It is disheartening because this is now a number of series where they're able to at first hide their weaknesses but as it goes on they get exposed. The same thing happened in the Australia series. By the end of the series you can barely watch them and only the direst of fans can stay committed.
They keep explaining away their obvious mistakes in press conferences and act as if they're learning and will change, but in reality have zero intention of changing anything. They just keep repeating the mistakes, and take us for fools. A few years ago it was Mickey Arthur and Sarfraz in UAE picking 4 pacers. Now this policy of going one or two specialist batsmen short is not something that just happened, they're going to keep doing it and select fake all-rounders, which never works in test cricket. Did Babar admit in any of the interviews that they made a mistake in going a batsman or two short?
Fawad is done, he's played his last innings, because--I've reluctantly come to realize--there does seem to be a bias against Karachi players. So they'll take this excuse to dump him. Although in this case, rightly so.
Azhar Ali I thought would announce his retirement at the end of the series. Has he done so? I wouldn't be surprised if this senior whose time was up 4 years ago came back.
Mohammad Waseem the selector is the least to blame. Inzi was okay too, because he picked people like Mir Hamza, and some batsmen and spinners that the captain and coach never even played. But Waseem wanted to start afresh and gave them a whole bunch of domestic performers. That was to introduce some much-needed rationality into the system. But what can he do if the people on the ground don't play Saud or Kamran or whoever?
There are boy geniuses like Abdullah Shafique (I don't grudge him, in his case it is richly deserved) or Naseem, who get picked over long-term performers, and then there are those who are destined to be on the margins, like Saud or Kamran. They just don't like them for whatever reason. And they'll do the same again and again.
For instance, instead of picking among the 3 or 4 spinners who've been performing for like 3-5 years, they'll suddenly pick someone we don't know about, some boy genius, and throw him to the lions. It's what they always do.
I'd suggested for the first test including Shan, Saud, Sarfraz, Faheem, Nauman (on the spinning first test wicket he would have been good) and not to have so many bowlers and 2 "all-rounders." Would that have been so bad? Would such a side have performed as poorly as they did in the second test? And to be honest, even for large parts of the first test, because it was only a once in a lifetime Abdullah Shafique inning that saved them.
There is no tactical management, no long-term team building, no vision, no planning, no nothing. That's all I've been seeing since 2015 in a thousand different ways, and I cannot believe that such short-sighted illiterates are running the Pakistan cricket team. It's all about winning the match at hand, winning even the dead rubber with a BD or Zimbabwe with your best possible team.
They can play seven T20s with England but mostly we'll get to see Rizwan and Babar hog the batting, batting slow, and hardly get to see any others. It's not like they'll try out a whole bunch of young new players in those seven T20s. In tests, it doesn't matter, how many or who they play, the same few favored people, while the others just sit on the sidelines.
They're not interested in developing specialist spinners, just don't want to make the effort. They'll pick someone out of the blue, they'll fail, then they dump them.
They never develop players alongside those who are fading out so there can be smooth transitions.
It's just Imam, Imam, Imam, playing his awkward game. It's just Rizwan, Rizwan, Rizwan, playing in the wrong format--although, what is his format?
Here's a team I would suggest for the future, knowing there's no chance, because they'll treat us ike we're morons, like we have no memory, and give nice press conferences and go back to the same tactics and players in a few months.
Abdullah Shafique (we have yet to see how he does outside Asia)
NOT IMAM (pick an attacking young opener, there are several choices; don't go back to Shan, now that you didn't give him a chance with such great form)
Saud Shakeel (other attacking young batsmen)
Babar Azam
Kamran Ghulam (other attacking young batsmen)
Rizwan (in tests, not ODIs)
Faheem/Nawaz (just one all-rounder)
NOT Nauman or Yasir (pick a young new specialist spinner, give him a whole bunch of games)
Dahani
SSA
Haris Rauf/Arshad Iqbal/Naseem
