Had Sarfaraz won the toss & elected to bat first yesterday, maybe the results would've been different.
Anyways, after CT2017, the one major difference between India & Pak has been that India has got somewhat ruthless & got rid of it's two ageing spinners, i.e Jadeja & Ashwin, & replaced them with two wicket takers in Kuldeep-Chahal. In the batting dept. Yuvi is discarded, & KL Rahul has been drafted in. What this did was that, now India has got 4 wicket taking bowlers, who can turn the match at any stage of the game, which means the opposition is under relentless pressure when facing Indian bowling, unlike the past when the opposition used to take the match away from 15th to 40th over.
Compare that with Pkistan, & the only change visible is that Azhar Ali has been replaced with Imam, & Junaid Khan with Wahab. Imam is a decent bat, but just like Azhar Ali, he kills the momentum, while Wahab is God knows made of what but he too is capable of giving away the match in a short spell of his, by bowling absolute trash.
Babar is a decent bat again, but his Akmal genes seems to have ignited & he is regularly throwing his wickets after decent starts, with afew flashy boundaries, like Umar Akmal used to. Remember, great batsmen do not become great by exhibiting a few breathtaking shots, & the throwing it away. They are made so by grinding it out, & letting other not so good batters build around them.
Malik has regressed a lot, & so has Hafeez, not only in terms of batting, but also fielding & bowling. True definition of Railu kattas to be honest.
Sarfaraz does not warrants to be the captain, not because his own form is trash, but because of his temperament. One small example, I guess it was Fakhar at short cover, where he misfielded a drive from Rohit, which resulted in a single. Sarfaraz yelled at him, & threw his own head back, while kind of kicking the ground in agony. To my surprise, the fielder didn't even look at his captain & kept walking to his position, as if he didn't even care.
Imad can't be blamed to much, but he isn't going to light the world on fire anyways, given his abilities & attitude.
Hasan Ali is a shadow of himself, & one can easily see he is too timid & intimidated. He isn't even celebrating his wickets too much now. I was surprised & sorry to see that when Ali was cut over square for a six by Rohit, no one came to Ali to talk to him. Sarfaraz was busy covering his mouth with his gloves.
Shadab came to bowl, & being a leggie, the captain should've given him protection on both sides early on till he settled down, but it wasn't the case. As a captain, Sarfaraz must've known that Leggies need an over or two to get their control. As a result, he went for more than a dozen early on, & his confidence was shot. These small examples show that how a good players confidence is shaken by poor captaincy.
Amir is bowling well at the moment, and warrants his place in the team. However, if he can't find his mojo back in non major events, he needs to be booted as well. You can't turn up once every two years, and go hiding for the rest of time.
All in all, this Pak team should go for an overhaul, but the question is, for a good finished product (national team), you need good raw material (fresh talent from domestic structure), which is itself in shambles.
Not everyone can be Imran, who was like a warlord back in the day, & take along a bunch of mediocre guys to victory. I guess instead of looking for instant results, Pakistan must look to improve it's first class structure, build good base for upcoming kids, & only expect the next crop to be competitive by next 3-4 years. In the interim, be prepared to lose some series, but non performing guys must be axed, no matter how big their names are.
rant over.
