What has happened to the fight, the grit and the aggression of Pakistan team?

[Shadow_muaythai]

Yes, we beat UAE today. Big deal. Congratulations, we’ve conquered accountants, delivery drivers and semi-pros. But seriously, where is the fire? Where is the aggression? Where is that classic Pakistan jazba that used to make opponents fear us before a ball was bowled?

We’re heading into a clash against India on Sunday, with tensions sky high after the handshake drama — and what do I see? A timid, nervous bunch who look like they’d rather be anywhere else.

• Do we actually have the grit to stand up?
• Or will we do what this team always does in crunch games: roll over, cry about pressure, and then post emotional Instagram stories after losing?

 

[Major]

Im so tired of reading this jaxba and opponent fearing us.

Kayra zamana tha yaye? last i checked, even in the 90s we were losing the Asia Cup.

 

[HaiderAmmar]

Nothing wrong with the team.
It is only that these pitches are different, and most of them have not succeeded to adopt the pitch conditions.
Stick with this team, and they will show performance on better pitches.

 

[TheSultan]

The aggression went when Misbah took over

The grit went with babar

For jazba - you need to care enough. If you’re cutting cakes and celebrating the most minute of things, there’s no jazba. Who started cake culture -
Misbah.

All roads lead to one person

 

[Rana]

Nothing wrong with the team.
It is only that these pitches are different, and most of them have not succeeded to adopt the pitch conditions.
Stick with this team, and they will show performance on better pitches.

Also Pakistan has batted first in all 3 games in Dubai,

And they are clearly struggling. The new ball tone that is set in the first innings makes it very hard for them to catch up throughout the game.

We don’t know how good they are chasing here. And chasing is supposed to be the easier thing to do in Dubai

 

[Aqib_mustafa]

Im so tired of reading this jaxba and opponent fearing us.

Kayra zamana tha yaye? last i checked, even in the 90s we were losing the Asia Cup.

Dude 90 teams even early 2000 teams were so good people still give example of those teams they used to beat the spinners so badly even indian from this era look at those pakistan side with respect i hope you got it

 

[RyanRyan10]

I think Pakistan has not been bad in the t20is this year. They have been poor in the odis. The formats must not be mixed.

 

[Major]

Dude 90 teams even early 2000 teams were so good people still give example of those teams they used to beat the spinners so badly even indian from this era look at those pakistan side with respect i hope you got it

Its exaggerated. That Team is exaggerated as the best team from Asia, yet it only won 1 asia cup

 

[Aqib_mustafa]

Its exaggerated. That Team is exaggerated as the best team from Asia, yet it only won 1 asia cup

Nah asia still hasn't produced a bowler like wasim akram and sehwag said it as well best middle order batsmen from aisa was inzamam thats the level of those teams compare to this lot is a joke.

 

[baba ghazi]

aggression startfrom the thinking..coach and captain seem to have a philosophy where their batters slog their way out of misery..real aggression is they play confidently rotating strike hitting, bounderies in between not agett awed by opposition.. but it seems they are dead from inside, there is literally no confidence..they dont ahve the skill set to compete at this level whether its batters or bowlers

 

[jnaveen1980]

I think Hesson's plan is having 8 batsmen excluding tail going after bowling. 15 balls each on an average. if they score 15 ball 25 runs that is like 200 runs So far this fantasy is not working out. Either they don't stay the 15 balls or they don't score 25 runs.

 

[baba ghazi]

I think Hesson's plan is having 8 batsmen excluding tail going after bowling. 15 balls each on an average. if they score 15 ball 25 runs that is like 200 runs So far this fantasy is not working out. Either they don't stay the 15 balls or they don't score 25 runs.

that approach is ok for 2026 wc in india which will be played on dew laden flat tracks.here on grassy pitches of dubai it will be tough to emulate

 

[psyoptica]

Nothing wrong with the team.
It is only that these pitches are different, and most of them have not succeeded to adopt the pitch conditions.
Stick with this team, and they will show performance on better pitches.

What a lame excuse

 

[psyoptica]

Also Pakistan has batted first in all 3 games in Dubai,

And they are clearly struggling. The new ball tone that is set in the first innings makes it very hard for them to catch up throughout the game.

We don’t know how good they are chasing here. And chasing is supposed to be the easier thing to do in Dubai

They will struggle to score 59 runs batting second.

 

[Rana]

They will struggle to score 59 runs batting second.

How?

It’s clearly much easier to bat second in Dubai?!

 

[psyoptica]

How?

It’s clearly much easier to bat second in Dubai?!

Conditions don’t matter. The batting is too fragile and not good enough for international cricket. You are too forgiving and will make another excuse when the batting folds chasing a target saying “well, we aren’t used to chasing and it’s okay”. The low standards from some fans are unbelievable

 

[jnaveen1980]

that approach is ok for 2026 wc in india which will be played on dew laden flat tracks.here on grassy pitches of dubai it will be tough to emulate

They won't play in India for one thing. Agha hit a full toss barely poast 30 yard circle. So you can't blame the pitch for that. Lack of off side game, lack of ability to pick spinners, pace variations, ability against short stuffs whole bunch of ammunition for good oppposition to work with against pakistan team. Pakistan will have to heavily rely on their bowling like they are doing here now.

 

[uppercut]

Im so tired of reading this jaxba and opponent fearing us.

Kayra zamana tha yaye? last i checked, even in the 90s we were losing the Asia Cup.

Not just Asia cup but lost 3 big ticket WC games to India in the 90s , 3 more in the 2000's. If you go back further there was the loss to India in the 1985 B&H WC. And in tests lost at home to Zim in the 90s lol

 

[Devadwal]

that approach is ok for 2026 wc in india which will be played on dew laden flat tracks.here on grassy pitches of dubai it will be tough to emulate

Pakistan will play all its World T20 matches in Sri Lanka, where pitches will be sluggish.

 

[Boyka]

I think Hesson's plan is having 8 batsmen excluding tail going after bowling. 15 balls each on an average. if they score 15 ball 25 runs that is like 200 runs So far this fantasy is not working out. Either they don't stay the 15 balls or they don't score 25 runs.

I remember Waqar Younis had the same approach when he was coach, lengthening the batting. Every game the batsmen would fail and the bowlers would struggle to defend.

 

[TexasRattlesnake]

Nah asia still hasn't produced a bowler like wasim akram and sehwag said it as well best middle order batsmen from aisa was inzamam thats the level of those teams compare to this lot is a joke.

Naah don't go by the propaganda/hype.

It was a good team but was always below Aus and SA.

First half of the decade was on par with WI and second half with SL.

Because the current Pakistani team is so bad people hype up the 90s team a lot more than it was.

There has never been a time when Pakistan was the best team in the world in any format.

 

[sweep_shot]

I watch cricket since 1997 and that means I follow Pakistani team (along with other teams) since 1997.

Pakistan was a heavyweight team (top 3) between 1997 and 2003.

After 2003 WC, seniors retired and Pakistan started to play youngsters like Taufeeq Umar, Umar Gul, Hafeez, Kamran Akmal etc. This period continued until 2010 spot-fixing saga. That 2010 saga was very decisive as it started the "Misbah era".

Misbah era lasted from 2010 till 2016. Pakistan did well in Test format as they became #1 in Test. But, their white ball form tanked.

After Misbah era, Sarfaraz era started. It lasted from 2016 till 2019. Pakistan found success in white ball cricket as they were #1 in T20 format and won CT 2017. But, their Test form tanked.

After that, they had the RizBar era which went from 2019 till 2025. RizBar era started off well as Pakistan made it to 2021 WC semi-final and 2022 WC final. But, after that, it all started to went downhill (including defeats against Bangladesh, USA etc.).

We are now seeing the Hesson-Agha era. This is the era where Pakistani team is focusing on more aggression.

So, in a nutshell, these were the different eras for Pakistan since 1997:

- Heavyweight era (1997-2003).
- Inzamam/Younis Khan/Yousuf era (2003-2010).
- Misbah era (2010-2016).
- Sarfaraz era (2016-2019).
- RizBar era (2019-2025).
- Hesson-Agha era (2025-Present).

I think the spot-fixing saga forced Pakistani team to embrace Misbah's brand of cricket and that brand is present to this day. Pakistan lost their original jazba-junoon identity in 2010.

 

[prash88]

RizBar template of T20s is what ll get the best results for Pakistan. Afghanistan is playing the same template with inferior batters. The template went bad because Shaheen, Rauf, Naseem and Shadab became a shadow of a bowler they once were ....

 

[Ali Active]

these pitches are sluggish pak will bounce back

 

[BouncerGuy]

The grit and jazba is long gone... These new guys are just hyped individuals who fail to perform in the worst possible way... Talk shows and sharing 2 sixes videos will not work now...

 

[RyanRyan10]

Dude 90 teams even early 2000 teams were so good people still give example of those teams they used to beat the spinners so badly even indian from this era look at those pakistan side with respect i hope you got it

1982 to 1994 was the best period for Pakistan.

From 1995 onwards, they were losing very often at home. During 2002-03, they had become a very mediocre side and then suffered several humiliations in the 2003 World Cup.

 

[Cryin Out Loud]

The aggression went when Misbah took over

The grit went with babar

For jazba - you need to care enough. If you’re cutting cakes and celebrating the most minute of things, there’s no jazba. Who started cake culture -
Misbah.

All roads lead to one person

You can’t be serious. How is Misbah to blame?

He resigned as chief selector in 2020, as coach in October 2021. His international playing career ended in 2017.

At present he is a member of a cricket technical committee.

Surely, surely enough time has passed for PCB to ensure that all traces of his influence have gone. For other players to pick up the slack.

The fault lies elsewhere.

 

[Energy]

Dibbly dobbly bowling, slow wickets, spin and bounce. All of this should be known to the PCB and players must practice and adapt for it. No excuses.

 

[Abid Z]

The team lacks skill and experience. Theres nothing more complicated than that.

Of course the can get experience and eventually learn to play 360 cricket like other teams but not overnight.

 

[TexasRattlesnake]

1982 to 1994 was the best period for Pakistan.

From 1995 onwards, they were losing very often at home. During 2002-03, they had become a very mediocre side and then suffered several humiliations in the 2003 World Cup.

Yeah. That era was not televised much though.

Plus Pakistan is a young country.

Not many people have seen the 90s, less the 80s.

Most Pakistanis have started seeing cricket from the late 00s-early 10s.

 

[Abid Z]

Most people didn’t have tvs in the 80’s. It’s was quite a novelty. Then they got tvs and media coverage in the 1990’s onwards and could see how bad the team was. For all the stars of the 80’s and 90’s look at the lineup it’s also filled with mediocrity. For every Wasim there is a fazel e Akbar.


Pak has always been a mid ranking team. Occasionally being good enough to challenge the top 3 but also dropping to 9th 10th. The fight can only happen if you have a squad of 30 genuine contenders in a strong domestic league pushing for selection and glory. Pak just rely on a handful of performers to come good on occasion. it’s just a haphazard formula that never quite works out beyond one series or the odd tournament.

There is no fight no skill just a slow decline of managed mediocrity until a moment of brilliance. Pak will beat India on Sunday watch this space.

 

[TheSultan]

You can’t be serious. How is Misbah to blame?

He resigned as chief selector in 2020, as coach in October 2021. His international playing career ended in 2017.

At present he is a member of a cricket technical committee.

Surely, surely enough time has passed for PCB to ensure that all traces of his influence have gone. For other players to pick up the slack.

The fault lies elsewhere.

He instilled this placid mentality in to the team and unfortunately, we have never shaken it.

You are right, the PCB have had time to change that but haven’t managed to do so. So the blame lies there too.

The nuance here is that under Sarfraz we were getting away from that mentality. But then Misbah came back to indoctrinate another generation.

Since then we’ve just had Babar who is so gormless that he just continued what Misbah had and anyone that challenged the status quo was forced out - eg Gary Kirsten.

I do think a process is in place to change this right now. It’s a tough process and we will fail with results along the way. The key thing is will the media and saya corps etc give the team that opportunity to see that process through?

 

[TexasRattlesnake]

Most people didn’t have tvs in the 80’s. It’s was quite a novelty. Then they got tvs and media coverage in the 1990’s onwards and could see how bad the team was. For all the stars of the 80’s and 90’s look at the lineup it’s also filled with mediocrity. For every Wasim there is a fazel e Akbar.


Pak has always been a mid ranking team. Occasionally being good enough to challenge the top 3 but also dropping to 9th 10th. The fight can only happen if you have a squad of 30 genuine contenders in a strong domestic league pushing for selection and glory. Pak just rely on a handful of performers to come good on occasion. it’s just a haphazard formula that never quite works out beyond one series or the odd tournament.

There is no fight no skill just a slow decline of managed mediocrity until a moment of brilliance. Pak will beat India on Sunday watch this space.

I think it hurts more because of where India is as a cricketing nation and that compounds Pakistan's failures more.

In the 90s-early 2000s Pak was behind SA and Aus and on par with WI in the early 90s and SL in the late 90-early 2000s but they were better than India so Pakistanis were happy.

2003 onwards India was the better team but Pakistan were good enough that they competed well enough so Pakistanis were content.

It's 2010s onwards where the gap has grown a lot. And compounded more in the 2020s.

If current India was on say NZ level, even then Pakistanis would have been happier.

 

[Abid Z]

He instilled this placid mentality in to the team and unfortunately, we have never shaken it.

You are right, the PCB have had time to change that but haven’t managed to do so. So the blame lies there too.

The nuance here is that under Sarfraz we were getting away from that mentality. But then Misbah came back to indoctrinate another generation.

Since then we’ve just had Babar who is so gormless that he just continued what Misbah had and anyone that challenged the status quo was forced out - eg Gary Kirsten.

I do think a process is in place to change this right now. It’s a tough process and we will fail with results along the way. The key thing is will the media and saya corps etc give the team that opportunity to see that process through?

Omg leave misbah out of every darn conversation. Pakistan have been awful since the early 2000’s. Waqar and inzi were also very defensive coaches and captains but there were the odd bunch of players who could win a match and the odd series. (Shohaib Asif, danish, ajmal, yousuf, younis etc)

Just look at the lineup of 2010 England tour. Asif amir kaneria gul. Replace the last two who were awful for years with ajmal and wahab and Pak win. In almost every series and every year you can identify rank average cricketers or cricketers past their prime. Can you imagine sohail tanvir and Yasir Arafat as the opening bowlers in 2007 and then having to resort to bowling spin in India. Can you imagine Rabat Ali and sohail Akthar as opening bowlers?

Misbah and bad coaching captaincy is a very small factor. Lack of player development is the issue.

Just look what imam is doing. He’s come to Yorkshire off his own back to develop his game. When he returns for tests or odi’s he’ll be a better player. More of our guys need to do this and not play silly t20 leagues. Almost everywhere you turn there is a flaw in Pak cricket bigger than the coach and captain.

I honestly think we need some Indians like lalit modi to come and turn it around.

 

[TexasRattlesnake]

Omg leave misbah out of every darn conversation. Pakistan have been awful since the early 2000’s. Waqar and inzi were also very defensive coaches and captains but there were the odd bunch of players who could win a match and the odd series. (Shohaib Asif, danish, ajmal, yousuf, younis etc)

Just look at the lineup of 2010 England tour. Asif amir kaneria gul. Replace the last two who were awful for years with ajmal and wahab and Pak win. In almost every series and every year you can identify rank average cricketers or cricketers past their prime. Can you imagine sohail tanvir and Yasir Arafat as the opening bowlers in 2007 and then having to resort to bowling spin in India. Can you imagine Rabat Ali and sohail Akthar as opening bowlers?

Misbah and bad coaching captaincy is a very small factor. Lack of player development is the issue.

Just look what imam is doing. He’s come to Yorkshire off his own back to develop his game. When he returns for tests or odi’s he’ll be a better player. More of our guys need to do this and not play silly t20 leagues. Almost everywhere you turn there is a flaw in Pak cricket bigger than the coach and captain.

I honestly think we need some Indians like lalit modi to come and turn it around.

India's improvement of infrastructure/systems has been in tandem with the rise of the Indian economy. Each subsequent Indian generation is better.

Pakistan's economic stagnation has hurt their cricket.

 

[Abid Z]

I think it hurts more because of where India is as a cricketing nation and that compounds Pakistan's failures more.

In the 90s-early 2000s Pak was behind SA and Aus and on par with WI in the early 90s and SL in the late 90-early 2000s but they were better than India so Pakistanis were happy.

2003 onwards India was the better team but Pakistan were good enough that they competed well enough so Pakistanis were content.

It's 2010s onwards where the gap has grown a lot. And compounded more in the 2020s.

If current India was on say NZ level, even then Pakistanis would have been happier.

Pakistan cricket development is exactly like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies. Not enough investment in the overall cricket infrastructure at a foundation level from junior to senior cricket.

India England are leagues ahead. Pak should stop comparing themselves until they make equal investments

 

[Abid Z]

India's improvement of infrastructure/systems has been in tandem with the rise of the Indian economy. Each subsequent Indian generation is better.

Pakistan's economic stagnation has hurt their cricket.

Obviously but there were moments of brilliance with the ipl and lalit modi’s business acumen also. Yes he’s a turd but still.

 

[TexasRattlesnake]

Pakistan cricket development is exactly like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies. Not enough investment in the overall cricket infrastructure at a foundation level from junior to senior cricket.

India England are leagues ahead. Pak should stop comparing themselves until they make equal investments

I think on the upper levels India and England are comparable but junior levels England is still better just by virtue of being a first world country. India compensates with its massive population.

This will also get better with time.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Pakistan cricket development is exactly like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies. Not enough investment in the overall cricket infrastructure at a foundation level from junior to senior cricket.

India England are leagues ahead. Pak should stop comparing themselves until they make equal investments

Australia and England are ahead of India.

 

[TexasRattlesnake]

Australia and England are ahead of India.

Yup.

Senior levels I would say same or maybe even better due to $$$.

But England/Australia just by virtue of being first world countries have better infra at grassroots. And ofc all the benefits of first world countries like environment, nutrition etc. India competes with those two due to sheer population.

Ofc it will keep improving over the decades as India keeps getting richer.

Indian cricket team is not even at the peak of what it can be.

Each Indian generation is better than the next since the 2000s.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Yup.

Senior levels I would say same or maybe even better due to $$$.

But England/Australia just by virtue of being first world countries have better infra at grassroots. And ofc all the benefits of first world countries like environment, nutrition etc. India competes with those two due to sheer population.

Ofc it will keep improving over the decades as India keeps getting richer.

Indian cricket team is not even at the peak of what it can be.

Each Indian generation is better than the next since the 2000s.

Even at senior levels , we are not exactly on par with them. They use a lot of advanced metrics to profile players, monitor and develop them etc.

It's relatively haphazard in India.

Pound for pound, NZ are pretty good as well.


We are better than PAK/WI/SL/BD etc for sure.

 

[TexasRattlesnake]

Even at senior levels , we are not exactly on par with them. They use a lot of advanced metrics to profile players, monitor and develop them etc.

It's relatively haphazard in India.

Pound for pound, NZ are pretty good as well.


We are better than PAK/WI/SL/BD etc for sure.

I think for the international teams we are on par.

Yeah a level below they are prolly better.

Again has to do with economic development. They are first world countries. As India grows richer, these systems will also come into place.

In 15-20 years Indian cricket team will look like the USA 92 dream team.

 

[TheSultan]

Omg leave misbah out of every darn conversation. Pakistan have been awful since the early 2000’s. Waqar and inzi were also very defensive coaches and captains but there were the odd bunch of players who could win a match and the odd series. (Shohaib Asif, danish, ajmal, yousuf, younis etc)

Just look at the lineup of 2010 England tour. Asif amir kaneria gul. Replace the last two who were awful for years with ajmal and wahab and Pak win. In almost every series and every year you can identify rank average cricketers or cricketers past their prime. Can you imagine sohail tanvir and Yasir Arafat as the opening bowlers in 2007 and then having to resort to bowling spin in India. Can you imagine Rabat Ali and sohail Akthar as opening bowlers?

Misbah and bad coaching captaincy is a very small factor. Lack of player development is the issue.

Just look what imam is doing. He’s come to Yorkshire off his own back to develop his game. When he returns for tests or odi’s he’ll be a better player. More of our guys need to do this and not play silly t20 leagues. Almost everywhere you turn there is a flaw in Pak cricket bigger than the coach and captain.

I honestly think we need some Indians like lalit modi to come and turn it around.

I don’t really get point you’re trying to make. Where does 2010 come in to it? Whole post makes no sense in the context of the discussion which is more about attitude than quality or results.

 

[Rana]

Conditions don’t matter. The batting is too fragile and not good enough for international cricket. You are too forgiving and will make another excuse when the batting folds chasing a target saying “well, we aren’t used to chasing and it’s okay”. The low standards from some fans are unbelievable

I’m not too forgiving

You don’t know me well enough

And even if I am lenient to this young group of players, so what? We’ve had 4 years of besharmi with players playing for themselves and not Pakistan!

 

[Abid Z]

I don’t really get point you’re trying to make. Where does 2010 come in to it? Whole post makes no sense in the context of the discussion which is more about attitude than quality or results.

2010 is just before misbah as captain era. You said misbah is the problem. I said Pakistan downhill slide not just adhoc results (England 2012 series) predate Misbah. stop going on about Misbah is the problem.

 

[TheSultan]

2010 is just before misbah as captain era. You said misbah is the problem. I said Pakistan downhill slide not just adhoc results (England 2012 series) predate Misbah. stop going on about Misbah is the problem.

The thing about opinions is you can’t force someone to change them. I will always blame Misbah for what he did. I’ve been watching cricket a long, long time, and Pakistan have never had a bigger coward for a captain than him. I thought Inzi was bad, Misbah was rock bottom.

And when you say “downhill” we are not talking about performance - we are talking about attitude and flair.

 

[kron]

The aggression went when Misbah took over

The grit went with babar

For jazba - you need to care enough. If you’re cutting cakes and celebrating the most minute of things, there’s no jazba. Who started cake culture -
Misbah.

All roads lead to one person

Misbah took Pakistan to number 1 status in tests

Test drawn series twice vs England away
Beat top sides at home
Did pretty well in nz too

Misbah may eat cake but even now he would be the fittest guy in the team. He is one of the fittest cricketers around.

 

[kron]

Dude 90 teams even early 2000 teams were so good people still give example of those teams they used to beat the spinners so badly even indian from this era look at those pakistan side with respect i hope you got it

No we don’t respect pak 90s side at all

Respect is only for 2 or 3 players Wasim saeed anwar and to an extent shoaib as long as he doesn’t act like a clown.

 

[TheSultan]

Misbah took Pakistan to number 1 status in tests

Test drawn series twice vs England away
Beat top sides at home
Did pretty well in nz too

Misbah may eat cake but even now he would be the fittest guy in the team. He is one of the fittest cricketers around.

Firstly, the second drawn series was with sarfraz as captain.

Secondly, this thread is not about results

 

[kron]

Firstly, the second drawn series was with sarfraz as captain.

Secondly, this thread is not about results

Aggression doesn’t necessarily mean you have to throw tantrums and act all tensed like kohli etc. or start abusing.

You can be silent and still be an aggressive captain. It’s about the mindset. Fast bowlers did well under him so I would say he was actually aggressive.

 

[Abid Z]

The thing about opinions is you can’t force someone to change them. I will always blame Misbah for what he did. I’ve been watching cricket a long, long time, and Pakistan have never had a bigger coward for a captain than him. I thought Inzi was bad, Misbah was rock bottom.

And when you say “downhill” we are not talking about performance - we are talking about attitude and flair.

I’ve been watching cricket since the 80’s. I can tell you this attitude and flair you talk about is adhoc and random since 2010 onwards. You could say with certain bowlers you could demonstrate mongrel attitude before 2010. fair enough. You could say with certain batsmen Pak had a certain panache. But by and large from about 2010 onwards it’s largely been downhill with a few minor blips along the way.

Once we lost a few world class batters our administrators have made sure those embers are long burnt out. It’ll take a lot to bounce back primarily because we cant rely on a few match winners. To win and be a successful team and demonstrate a fighting attitude consistently it has to be a team effort and we need at least 11 good players. We just don’t have them.

Oh waqar and inzi were as defensive as Misbah.

 

[TheSultan]

Aggression doesn’t necessarily mean you have to throw tantrums and act all tensed like kohli etc. or start abusing.

You can be silent and still be an aggressive captain. It’s about the mindset. Fast bowlers did well under him so I would say he was actually aggressive.

I never said you do lol. You’re making assumptions.

And also, fast bowlers didn’t do well under him at all. He didn’t let any fast bowlers settle - chopping / changing and over-reliance on spin.

He used pacers as a backup option to spinners

 

[TheSultan]

I’ve been watching cricket since the 80’s. I can tell you this attitude and flair you talk about is adhoc and random since 2010 onwards. You could say with certain bowlers you could demonstrate mongrel attitude before 2010. fair enough. You could say with certain batsmen Pak had a certain panache. But by and large from about 2010 onwards it’s largely been downhill with a few minor blips along the way.

Once we lost a few world class batters our administrators have made sure those embers are long burnt out. It’ll take a lot to bounce back primarily because we cant rely on a few match winners. To win and be a successful team and demonstrate a fighting attitude consistently it has to be a team effort and we need at least 11 good players. We just don’t have them.

Oh waqar and inzi were as defensive as Misbah.

Exactly - and what’s the common denominator from 2010 onwards? Who has been the most influential figure in Pakistan cricket since 2010? Misbah 100%. Captain from 2010-2017. Coach / CoS from 2019-2021.

I’ve been watching cricket since the 80s too. And never have Pakistan been as dull as they were from 2010 onwards. The English loved him because he was just a made to order brown man, just how they always wanted - polite, quiet and subservient.

You’re right Waqar and Inzi were defensive captains. But what Waqar lacked in tactical astuteness, he made up with his attitude. He drove us to victory on sheer will in the old Trafford test in 2001. Not only that, Waqar did preside over some very exciting games.

Inzi was a very poor and defensive captain, but his batting was good, his middle order fantastic and when shoaib was in the team an exciting bowling line up. Yes maybe without his middle order and shoaib you could argue that he would have been just as bad as Misbah, but Inzi had a competitive edge that Misbah lacked. He had a dog in him when he was irked.

 

[Abid Z]

So you agree Pakistan have had their fair share of defensive captains
And you agree the demise of Pak has been especially acute from 2010 onwards. And you can also agree we lost many of our established players after 2007-2010 onwards.
But the common denominator is not Misbah. It’s a multitude of factors that dont rehearsing. An inept board, not playing at home and proliferation of t20 cricket are just a few. Pak has been on a downward trajectory for years well after Misbah left infact in the last 5 years we can an astonishing decline.

Don’t get me wrong. Pak will beat India on Sunday and it will be a moment of brilliance. But it’ll only paper over the cracks like champions trophy. They definitely get lucky once in a while.

 

[kron]

I never said you do lol. You’re making assumptions.

And also, fast bowlers didn’t do well under him at all. He didn’t let any fast bowlers settle - chopping / changing and over-reliance on spin.

He used pacers as a backup option to spinners

But did he not win?

That’s not true. Fast bowlers did produce good spells under him on dead pitches of u.a.e too

 

[Hikaru]

It isn't just Cricket, what we are witnessing here is a societal decay. Pakistan needs to rebuild its core as a nation and the effects will pass on to all other fields including Cricket.

 

[iRfaN_LA]

It isn't just Cricket, what we are witnessing here is a societal decay. Pakistan needs to rebuild its core as a nation and the effects will pass on to all other fields including Cricket.

I have to agree with this. spot on.