Pakistan cricket needs to form its own identity

[Major]

I have always felt as if whenever pakistan cricket tries to adopt someone elses identity, they fail to live up to the standards created.

-We copied the South Africans when they made a young Gream Smith their captain. We ended up doing the same by making Shoaib Malik as captain which ended bdly.

-We copied the Australian first class sturcture by reducing teams. This happened without even bother to conduct a research which would had shown the population difference between Pakistan and Australia and the number of cricketers that exist. This result in alot of talented cricketers giving up on the sport.

-We are now trying to copy England who have players trained to play shots, we are coping them by playing t20players in a test game. This is something rameez raja himself admitted.

Interestingly enough, when Pakistan played its own brand of cricket, they have done well. In uae under misbah they used to play 2-3 spinners, they had success. Fans used to cry that because pakistan is a fast bowling nation hence in uae pacers should be played.

During the t20s, pakistan started to play two anchor players as openers. This again bought us success as we scored 180+ many times amd won games.

But as soon as Pakistan copied other teams due to media pressure, this team faltered

 

[Mamoon]

There was no causal relationship between Pakistan making Malik captain & South Africa being led by G. Smith. It had nothing to do with it.

Agree with the domestic cricket revamp, it was one of the many blunders by the previous PCB regime. We were told we would see positive results in years to come but it has only backfired.

I don’t see any imitation of England when it comes to the Test squad. The entire batting lineup is filled up with defensive players.

Copying England would have meant getting the likes of Haider Ali etc. in the squad which did not happen.

They have picked pathetic bowlers like Naseem & Rauf who have LOI mentality but that is because they are short of options right now.

But I do agree with the general gist if not the examples to support your claim. Teams need to look at their own strengths & not try to copy others.

I hope no one copies Bazball because other teams do not need to play circus cricket to be successful.

Every major side has achieved success in Test cricket throughout its history by playing orthodox cricket & it will continue.

English media thinks they have reinvented Test cricket. They have not. If they had proper batsmen who could bat long, they wouldn’t have been forced to play like this.

Credit to them for playing a brand of cricket that suits their players to the tee, but it doesn’t mean they have laid the marker for other sides.

There is no one way of winning & a formula that is tried & tested for over 150+ years of Test cricket will continue to work.

T20 cricket has been around for 18-19 years but teams are still winning Test matches by playing orthodox cricket.

Pakistan needs to start by picking experienced & successful FC players. You can hype average young players all you want, but that hype will not make up for lack of FC experience & performance.

More than half of Pakistan’s squad for this series is composed of players who are not long format players or players who are washed up.

How can you expect to win against a side that is on a high & playing a brand of cricket that fits their players like a glove. You cannot.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Completely agree with your point about Misbah.

We had an identity under Misbah in the UAE but at the time our fans called it boring and now revisionist historians try to downplay his achievements.

We constantly measure ourselves against a mythical benchmark of fast bowling prowess and aggressive batting that actually never existed beyond a few flashes of brilliances.

Our test cricket strategy needs to be rooted in mainly tuk tuk batsmen - Usman Saluhuddin style, line and length bowlers ( we do not have a test level pace battery) and spinners.

 

[Shafi]

@ Major, Mamoon, Pakistan team is a low profile team so don't think PCB is really that concern of current series of failure. Since we managed to sneak in T20 WC final PCB sees this one of the great achievement. Fans will make lots of loud noises but once PSL starts PCB will be able to burry those angers and continue one. Thinks only change when you realise your short coming and try all sorts of tools to address it.

 

[TheSultan]

We need an identity but we definitely do not need Misbah’s meek, subservient, defensive and gutless identity. We still have this identity anyway. It has now been mixed with babar’s stat padding.

If we take misbah’s identity we might as well stay anonymous.

It is obvious that our identity cannot be based on spin. Abraar is an anomaly. The rest of our spinners are pathetic.

Our identity always was fast bowling and should be now too. It was fast bowling in the recent t20 WC too. We have not prepared them for tests yet. We need to get hold of our 90+ bowlers, give them a plan to get fit to last 5 days - give them some incentive.

In the interim make do with the likes of Hassan Ali and co and rotate Naseem.

In two years you can be a fast bowling powerhouse with batsmen who complement them with enough runs for them to bowl at.

But the biggest problem is is there anyone in the PCB with that thinking? Or that vision.

Rameez’ only vision is to promote babar’s stat padding as well as a charm offensive to bring cricket to Pakistan. It does nothing for the well being of our team

 

[Sidilicious]

You have an identity. Fast and skilled bowlers with mystery spinners, along with batting that can be flashy, if inconsistent.

Just go that way. Stick with young and skilful fast bowlers and not aging ones. Make the most of mystery spinners, and choose attacking batsmen, and not more than 1-2 Babar and Imam types. And play fearless cricket.

You’ve had that identity for ages. You seemed to have forgotten that in the effort to fix the 2010 debacle.

Essentially, all you need is the old flair, with some sensible leadership

 

[CrIc_Mystique]

Dont know about identity. But as a person grown up watching your magic pace bowlers in late 80's 90's cant see many reversing in test matches. but then you also need surfaces to do so and if your Rambo raja is so pedantic about avoiding defeat, leave alone competing or even thinking of winning, you wont be getting too many pitches to suit your strengths. If you continue playing your bowlers capable of reverse swinglike Afridi, naseem , hassan in each and every match cue the zim odi t20 series, it is only obvious that they breakdown as in this series and combine that with no spinner of the calibre of kadir, mustaq, saqi, yassir - you know you will be leaking big runs. In the past it was pace and reverse swing that bailed you out each time your batting failed.
I so wish India had a psyche of fast bowling when all we do is reward mediocrity military medium trundlers like Sir Bhuvi Marshall who wont make the top 8 B teams in any format.

 

[Local.Dada]

I thought Pakistan cricket team already has an identity of being “unpredictable” and “mercurial”

 

[Rana]

Apparently Pakistan cricket has its own identity in T20 cricket

They play the game differently in comparison to all other nations

 

[TheSultan]

You have an identity. Fast and skilled bowlers with mystery spinners, along with batting that can be flashy, if inconsistent.

Just go that way. Stick with young and skilful fast bowlers and not aging ones. Make the most of mystery spinners, and choose attacking batsmen, and not more than 1-2 Babar and Imam types. And play fearless cricket.

You’ve had that identity for ages. You seemed to have forgotten that in the effort to fix the 2010 debacle.

Essentially, all you need is the old flair, with some sensible leadership

This basically.

The point about the “effort to fix the 2010 debacle” is an excellent one. Move on. Was there space for the Misbah mindset - if I was to be generous maybe for a couple of years 2010-2013. That was it. It was a stop gap solution, and that’s Misbah’s ceiling - stop gap.

You can’t make that a permanent solution.

 

[Kianig89]

We've got an identity Saqball, hand out debutants play defensive cricket and lose by close margins only to pat each other