How to win in Australia
Don’t let anyone tell you that Pakistan can never win a series in Australia. England has. New Zealand has. It can be done – it just needs sound preparation.
Pakistan has done okay there in the modern era at times.
1981-82 – lost a 3 match series 2-1
They were beaten on the bouncy track at the WACA – where Pakistan should never play and on the second bounciest track at Brisbane. But they won at the MCG on its flatter wicket, and should always seek to play a Test there on Boxing Day.
1983-84 – lost a 5 Test series 3-0
This sounds worse than it actually was. Imran Khan was the only fast bowler and was unfit to bowl, and by the time he joined the tour as a batsman – for the Third Test they were already 3-0 down, but drew the next 2 Tests.
Lessons from this tour:
1) Specialist hook/pull/cut merchants like Qasim Omar are more use in Australia than the likes of classical batsmen like Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad and Mohsin Khan who can’t adapt to the back-foot game.
2) Without good fast bowlers you are dead meat in Australia.
3) Pakistan will always do best at Adelaide on its flatter pitch.
1989-90 – lost a 3 match series 1-0
Pakistan lost the First Test because they were not fully acclimatised to the moving ball and threw it away in the First Innings. Ijaz Ahmed’s cutting and pulling nearly won the match and, like Azhar Mahmood in South Africa, showed the value of backfoot specialists.
Pakistan nearly won the Second Test at Adelaide, and probably would have if Mushtaq Ahmed had been the finished article as a leg-spinner.
As ever, Adelaide was a relatively easy venue for Pakistan.
1994-95 – lost a 3 match series 2-1
Yet again, they were undercooked in terms of preparation and collapsed at Brisbane in the First Test. They also made the mistake of picking Saqlain Mushtaq instead of Mushtaq Ahmed, showing profound ignorance for the history of legspin versus offspin in Australia
The second Test was much closer – Mushtaq Ahmed was recalled and took 18 wickets in 2 Tests (whereas Saqlain took 4 wickets in 2 tests, Wasim Akram took 14 in 3 and Waqar took 8 in 3).
Pakistan then won the Third Test in Sydney.
Lessons from this tour:
1) Taller fast bowlers do better in Australia than shorter ones like Waqar Younis.
2) Legspinners do better in Australia than offspinners.
3) The batters require at least 3 First Class matches in Australia to adapt to the different length and bounce.
1999-2000 – lost 3-0 in Australia
This was the least one-sided 3-0 hammering in history!
Pakistan threw away winning positions in both of the first two Tests. They were hampered by Mushtaq Ahmed not having played for months and by poor team selection – how on earth was Mohammed Wasim played as an opener instead of Aamir Sohail?
Lessons from this tour:
1) Hobart is, after Adelaide, the best venue for Pakistan in Australia.
2) Pick the best batsmen in Aussie conditions, regardless of how obnoxious they may be (see S Butt, below).
3) Without a legspinner in form it is much harder to survive in Australia.
4) Expect to get slaughtered if you are dumb enough to agree to play in Perth.
2004-05 – lost 3-0 in Australia
Demolished by a better team.
Lessons from this tour:
1) Avoid Perth – bowled out for 72 to compare with 1981-82’s 62 all out.
2) Salman Butt and Younis Khan are your best batsmen in Australia – they were the only two to pass 200 runs, and were far more suited to the conditions than Inzy and Youhana were.
3) Kaneria was your leading wicket-taker – a leggie again.
2009-10 – lost 3-0 in Australia
A suspicious series defeat, as the Sydney Test had to be seen to be believed.
Lessons from this tour:
1) You can’t afford to exclude your best batsmen in Australian conditions The omission of Younis Khan was a total disaster.
2) Salman Butt, unfortunately, was again your best batsman in Australia, he scored 280 runs at 46.66, the next highest scorer was Umar Akmal with 199 runs.
3) Unfortunately again, Mohammed Asif bowled far better than Mohammed Amir (13 wickets at 28.46 compared with 8 wickets at 40.37).
So there is a clear template for success in Australia.
How to win in Australia in 2016
1) Salman Butt and Umar Akmal need to be the first two batsmen on the teamsheet if you want to win. (I despise Salman Butt, but I know that the tour of Australia is when you are really going to need him).
2) Left-handers often do well in Australia.
3) Given that Saeed Ajmal will be nearly 40, the only spin bowlers you should even take on the plane are legspinners. Yasir Shah because he is the best one you have, Usman Qadir because he has more experience in Australian conditions than any other Pakistani.
4) Your top-order will get out to the Kookaburra in the first 20 overs. You need the batsmen at 6,7,8 and 9 to score 80% of the runs, so plan accordingly.
5) Make sure that the fast bowlers you take on tour – and you will require 6 – are tall. Even Waqar Younis at 6 foot was mediocre in Australia – an Ehsan Adil will always be more useful than a Junaid Khan in Australia because he is 4 inches taller.
6) Don’t agree to play in Perth. You arrive in December 2016 while South Africa plays 3 Tests v Australia. Arrive 4 weeks before the First Test and play against every state you can in a First Class match – at least 3, preferably 4. Your First Test should be the Boxing Day test at the MCG and the Second Test will be the New Year one at Sydney. Ensure that the Third Test is in Adelaide or Hobart, not Perth.
Pakistan can win in Australia in 2016-17. They will have played 3 Tests in New Zealand and 4 in England in the preceding year, and the players who don’t know where their off-stumps are should already have left the scene.
You will only win if you play your best players in Australian conditions, and that means you need Asif but especially Butt. To be quite honest, Butt should probably be the first batsman selected, and Umar Akmal the second, in spite of their baggage.
A lot can change, but at this stage my team would be:
1. Ahmed Shehzad
2. Salman Butt
3. Azhar Ali
4. Umar Akmal
5. Haris Sohail
6. Asad Shafiq
7. Sarfraz Ahmed
8. Mohammed Amir
9. Ehsan Adil
10. Yasir Shah
11. Mohammed Irfan
My reserves would be Babar Azam, Hammad Azam, Usman Qadir, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan and Mohammed Asif at this stage. I’m assuming that Younis Khan will have retired.
1st to win? Whoever goes 1st....
