Few Good Changes ..
I think defeat against India is an eye-opener that we could be outplayed in every department of the game, meanwhile, there are many speculations and suggestions in the TV that coach should be sacked, sarfaraz made poor decisions,etc,etc. But even doing changing and chopping have we achieved something, NO. Lets discuss what changes are necessary and what changes are not:
1) Coach & his crew -- Even during the time of waqar younis we were playing the same cricket, we are doing this post 2011 world cup, where we were able to only win against the likes of SL, WI, ZIM on regular basis except for an instance when we have beaten south Africa in south africa in 2013. Overall, results are same with different individuals, be it Waqar, be it Whatmore, be it Mickey Arthur or someone else. Even if they hire best coach locally or some other foreign coach, results are most likely to be the same. So, where the problems are: definitely in quality of players we have right now. Coach can help a good player to execute his plans, and here we are thinking coach will do miracles. Of course, he can do if you give him team of youngsters, not old people.
Weed out players like Hafeez, Malik, Wahab, Akmals--all from all form of cricket. Give young players the opportunity to play fearlessly, then results would be different.
2) Players : These are some individuals who can not catch properly, can not field properly, can not bat properly, and also can not bowl properly. Why we have come to this stage?? Because we have set the wrong precedent, yes exactly? We had the legendary wicketkeeper who was dropping at least 2 catches in every game, and yet we were selecting him. We had players who were unfit, and giving away easy singles, could not run properly , yet we are debating of him being sent back from champions trophy, and we kept selecting bowlers who bowled one /or two spells in 4/5 years and yet we kept selecting them. We have set the wrong the wrong precedent.
And what a youngster will learn from all this--> EVEN if I underperform I can keep your place, if I can cry foul on TV, or I have good connections.
So here it is then, the purpose of playing for pakistan or for that matter for country or for improving their own game is completely lost,because player wants to keep his place even without giving results.
3) Selectors : Though he is the big name and legend for us, but yet again he has showed his defensive selection approach by falling back again on the likes of Akmals in West indies, and likes of Hafeez, Shehzad, Malik and Wahab here.
You want to give 1/2 chances to young players , at the same time you give 7 innings to the returning akmal that too again west indies, and he didnt even perform. You give 10 chances to returning shehzad and yet he failed to produce one meaningful contribution in the team.
We all blame Azhar Ali for his performance, but as an opener he played his role in India game.
4) Clueless captaincy: Although its too early to judge Sarfaraz captaincy, but yes he was clueless. You can not ask spinner to bowl on a flat overcast condition with new bowl against a team who plays spin very well. Saffy dented the confidence of the most economical spinner we have had.
I think there is something going on with Saffy and Imad, because Imad was not even given complete overs in West Indies when he was bowling well, and here you give him 2nd over. May be Saffy is afraid of him as Imad won the Pakistan Cup as a captain, and he lead well in that tournament. Imad was not out in the complete series against England last year scoring 267 runs at that average with strike rate of 117, when sent at number 6 position, and Saffy is using him as a pinch hitter spinner, while he has some good technique, and should come at number 5/6.
He did not rotate his bowlers well. Why hafeez did not bowl?? Why he kept on with wahab when he was getting hit all round the park.
And you can not give spinner last over to bowl when opponents are swinging at everything and are only 3 down.
5) Best way forward : It is understood and well known fact that we have players with limited capabilities, in that case, we should have as many all rounders in the team as we can have. What is the point if a bowler can get hit for 90 odd runs in 8 overs and cant contribute with bat and in drop catches.
Have 1/2 bowlers or 1/2 expert batsman. At least these players can have 2 chances in every match to contribute, that is what India did post 2000 when they had given chances to Sehwag, Yuvi,Raina,Rohit Sharma, Kohli etc. They all started to play as an allrounder and later on established themselves as skillful individuals.
In fact, We also used to do that in Imran Khan's and Wasim Akram era, we used to have had as many all rounders as we could likes of Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Salim Malik, Afridi, these guys were getting useful 20/30/40 runs for the team an bowling 5/6 overs atleast and were picking 1/2 wickets.
My XI would be
Azhar : One specialist batsman, who can play anchor role
Fakhar Zaman
Babar
Sarfaraz
Haris Sohail
Umar Amin
Imad Wasim
Fahim Ashraf
Hasan Ali
Amir
Junaid
