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Zero preparation for South Africa

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Junaids

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What on earth is going on?

In 17 days' time Pakistan will be taking on South Africa on the notoriously bouncy track at The Wanderers in Johannesburg, where the high altitude increases the speed and steepling bounce.

So surely they should either be in camp in southern Africa or already playing around 3 side matches there, to see who to select between Taufeeq / Jamshed and Irfan / Adil?

And of course the "new" wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed needs to be acclimatising to the extra bounce and carry.

So where is Sarfraz Ahmed currently?

It turns out that on 13 January he started a 4 day match in Hyderabad, presumably to help him acclimatise to shin-high bounce at gentle pace.

As for the rest of the team, it turns out that the PCB arranged an awards ceremony in Lahore instead of sending the team to South Africa.

A full-strength fully-acclimatised Pakistan could have beaten South Africa home and away this year, and risen to number 1 in the Test rankings, vastly enhancing the PCB's revenue opportunities and prestige. (I will post an article about Tests in Johannesburg later today, in which I will show that a first innings score of 260 is usually enough to win, and of course even this Pakistan team could manage that with enough acclimatisation).

But the PCB seems to be repeating the error it showed in Sri Lanka in mid-2012. Turn up at the last minute for a Test series and see your unacclimatised batsmen fall apart in the very first innings, condemning you to series defeat.

If I didn't know better I'd wonder who has a financial interest in Pakistan losing.
 
While I don't think a longer camp would have been the difference between a series win and loss (I think we have to prepare to be humbled regardless), you bring up a very good point that we should be spending some more time there adjusting to the conditions. Two practice matches would have been nice.
 
So wait, is there not even a single practice game? Now that would be utterly ridiculous. I don't believe it.
 
Salaam.

Interesting viewpoint. I do agree that there should have been at least two (if not three) practice matches.

Brother Usman, there is one practice match scheduled by the end of this month.

However, I am quite confident that we can manage to win the series vs. South Africa. I feel that some people on this forum are not of the same opinion. But then again, there is absolutley nothing wrong in being better prepared, so I hope this is something The PCB should take into consideration for our next overseas tour.
 
Sounds like business as usual at the PCB headquarters.
 
I think there is 1 practice game.

Really this is pathetic.

Just look at Pakistans tour of England in 1992 to see how many practice matches Pakistan had.

Sure times have changed but only 1 practice match ? Pakistan are going to get beaten in the first Test match barring a miracle. Our batsman will be hopping all over the place. Joburg will be alien conditions for a lot of the batsman.
 
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Looks like zero interest from the PCB and the Pakistan team in general.
 
Should have had a couple of extra practice games.

The team will definitely be undercooked going into the game. Not only will we be battling the turnover between formats (ODIS to Tests), but bouncy pitches.

We needed ample time to prepare and adjust. Especially, considering our batsmen have a habit of taking an entire test match to adjust.
 
greens are Natural Born KillerS... practice watttttttttt thats for Proteas.... its all about mind games saffers think they are invincible after spanking little girls from zealand... PakmEn gonna jolt them jolt dem hArd.... heheheh ;D
 
The sad thing is that it didn't have to be like this.

Even if the PCB couldn't prevail upon Cricket South Africa to schedule more first class matches, there was an excellent opportunity to take the first choice 15 man squad plus the best 10 alternates to the Western Cape to the same grounds - some of which were posh private schools where Ehsan Adil played last year.

If they had chosen to leave today, they could have had three 3 day matches between:

TEAM A: 1 Hafeez 2 Taufeeq 3 Azhar 4 Younis 5 Misbah 6 Shafiq 7 Sarfraz 8 Gul 9 Ajmal 10 Junaid 11 Irfan

VERSUS

TEAM B: 1 Jamshed 2 Farhat 3 Umar Amin 4 Umar Akmal 5 Shoaib Malik 6 Sohail 7 Rizwan 8 Rehman 9 Riaz 10 Adil 11 Sadaf

Surely that would be a camp worth having, and a true audition for the Test squad. The likes of Umar Amin, Umar Akmal, Nasir Jamshed and Haris Sohail could have broken into the Test team by performing on South African tracks.
 
our batsmen will make us loose this series ... our batsmen couldnt handle indian bowling lol now see wht will happen to them in SA
 
Actually agree with PCB's planning.

These guys play non-stop cricket which can jade them. A few weeks away from the game and with their families goes a long way in rejuvenating the players and they come back more refreshed.

They do have one 3-day game in SA before the tour.
 
This is a tough tour but this winning against India business and the PSL excitement needs to be quietened down a bit
 
I guess one way they can prepare is face Irfan plenty in nets which surely will help but yes overall pathetic as usual from PCB.
 
surprise-package said:
Actually agree with PCB's planning.

These guys play non-stop cricket which can jade them. A few weeks away from the game and with their families goes a long way in rejuvenating the players and they come back more refreshed.

They do have one 3-day game in SA before the tour.
Click to expand...

Thing is most of them are still playing in the local domestic final. So, they aren't getting much rest.
 
Have PCB not prepared bouncy tracks in NCA?...If they have not then there is no point of an academy....NCA should have different kind of tracks as ICC has in Dubai academy
 
Junaids said:
The sad thing is that it didn't have to be like this.

Even if the PCB couldn't prevail upon Cricket South Africa to schedule more first class matches, there was an excellent opportunity to take the first choice 15 man squad plus the best 10 alternates to the Western Cape to the same grounds - some of which were posh private schools where Ehsan Adil played last year.

If they had chosen to leave today, they could have had three 3 day matches between:

TEAM A: 1 Hafeez 2 Taufeeq 3 Azhar 4 Younis 5 Misbah 6 Shafiq 7 Sarfraz 8 Gul 9 Ajmal 10 Junaid 11 Irfan

VERSUS

TEAM B: 1 Jamshed 2 Farhat 3 Umar Amin 4 Umar Akmal 5 Shoaib Malik 6 Sohail 7 Rizwan 8 Rehman 9 Riaz 10 Adil 11 Sadaf

Surely that would be a camp worth having, and a true audition for the Test squad. The likes of Umar Amin, Umar Akmal, Nasir Jamshed and Haris Sohail could have broken into the Test team by performing on South African tracks.
Click to expand...

That is actually a very good idea!
 
they have a 4 day in SA before the Test series.

this 'preparation' drama is quite overrated IMO, didn't help Indian batsmen on their tours away from home did it, and they are supposedly the best in the business.
 
England is a prime example of a team which takes the preparations seriously. And the results of that is there for everybody to see.

Coming back to Pakistan, they have atleast done a very good job by preparing supporting wickets this season. You see how batsmen have struggled and bowlers dominated so this would have helped the batsmen.

Would have loved two 4-day tour matches before the real series, but since many of them already are playing the PT-final two side matches would be difficult to play after all the travelling etc.
 
The preparation required for such an away tour is an idea that has not been taken seriously by the establishment, and you can see the effect of this not only on the field but also in the mediocre apologetics offered by some of the above posters. One of the most important and difficult tasks for an away side facing a 3-match series is to not lose the opening Test, and Pakistan's chances of this are in my opinion now very low.
 
some of the above posters should also perhaps have the cojones to quote the posters to whom they are referring to instead of making sly digs.
 
anakwalajinn said:
That is actually a very good idea!
Click to expand...

What? Paying 50k$ extras just to bring some players to SA for one prep match? I know it sounds cheap, but there are much better things they can do for these players, like improving their domestic salary.
 
I count several, so why should I have to name you specifically? I tend to have faith that other people can read.
 
They will have a lot of time to get used to the conditions.
A practice match is not necessary when you practice well enough in the nets.
Anyway we still are playing one practice match.
 
We have one match but i dont think it would have made a difference. I think we should back our batsmen to get atleast 250 to 300 which is impossible and then our bowlers run through their lineup which seems very hard.
 
God, people are so pessimistic. Why even bother watching?

IA, we'll pile up the runs and run through their batting line-up.

The taller they are, the longer (and sweeter :p) the fall
 
Afaq
shehzad
umar akmal
umar amin
fawad alam
usman
adnan
anwar ali
sadaf
talha
raza hasan.
vs touring squad.on some fast bouncy tracks.
 
No amount of nets will cut it in South Africa.

The nets are the most over-used area, and usually have 50% less bounce than the actual pitches.

And if you watched the last series in South Africa, the First Test at Centurion was lost due to a sequence of edges outside off-stump and skied hooks. Those are not shots which are fully exposed in the nets.

Adil and Irfan need to adapt to bowling a South African length. And the top seven batsmen need to get used to batting on bouncy tracks against 4 slips and 2 gullies.
 
God, people are so pessimistic. Why even bother watching?

IA, we'll pile up the runs and run through their batting line-up.

The taller they are, the longer (and sweeter :p) the fall
Click to expand...

Ah, The fall of England. Wish we would have another one like that.
 
For the 1992 WC, IK made sure the Pak team arrived, played practice games, practiced in the nets a month before the tournament began. For every major tour like Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England this is what the PCB approach should be. But this all depends on how seriously the players, captain, coach takes the assignment on hand.
 
Junaids said:
No amount of nets will cut it in South Africa.

The nets are the most over-used area, and usually have 50% less bounce than the actual pitches.

And if you watched the last series in South Africa, the First Test at Centurion was lost due to a sequence of edges outside off-stump and skied hooks. Those are not shots which are fully exposed in the nets.

Adil and Irfan need to adapt to bowling a South African length. And the top seven batsmen need to get used to batting on bouncy tracks against 4 slips and 2 gullies.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. Nets is not enough at all. It will probably make hardly any difference do nets unless it has marble type floor on it.

Let me say it again - Pakistan's first Test match is in Johannesburg ! One of the quickest most bounciest tracks in the world, let alone SA !
This is good planning by SA but really poor by the PCB and management. Before they know it the First Test will be gone.

Its not about being pessimistic but rather realistic. At least plan for the best prepare for the worst. But sorry to say this is plan for the worst and hope for any miracles.
 
It is always a disaster when we first go to SA and Australia. We always have limited preparation, get hammered in warm-up games and then lose the first test.

I really hope we somehow manage to avoid defeat in the first one.

We need to get off to a flyer. Our batsmen are simply the key because I am sure our bowlers will take wickets even against that line-up.
 
The ball will be flying a lot outside and around off-stump. Good leaves will be key.

We need to think about where we score our runs. The horizontal bat shots are extremely important. The lofted cut over slips will be an attacking shot for both the batsmen and also for the fielders who can often find the ball carrying down to them at 3rd man on these bouncy wickets.
 
endymion248 said:
What? Paying 50k$ extras just to bring some players to SA for one prep match? I know it sounds cheap, but there are much better things they can do for these players, like improving their domestic salary.
Click to expand...

Yup, it will be expensive. But then again this is the national team we are talking about and not just some club level cricket. Our aim should be to be the best cricket team in the world, so for that you need some more investment.

Instead of bringing extra players for one preparation match one could have made this into a Pakistan A tour.

So a couple of Pakistan vs. Pakistan A matches, and then Pakistan A plays against South Africa A or some of the domestic sides over there. That's a win win situation, IMO:

I agree that the domestic salary also needs to be improved, but these can be done side by side. It's not "either this or that".
 
Pak bowling slightly lesser in quality than SA (more to do because of inexperience). But SA batting is far far superior and in home conditions close to invincible.

Pakistan should punch way above their weight to even compete..my humble take on this series. Good luck though..

On the other hand if you guys approach this series with a nothing to lose attitude, there in would lie your best chance to make an impact.
 
Junaids said:
What on earth is going on?

In 17 days' time Pakistan will be taking on South Africa on the notoriously bouncy track at The Wanderers in Johannesburg, where the high altitude increases the speed and steepling bounce.

So surely they should either be in camp in southern Africa or already playing around 3 side matches there, to see who to select between Taufeeq / Jamshed and Irfan / Adil?

And of course the "new" wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed needs to be acclimatising to the extra bounce and carry.

So where is Sarfraz Ahmed currently?

It turns out that on 13 January he started a 4 day match in Hyderabad, presumably to help him acclimatise to shin-high bounce at gentle pace.

As for the rest of the team, it turns out that the PCB arranged an awards ceremony in Lahore instead of sending the team to South Africa.

A full-strength fully-acclimatised Pakistan could have beaten South Africa home and away this year, and risen to number 1 in the Test rankings, vastly enhancing the PCB's revenue opportunities and prestige. (I will post an article about Tests in Johannesburg later today, in which I will show that a first innings score of 260 is usually enough to win, and of course even this Pakistan team could manage that with enough acclimatisation).

But the PCB seems to be repeating the error it showed in Sri Lanka in mid-2012. Turn up at the last minute for a Test series and see your unacclimatised batsmen fall apart in the very first innings, condemning you to series defeat.

If I didn't know better I'd wonder who has a financial interest in Pakistan losing.
Click to expand...

How was the SL series a last minute thing? Pak played 2 T20s and 5 ODIs (1 rained out) before the Test series. The core players of the Pak team were in SL well before June and the Test series started late June.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-pakistan-2012/engine/series/562333.html

SLC are absolute morons for organizing the Limited overs leg before the Test series. Did that against Aus and NZ as well. :facepalm:
 
But yeah more preparation equals better results. It's mainly the SC teams who don't take it seriously. Teams like Aus, Eng (especially in recent times) and SA are prepared to do the hard yards while Ind, Pak and SL think they can just have a single warm-up game and be done with it. The results speak for themselves.
 
The ball will be flying a lot outside and around off-stump. Good leaves will be key.
Click to expand...

Yeah but i have seen our batsmen leave balls that would have went for fours and try to hit the ball bouncing and thus lead to edges.
 
looks like no one here knows how quick pacy and bouncy are the wickets of sialkot!!!

Forget South Africa, the pitch there is equivalent to the carribean of 80s.

By the way any current recent domestic matches played at sialkot???? and which of the current test squad is playing on it?
 
SL_Fan said:
But yeah more preparation equals better results. It's mainly the SC teams who don't take it seriously. Teams like Aus, Eng (especially in recent times) and SA are prepared to do the hard yards while Ind, Pak and SL think they can just have a single warm-up game and be done with it. The results speak for themselves.
Click to expand...

IIRC England sent their batsmen to India to prepare for the series against Pakistan in the UAE, how did that work out for them?
 
SL_Fan said:
But yeah more preparation equals better results. It's mainly the SC teams who don't take it seriously. Teams like Aus, Eng (especially in recent times) and SA are prepared to do the hard yards while Ind, Pak and SL think they can just have a single warm-up game and be done with it. The results speak for themselves.
Click to expand...

Yep. Indians went to England in 2011, as if it were a picnic. And a nice picnic it turned out to be.
 
AZ said:
IIRC England sent their batsmen to India to prepare for the series against Pakistan in the UAE, how did that work out for them?
Click to expand...

Not sure about that one but I recall Eng coming off a long break before that Pak series. So I would say they were under prepared and paid for it.
 
http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan-v-england-2012/content/story/555324.html

Flower focuses on preparation

Andy Flower is determined that England won't enter the Test series against Sri Lanka under-prepared after the team's experience in the UAE. After a two-month break before Christmas, England had two warm-up matches before the Tests against Pakistan started which, Flower believed, probably wasn't enough.
This time the Test specialists - likely to be Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior, Ian Bell and Monty Panesar - will travel out before the rest of the squad to acclimatise.
"Some of our Test squad are going to go out early - they're going to go on March 5 - as opposed to most of us who are going on March 10," Flower said.
"So those players that aren't on this leg of the tour - the limited-overs leg - are going to go out early and take the opportunity to acclimatise and work on specifics to Sri Lankan conditions. Hopefully we can then avoid the slow start we had to this series, which was a big contributor to us losing this series."
Click to expand...
 
They did win the ODI series 4-0 after that horrendous performance in the Test series. Plus as it states there they took their preparation seriously for the SL tour and manged to draw that one.
 
Its ok to fail against SA in 1st test as long as Pak win 2nd and 3rd tests.
 
IndianWillow said:
Yep. Indians went to England in 2011, as if it were a picnic. And a nice picnic it turned out to be.
Click to expand...

Same with SL and Pak. Same old same old. In fact our last tour to Eng an year or two back the seniors opted to play IPL and even miss the one and only warm-up. How can you expect to put up decent perfomances on alien conditions against top teams with that kind of preparation? More like blind hope than any thing else.
 
Maybe it should be up to each player to decide if they need more preparation? That way they're individually accountable if they look like they lack preparation but didn't make the effort.

For example last year Smith declined to play in the IPL in order to prepare for the tour against England. Philander also played county cricket ahead of that tour.
 
Need to get over their hangover from the win in india , this is a much more important tour , IMO they prepared harder for that indian series .
 
Jo_Don said:
Maybe it should be up to each player to decide if they need more preparation? That way they're individually accountable if they look like they lack preparation but didn't make the effort.

For example last year Smith declined to play in the IPL in order to prepare for the tour against England. Philander also played county cricket ahead of that tour.
Click to expand...

That might work for SA, Aus, Eng etc but with the SC teams the big names are not going to get dropped/replaced easily. They will fail abroad and then pile up the runs at home or against minnows and the same cycle will start again.
 
Pakistan need to apply aggrressive approach in batting. In order to compete wid SA. I believe pak have players like hafeez, asad, younis who can fill dat role. Others i feel will be usual test style tuk tuk batting. We bave to aim for 300 if we r to beat SA in SA. Not evn eng, aus coud do it. Pak have an excellent chance to do dat becoz their bowling attack can defend 200 runs too. I also think they shd hav taken umar akmal he is an ideal batsmen to countrr SA attack. Remembr we dnt hav inzi, yousaf class batsmen anymore.
 
This tour is the biggest test for Pakistan since last time when we faced Saffers in tests.
 
Love Pakistan said:
This tour is the biggest test for Pakistan since last time when we faced Saffers in tests.
Click to expand...

Also, biggest tour since we played Oz in Oz.
These tours give legitimacy....especially if we pull off a win or two.
 
should pak not be in dubia at-least practicing on the icc facilities and making use of the icc academy which does have all kinds of pitches.

this tour is the biggest thing since the 2010 drama ,
this tour can decide if we have made progress of merely blinded ourselves
 
MenInG said:
This is a tough tour but this winning against India business and the PSL excitement needs to be quietened down a bit
Click to expand...

MIG, can't you guys do something about it, make PCB realise that one practice game is simply not enough. They could easily get another 2 day game arranged if they request CSA.
 
Seen Sheen said:
MIG, can't you guys do something about it, make PCB realise that one practice game is simply not enough. They could easily get another 2 day game arranged if they request CSA.
Click to expand...

too late.
 
ethan hunt said:
Need to get over their hangover from the win in india , this is a much more important tour , IMO they prepared harder for that indian series .
Click to expand...

Hangover from win in India ? Mate, your team just won one game more than India which is going through one of the worst slumps. Is winning a 3 match ODI series a big achievement for you ? :yk
 
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Taufeeq Umar, Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Misbah, Asad Shafiq, Umar Gul, Ehsan Adil, etc are all taking part in the Predient's trophy final.
 
Playing ONE 4-day warm-up game before a full tour of South Africa.

Watching a batting lineup struggling against swing bowling and looking short of practice in general, is there anyone still willing to defend this logic?
 
Agreed, it's not good enough, but it's becoming the norm in international cricket nowadays.
 
I don't think anyone was defending playing only one warm up even before the match. The thing is though, you can play 100 matches against bowlers in these conditions and not be prepared for the beast that is Steyn.
 
Shayan said:
Agreed, it's not good enough, but it's becoming the norm in international cricket nowadays.
Click to expand...

No it isn't. Most teams play at least two and sometimes three.


talha3 said:
I don't think anyone was defending playing only one warm up even before the match. The thing is though, you can play 100 matches against bowlers in these conditions and not be prepared for the beast that is Steyn.
Click to expand...

Yes they were.

And you can't be so defeatist. Practice is essential to success.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
 
India had no practice matches in 2011 against sa and almost won the series.

England had plenty of practice before the uae tour but it could not help them.
 
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There is none.
Unless you can replicate home warm up to match those conditions over a prolonged period. Still wouldn't replace real match practice in those conditions
 
Poor shot selection was what got them out.
They could have practiced for over 100 days there was absolutely no need to chase an out swinger pitching at off and a bit outside off.
Nothing unexpected though i expected them to struggle but i expected them to play a but maturely.
 
Also, the practice match was arranged on sluggish pitch, so Pakistan dont really get a good practice.
 
James said:
Watching a batting lineup struggling against swing bowling and looking short of practice in general, is there anyone still willing to defend this logic?
Click to expand...

Agree.

It's a point I've made on PP and on twitter.

Pakistan hadn't played any test cricket for more than 6 months yet they have only 1 practice match before facing the best team in the world.

Absolutely ridiculous.
 
Pakistan paying a heavy price for this pathetic preparation.

Just a disaster that you could see a mile away.

Too much emphasis on the Indian tour.
 
Saj said:
Pakistan hadn't played any test cricket for more than 6 months yet they have only 1 practice match before facing the best team in the world.

Absolutely ridiculous.
Click to expand...

It's ok Saj 'warming up doesn't make a difference' according to cricket experts :91:
 
Lack of preparation is a big factor of this horrible horrible batting display

Lack of preparation is a big factor of this horrible horrible batting display. Yes Pakistan's batsmen are not world beaters and SA bowling was very good but I think most of the batsman got out either playing the balls they could have left (if they had decent practice time on these SA pitches) or played hard at the ball (Shafiq).

Management need to wake up and take test cricket seriously.

Or am I looking for excuses for my team I love?
 
Its the PCB what do u expect. Thought surely whatmore and co couldve done something about it.
 
I said the same as well 3 or 4 weeks ago

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail as they say.

The PCB or Pak management did not take this tour seriously at all hence they deserve the beating they get.

Unfortunately we fans have to suffer in the process.
 
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