Weirdest thing for me is that there WERE no deficiencies as such in the Pak team. After a long time Pak batting seemed to have settled in all format. Yes some players were still inconsistent (like Fakhar) but many like Babar, Harris, etc were blossoming and team was playing well around them. Everyone seemed to know their roles.
Just the other day, during the 3rd ODI, I was thinking that I hadn't really seen a Pak batting collapse for a long time. The way they chased almost 300 was so assured. In match after match there was stability, batsmen knew their role, there was no panic even if wickets were lost and wickets were never falling in bunch. There were good partnerships at steady rates
Just by adding Shezad, Akmal etc, that stability is completely destroyed. Not only are these players losing their wickets, they are losing wickets in bunch. Earlier if an opener got out, the no 3 would add stability and a partnership and so on for the next wickets. Now once one wicket falls, Sehzad and Akmal are falling in a heap together, and suddenly Pak is 4 down. And the others around them seem to be confused how to play around these guys, whether to protect them or rotate strike with them. Even Babar seems to be more circumspect as if knows there are weak players to follow
Just the addition of these two players have completely destroyed the balance. The entire team seems less assured, the two players themselves don't feel they belong in the middle and have zero confidence and it rubs off on the entire team and now everyone is confused about their roles, whether they will be dropped to accommodate these two players in other games and overall less confident
This entire experiment of bringing back these two players is a showcase of what not to do and how trying to fix something which is not broken, trying to experiment just for the sake of experimenting, and giving carte blanche to some players but not others can dismantle a team in weeks
The problem now with Misbah is that he needs to have the guts to acknowledge that the experiment has gone wrong. It might hurt his ego which is why he is trying to double down on the thing. But he should not try to get into the sunk cost fallacy of giving longer and longer rope in the hope he will be proven right eventually. That is going to leave a drastic impact on the stability of the side.
All I will tell Misbah is, go back to basics and go back to what was working. If you want to give a longer rope, give it to the players who were already there in the team. You have never worked with them as a coach before so coach these players first and let them grow and blossom. And to replace them look at young, upcoming talent and groom them as a selector and as a coach. You wield a lot of power, officially more than someone like even Imran did in cricket. Use it. As a coach groom the team which was already given to you, see if you can fix the weaknesses of these players. If you want to give a chance, give a chance to this team which has just becoming stable. Spend your coaching time on players like Babbar
And as a selector work with young, exciting talent and groom them to replace players in the current team or players who don't work out. You want time to prove yourself as a coach and a selector, so do players currently in the team. What message does it give when you replace them, without working on improving them as a coach, with not exciting youngsters, but players who have been in the team many time before? What message does it give when you openly talk about giving these players a long rope but not the players who were already playing in the team before? Why don't they deserve a long rope and time under you as a coach? Use the power you have been given wisely. You can make or break this time with your thought process
