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.
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.