wasn't even first choice in his own PSL team FGS, we could have one at least 1-2 matches.

 

[Snowflake]

Who cares about a series that happened 3 months ago?

Get a room and pat each others on the back to get the validation you so desperately need.