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Pakistan in the last 12 months have totally failed against Australia, they had a disasterous tour of Australia which ruined the careers of many Pakistani players but the biggest psychological dent they recieved from Australia was in the T20 WC where Mike Hussey single handedly snatched the match away from Pakistan.

Pakistan during the last 12 months have played Australia under three different captains they tried different bowling and batting combinations but always stopped short of winning, the difference between the two teams is not much as the results suggest, poor fielding and internal rift between some players  during the Australian tour caused the real damage due to which Pakistan lost several matches which they should have won.

Pakistan is a very inconsistent but unpredictable team, their unpredicatbility stems from the fact that they never play two consecutive series with the same bowling or batting combination, they are going to face Australia  again with a new combination, Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar have made a come back we might see one or two new faces in the batting line up, they are playing as a unit under Afridi who is in the form of his life and is feeling no pressure of captaincy unlike his predecessors. Overall the team looks very weak on paper but in reality this team has much more depth in it, they have a better bowling attack than the last time they faced Australia, their batting is in form and looks quite deep.

Australia on the other hand have pretty much the same team but they will carry a huge psychological advantage, they just lost an Odi series to England but won the last two matches quite convincingly, I am not too worried about their batting line up this time around because they are not playing in home conditions, it’s  not easy to score in foreign conditions. But their pace attack caused a lot of problems for all the teams in the T20 WC but fortunately Pakistan in both of their matches posted a decent total against Australia, our players didn’t show any discomfort in handling the pace and bounce of Nannes and Tait.

A lot is being said about Shoaib Akhtar and Tait, I don’t think that Shoaib at this age can match the pace of any Aussie pacer but he has shown in the few matches that he has played since his comeback that he can still be quite economical and can still create havoc with his pace.

Afridi should drop Razzaq and go with the combination of Aamer, Gul and Akhtar  but if he wants to play Razzaq as a batsman then he should play him in place of useless Fawad Alam. It sounds mean but unfortunately Fawad with his poor SR doesn’t have a utility lower down the order and he doesn’t have the technique and the range of strokes to play as a top order batsman.

Afridi will have to attack Watson and Hussey, this time he has the proper bowlers to do so, Australia struggles big time if these two don’t score.

Pakistan team will have to stop giving undue respect to their Aussie counterparts infact they should show some swagger and treat their opposition with disdain, they should target their key players, this is the only way they can overcome their psychological hurdles and beat the Aussies.

Shahid Afridi announced his retirement from test cricket once again after suffering a comprehensive defeat from Australia. I was travelling all day long and just got the news and I am in complete shock.

Since Inzamam retired Afridi has been very vocal regarding his desire to lead Pakistan team in all formats of the game, his fans were even more vocal than him, by their relentless criticism they brought down the captaincy of three captains and finally after three years of relentless lobbying and “fitna” he got the job in all three formats, all the other contenders for the job were sidelined and for a moment Pakistan cricket fans felt that finally we will have some stability in the team as there will be no more dirty politics and leg pulling in the team.

After leading the team only in one match he realized that he made a stupid mistake of coming out of test retirement which will risk his career in all formats, he knew that the team he was leading wasn’t good enough to win a test match against any team in the world, his style of cricket doesn’t suit the longer format and he always becomes a burden on the team, and had he lost the series against England too then it will be hard for him to remain in the team in all three formats. I don’t know if I should call his move smart, honest or selfish.

I think it’s nothing more than a joke, he knew his bowling will not work in test matches and as a batsman he has always failed in test cricket barring a few good innings. He betrayed his fans and all those who supported him and he betrayed his team mates in the middle of a difficult tour and is now trying to dump his responsibility on somebody else that is just unacceptable.

His fans always told his critics that he is a “Pathan” a natural fighter with a never say die attitude but after just one loss he has completly melted down and has decided to abandon his troops in the middle of an important tour. What a wuss he turned out to be.

Shame on You Afridi, you have been completely selfish here and your retirment proves that you are a coward.

Earlier today Australia beat Pakistan by 150 runs, except Azhar Ali and Umar Amin all the rest of the batsmen threw away their wickets on ordinary balls and due to there own mistake. The margin of defeat was 150 it is the same score which Australian tailenders snatched from Pakistan, Afridi never tried to make life difficult for the tailenders, the field was spread out and the bowling was without a plan and a desire to finish off the opposition. After day 2 the body language of our captain suggested that he accepted defeat and gave up the fight after Pakistan’s first innings.

Nobody expected this team to win from Australia in a test match, the bowling was ok but nobody expected a solid performance from this weak batting lineup everybody knew and accepted that we are in the rebuilding phase and we might lose for a while, there was not going to be any serious backlash for Afridi except for his personal performance. I think Afridi wasn’t willing to take the risk and decided to save his ass by quitting, which has become a proven exit strategy for all the seniors since it has been successfully used by Yousaf and Younis on several occasions.

PCB will be looking for a new captain, I doubt that they will find many volunteers as nobody wants to captain a sinking ship. Salman Butt is an option but PCB says he is not an automatic choice, well more blunders are in the making, he is the only guy who is in form and if PCB snubbed him for the job for the second time I don’t think it would motivate him positively.

There is a rumour and it’s denial that Yousaf has been asked to join the team. Younis is still in England and as far as I know poor guy is trying his best to get back in form by playing county cricket but PCB morons again decided to ignore him. Malik is sitting on the sidelines they say he is out of form, but the question is that barring Sakman Butt who is in form?

15 months ago when Malik was removed from captaincy, I wrote that nothing will change, and things will become even more worse, now those who criticised his role as a captain can compare his international and domestic captaincy record with those who preceeded and followed him.

He was criticised for his place in the team, well YK, Yousaf, and Afridi all flopped in test matches as players during their captaincy tenure.

PCB is in huge trouble, they won’t make Younis the captain, Afridi just retired Yousaf might not accept it, and Malik won’t be accepted by majority of fans. Even if Younis accepts it he is out of form and has serious differences with the board and a large number of current players, Yousaf just can’t lead so it wouldn’t do any good. Malik right now is the most hated cricketer in the nation. Salman Butt is the only choice they have.