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New Zealand prevailed over Pakistan after a hard fought battle on the final day of the first test, Pakistan were cruising along toward victory when Malik and Umar Akmal were batting, both players were scoring at a rapid pace but then Malik got out just before tea on a ball which rose sharply and chased him, Malik should have not attempted to play that ball, the way he was playing Pakistan could have easily won this match and Malik would have been able to redeem himself. Earlier Mohammad Yousaf  & Fawad Alam lost their wickets to similar deliveries which rose sharply and chased the batsman. Pakistan’s chance to win the match vanished when both Akmal brother got out in quick succession. A defeat is always painful and it’s hard to find any positives in a loss but unlike the recent losses Pakistan can find quite a few positives in this loss, they finally have a menacing pace attack, in Umar Akmal they have found a future star, a player who can anchor their fragile batting. Umar is technically correct has a solid defence and has a very wide range of strokes, it’s yet to be seen if he keeps on improving or whithers away like many others in the past who showed initial promise but failed to maintain consistency.

Pakistan lost this match because of nepotism in the selection, we selected Faisal Iqbal because he is the nephew of Miandad and Imran Farhat got selected in all three formats because his father in Law Mohammad Ilyas is one of the selectors, why Ilyas was included in the selection committee especially when it was evident that he was not going to exercise impartiality toward his son in laws selection in the team, he in the past has been lobbying very hard to revive his son in law’s international career.

Imran Farhat made only one century in six or seven innings he played in the QEA trophy the rest of the scores were all in single digits. Mohammad Ilyas doesn’t have any credentials to be a selector other then that he played 10 test matches for Pakistan he was an ordinary player.

Imran Farhat dropped at least five catches and failed as a batsman in both innings, in my opinion he is solely responsible for Pakistan’s loss.

Pakistan felt the absence of Younis Khan and Misbah Ul Haq in the middle order, Misbah will join the team in the next match but his form is still questionable he probably will replace Fawad Alam or Shoaib Malik both players are struggling to score runs.

The team will never get rebuilt unless the selectors stop this shuffling between out of form and mediocre players. The selectors should make up their mind which three are the best openers in Pakistan and they should stick with those players this continuous game of musical chairs is serving no purpose, I think Butt, Khalid Latif and Imran Nazir should be the three openers Pakistan should stick with until new talent is spotted and trained.

The cricket Academy under Muddassar Nazar was functioning properly players like Aamer and Akmal were trained and prepared for International cricket, but since Muddassar Nazar left all the good work which started at the cricket academy has come to a halt.  The Academy should be reorganized and a new crop of talented youngsters should be sent there to get trained for international cricket.

The selection committee should include people who have a good eye for spotting talent, during this last decade the selectors have been selecting players from domestic cricket on the basis of their performance but they have paid little attention toward the technical flaws in their game, this policy of blooding in players on the basis of raw talent without preparing them for international cricket hasn’t paid any dividends infact I blame this policy the most for ruining the careers of a lot of young players and also for all the inconsistency of Pakistan team.

Almost all the matches Pakistan lost recently have been very close and most of them have been lost because of batting collapses if our batting gets reinforced a little bit Pakistan team can get back on a winning track so all is not lost. What people don’t take into account is that Pakistan hasn’t played any series at home this year and may not play at home for quite some time in future. Playing in foreign conditions is certainly going to affect the W/L ratio this is a fact and the fans must accept it.

Mohammad Yousaf is almost certain to get a lot of criticism if Pakistan lost this series, to be fair he didn’t do a bad job. The next match is in Wellington where the conditions are notoriously difficult for batsmen.  Although both openers did an equally bad job but to be fair Imran Farhat deserves to be dropped as Khurram did a much better job in the field. Pakistan will have to lift up their fielding and batting if they have to make a come back in this series.