Ashok K.JhaDebacle at Centurion - Familiar Story
January 17th 2007 10:12
Once again Pakistan have arrived at a country and played the first test and looked awfully underprepared!! But is this really unusual for the Pakistan cricket team?? Any avid follower of cricket would be able to say how familiar and common it is to see Pakistan arrive at a country and lose the first test of the series. Infact one cant remember the last time Pakistan won the first test match of a series abroad. The last few ones in England, India, West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, you name it and they have lost the first test with commentators saying how rusty or tired they look and after the loss, the captain or the coach complaining about tour itenary and lack of preparation. The fact that itenaries are strenous is no new phenomena and it has been like that for quite some time now since cricket became more of a business than sport. And international teams have to get accustomed and if Pakistan has had enough time to do that but has failed badly!
I have pointed out two main reasons for this first test loss.
1) the inability of the team management (especially Inzamam and Woolmer) to recognize the real strength of the Pakistani team
Inzamam and Woolmer needs to get this drilled into their thick heads - Pakistan's strength was, is and will be their pace attack not a spin bowler and certainly not an average leg spinner. Asif, Gul, Shoaib are out strike bowlers, not Kaneria.. Saqlain who is a world class spinner and thousand times better than Kaneria, even he wasnt regarded a strike bowler ahead of Wasim and Waqar and Inzamam regards this average bowler Kaneria as world class, his trump card and strike bowler. Every quality batsman has thrashed this bowler all over the park.. and yet Pakistan relies on him. If u rely on the wrong bowler and leave out the bowlers u SHOULD be relying on, then this is whats going to happen. On a turning wicket, Kaneria went wicketless. Asif was by miles the best bowler and he badly lacked support. Wonder what kind of idiotic and incredibly stupid people would leave out fast bowlers like Shabbir and Shoaib when u have them in the squad fit.
2) the immaturity, lack of patience and temperament, stupidity and arrogance of Pakistani batsmen (read Younis, Inzamam, Hameed, Akmal)
Ok, now Younis Khan needs a reality check. First of all he needs to realize he is no Ricky Ponting or Gilchrist, he is NOT the best hooker of the cricket ball and he shouldnt be under the impression that he is.. When a batsman scores a 60 and then throws away his wicket and that batsman happens to be a senior, experienced and the vice captain of the team, he deserves no sympathy whatsoever. He should face some serious talks from the captain but when the captain himself, the so called best player of fast bowling after Richards throws away his wicket after a start, I dont think he can say much. Inzamam, please do not take Imran Khan seriously when he says you are the best batsman in the world. In terms of talent yes you are no less than Lara and Tendulkar, but for some reason when it comes to facing bowlers like Harmisson, McGrath, Gillespie, Ntini, Pollock outside the subcontinent, you have absolutely no answer and end up humiliating yourself. Yassir Hameed and Kamran Akmal also threw away their wickets after starts. You dont need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that batting in tests is all about patience and temperament. One of the reason Paksitan batsmen are unable to get big hundreds is because they lack both these qualities, patience and temperament. Need a few lessons from Kallis I guess.
Well Pakistan thoroughly deserves this humiliating defeat. A team that cannot comprehend the difference between test cricket and one day cricket and cannot recongise where its own strengths lies, needs to get humiliated like this.
I have pointed out two main reasons for this first test loss.
1) the inability of the team management (especially Inzamam and Woolmer) to recognize the real strength of the Pakistani team
Inzamam and Woolmer needs to get this drilled into their thick heads - Pakistan's strength was, is and will be their pace attack not a spin bowler and certainly not an average leg spinner. Asif, Gul, Shoaib are out strike bowlers, not Kaneria.. Saqlain who is a world class spinner and thousand times better than Kaneria, even he wasnt regarded a strike bowler ahead of Wasim and Waqar and Inzamam regards this average bowler Kaneria as world class, his trump card and strike bowler. Every quality batsman has thrashed this bowler all over the park.. and yet Pakistan relies on him. If u rely on the wrong bowler and leave out the bowlers u SHOULD be relying on, then this is whats going to happen. On a turning wicket, Kaneria went wicketless. Asif was by miles the best bowler and he badly lacked support. Wonder what kind of idiotic and incredibly stupid people would leave out fast bowlers like Shabbir and Shoaib when u have them in the squad fit.
2) the immaturity, lack of patience and temperament, stupidity and arrogance of Pakistani batsmen (read Younis, Inzamam, Hameed, Akmal)
Ok, now Younis Khan needs a reality check. First of all he needs to realize he is no Ricky Ponting or Gilchrist, he is NOT the best hooker of the cricket ball and he shouldnt be under the impression that he is.. When a batsman scores a 60 and then throws away his wicket and that batsman happens to be a senior, experienced and the vice captain of the team, he deserves no sympathy whatsoever. He should face some serious talks from the captain but when the captain himself, the so called best player of fast bowling after Richards throws away his wicket after a start, I dont think he can say much. Inzamam, please do not take Imran Khan seriously when he says you are the best batsman in the world. In terms of talent yes you are no less than Lara and Tendulkar, but for some reason when it comes to facing bowlers like Harmisson, McGrath, Gillespie, Ntini, Pollock outside the subcontinent, you have absolutely no answer and end up humiliating yourself. Yassir Hameed and Kamran Akmal also threw away their wickets after starts. You dont need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that batting in tests is all about patience and temperament. One of the reason Paksitan batsmen are unable to get big hundreds is because they lack both these qualities, patience and temperament. Need a few lessons from Kallis I guess.
Well Pakistan thoroughly deserves this humiliating defeat. A team that cannot comprehend the difference between test cricket and one day cricket and cannot recongise where its own strengths lies, needs to get humiliated like this.
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