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- Oct 2, 2004
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Putting down Pakistani performances seems to have taken an art-form of late but nice to see some push-back here - congratulations to [MENTION=139523]OmarKhan99[/MENTION] for the Post of the Week!
The loss to Zimbabwe you keep on stating was quite some time ago. Since then, there has been an influx of quite a few young players and this current line-up is effectively entirely different to the one in 2013-14. Hence, the logic behind applying that loss as a criterion of judgement for this team is quite faulty.
In regard to the loss to Sri Lanka, it isn't as bad as it has been made out to be. The important thing is to remember and consider what were the circumstances leading up to the series. We were just beginning our transitioning phase. The Sri Lankan series was the first series post the departure of two of our major batting stalwarts that consistently carried the burden of Pakistani batting for many years. One of them being the captain who was instrumental in the revival of Pakistan Cricket from depths of darkness we had been indulged in. The batting feeling this loss and vacancy was only natural and hence the team taking a hit or two was to be expected. Plus, we had a newly appointed Captain, in the form of Sarfraz, who was on his first stint as Test captain and since his style of play is in vast contrast to Misbah's, rookie mistakes were to be expected. Not only were his players to get used to Sarfraz's style of captaincy and his tactics but also the Coaching staff were yet to fully adapt. This obviously resulted in some bad decisions which the management has since recognised.
The fact of the matter is, we must stop dwelling in the past and pull up references to matches or series that Pakistan played in with a completely different set of players or matches in a very different format (i.e. the NZ ODI series). These are frankly quite meaningless and just continue to highlight the desperation and frustration.
The purpose of the thread, from what I see, isn't about who is the superior test team, but rather more about the comparison of particular performances of a team consisting of quite a few players who haven't even played a handful of tests (and even some who debuted on the tour itself) and a team that has been "settled" long enough to make the #1 Test rankings consistently in recent times. Seeing how the very well reputed Indian Batting line up and the team has fared until now and comparing that to how Pakistan played just 3 months prior in virtually the same conditions is an indication that Pakistan has done something greater than what was initially perceived. Don't think this is about pulling India down, but more about the realization of what Pakistan has accomplished.
Also, a piece of advice I would like to give to you as a brother, don't mistake realism with pessimism.