Pakistan’s team management before the start of the ODI series was aware of the fragility of their batting line up. To open with an out of form Mohammad Hafeez and a struggling Imran Farhat was already a gamble and was bound to put pressure on the middle order which is quite old lacks the fire power and is more suited to the test format the demand to score at a higher pace in the shorter format seems to stretch the limits of the players in the middle order.
But batting wasn’t Pakistan’s only problem, Umar Gul looked completely flat, he lacks accuracy with the new ball and his ability to reverse the old ball at will now seems to be a myth and he lost the ability to bowl those deadly yorkers almost a year ago, he is a different bowler these days still effective though but lacks the ammunition he once had. Hafeez bowled well and was quite economical but never looked like taking a wicket, if we had played Rahman instead of Malik he could have added more value to the team in real terms. Afridi and Riaz bowled good in patches. Afridi as usual started with a bang but bowled a couple of extremely expensive overs at the end of his first spell, he looked an entirely different bowler in those two overs had no control over his length or direction and gifted quite a few gifts to the batsmen. Wahab Riaz also leaked runs on the other end, he can’t bring the ball back into the right handers which makes him predictable, his problem gets compounded when he can’t control his wrist and sprays the ball all over the place, Misbah at that stage of the game ran out of options.
In order to fix the team combination the team management will have to get rid of the paper tigers like Malik and Farhat. Awais Zia has been great in the domestic tournaments and showed a lot of promise if he opens with Hafeez he can take the pressure to get a flying start off from Hafeez. Hammad Azam should get a chance instead of Malik that can enable Umar Akmal to bat at #3.
Finn bowled an excellent spell and Cook batted exceptionally well, England has the bowling to defend scores like 250 . Misbah will have to be a bit more proactive and aggressive on the field to curtail the opposition for less than par scores.
I was going to write about YK but then he scored that big match winning 100 and I knew his bat will be quite for another 5-6 matches and just when the critics will get frustrated from him he will score a couple of big innings to retain his place.
But we will have to learn to live with the limitations of this team. We have a better test out fit than the shorter version. It will take time to develop the proper combination for the shorter version. We will have to find the replacement for Razzaq. Hammad Azam is a good candidate but will take some time to develop.
Openers are fine, its just that Hafeez is going through a bad patch, we will have to give him some time to recover can’t just kick him out.
The main problem with our batting is the unreliability of Younis, Misbah and Umar Akmal. This is where we will have to improve.
In bowling we don’t have anybody left which we haven’t tried. Will have to work on Wahab Riaz.
Wasim. How can you call the tenure of Bob Woolmer a totally disastraus one? the reason a foreign coach was never sucessful in Pakistan was because everyone from captain to the team manager to the selectors have been running the show giving no authority to a foriegn coach what so ever. Its our system thats corroupt its not the coaches.
We dont respect any forigener in our country and dont let them do thier jobs properly. The problem is with us not them.
As far as football game is concerned. I wasnt comparing the two sports I was stressing the fact that a person who has greater coaching experience can first pluck the best talented players from the system and then mentally and physcially condition them to be great players.
A good football coach can identify a valuable players from a team of 100 college football players and work on it. I doubt anybody could make Saeed Ajmal a Jhonty rodes on field in this life time by just sheer coaching and mohsin khan type of advising…
Its my opinion again just like Wasim Akram identified Amir and Imran Identified Inzi… creme of the crop.. It would be good for someone from Australia to come and identify and then train few good batsman for Pakistan.
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last but not least all upcomming series Pakistan will play this year will be out of sub continent . We will see how Mr Mohsin Khan coaching skills will bring about the results. I think He is talking to big these days!!
Bowling wise I like aizaz cheema if some one works on him. Its a shame how Waqar was let go off i really think he was working hard on developing some good bowlers for Pakistan. I think we lack a good left arm fast bowler like Wasim and Amir.
Mohsin
Name one good player who got developed by BOB in Pakistan. And remember that WC? We hardly won anything under the foreign coaches. And if you compare the current team with that of INZI’s team or Malik’s team those teams were much stronger. But we didn’t got the results. Of course there were other factors involved too coaching wasn’t the only problem.
I am not crediting the current team’s success to Mohsin Khan I only gave him credit as a chief selector because he did took some tough decisions as a selector.
What I am stressing here is that Whatmore’s Srilankan stint wasn’t great (not because of the results) in terms of feed back from the lankan players and the management. He has only played 5-6 test matches and 1 ODI and thats it. In comparison to him Mohsin is far more experienced.
But anyways lets see who gets the Job hopefully the team will continue to get stronger and stronger.
I like Aizaz too, he was at his peak three four years ago, now he has grown a bit older and has lost some pace but I think he can still play for the country 3-4 years. The problem is that our bowlers are not good with the seam and can’t control the new ball, with the new Odi rule where two balls are being used in a match the reverse swing is pretty much out of the equation that is why Gul is not the same ODI bowler anymore. We will have to adjust to the new situation and train the bowlers with the new ball. So far in the ODI series ENglish pacers are the difference between the two teams, they are in a different class.
You are right both Junaid and Riaz do not even come close to Aamir. Riaz has the potential but he will have to learn to bring the ball back in to the right handers at will and he will have to improve his wrist position which makes him spray the ball all over the place. But as far as pace is concerned, and his ability with the old ball he is far better than Junaid.
Waseem no disrespect ….but Are you kidding me ?. We saw a rise of 4 all rounders during tenure of Bob Woolmer that we have never seen in cricketing history. Abdul Razaq, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, iftikhar Anjum , Taufeeq Umer, Rana , imran Nazir , Malik . These players were performing on thier peak and everyone was being used to thier full potenial.He assembled one of the most toughest line up in Pakistan. I have seen since a long time… Please check the amount of games Pakistan won under woolmer.
The world cup was tragic and we cant compare it because we lost it to matching fixing… The ireland game was fixed and had millions of dollars that were betted on that game. We were suppose to beat West indies and then ireland was suppose to beat us but Pakistan found it self in a tough spot after loosing against West Indies by few odd runs…They players were paid to loose and coudlnt back out even if they wanted too. Bob woolmer lost his life cuz of this… I think its disrespectful not to recognize his contributions for a man who gave his life for Pakistan cricket.
Anyhow I like your take on many subjects on this we can agree to disagree. Right now there is a reality check for you and Mohsin Khan. He was talking how Pakistan team is the best in the world. Please turn on your TV and watch them being slapped around !!
Mohsin
None of the players you named was a product of Woolmer they were either there before Woolmer or were a product of domestic cricket. The only player which comes to my mind who got help from him was Salman Butt and he helped Younis in getting better.
Do you think that with the existing pool of players any other coach could have gotten a better result. I don’t think so.
The axing of Kamran Akmal, and Razzaq has destroyed the team combination we don’t have that batting depth also we have lost that extra punch in shape of aggression. Both players were not performing well for quite some time but so are their replacements. Also I seriously believe that the rule to use two new balls have taken the venom out of Guls bowling. It will take time for pakistan to find a new combination. It has nothing to do with the coaches, neither the test team’s success was attributable to Mohsin nor this loss should be attributed to him, it is the limitation of certain players.
ok sir as you say so. I rest my case
All i know is given the conditions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi there should be no excuse….This is the closest that comes to home conditions. 3 years of waqar as a head coach… 2 to 3 years of Mohsin Khan as a seclector and this is what we get. We have inepth bowlers and incompetent batsman. almost a decade later we are still counting on Younis , Malik , Afridi, Misbah’s to bail us out during our batting woes while we have had enough talent that have wasted thier prime time sitting on side benches.
I know you said here that Imran Farhat was playing well. Did you see his way he got out today? Basics ??? he was playing the same rubbish 2 years ago and 2 years later same garbage.. I call this incompetence my friend. We really need to show these loosers the door. I am perfectly fine assembling a totaly new team and loosing another 20 – 30 matches over the years than sticking around another 5 to 10 years with this garbage.
Anyhow you very well know I am a great Fan of yours and have loved yoru articles over the year. We all wish for the betterment of Pakistan. Sorry I have lost all the confidence in these loosers.
Write another article as we have another senior and another spot fixer in the news today (Danish Kaneria)
Mohsin
I always value your opinion and even now I understand your point of view but its just that I never liked the foreign coaches. As far as the team is concerned we share the views.
The Odi team needs to be rebuilt, we lost Aamir and Asif, then Razzaq, Rana , Sami and Shoaib Akhtar just last year. If it was any other team in the world it would have crumbled but this is the first Odi series we lost under Misbah. In batsmen our combination got screwed because Kamran Akmal and Razzaq used to provide us depth both in bowling and batting. We will have to be patient it will take some time for the team to get settled.
And one thing which we are not accounting for is the quality of English bowling it has been really good.
By the end of the series we will know if Whatmore is coming or not because as far as I know the ball is in his court PCB has hired him and made him the offer he took some time to consult with his family. We will get to see Awais Zia and Hammad Azam in T20s I am a big fan of both players lets hope they perform well and win a permanent spot in the Odi team as well.
Are you following BPL Sami, Kamran Akmal, Nasir Jamshed have played really well.
Some ex players are saying that Sami is at his peak right now they have never seen him bowl so well.
Thanks Waseem. You are correct. I hope team Pakistan can build up from here and fill up the void. I have predicated this day to come since the days Inzimam took over captaincy and gave special preference for his group of players to be selected in the team. Today we have seniors with 8 to 10 years of experience playing international cricket Vs new players who have not more than 2 years and those 2 years also they have been coming in and going out of the team on regular basis.
Its sad to see a nation that is famous to produce so many fast bowlers over the years is reeling to find good combination since quite some time now.
Amir was an exception but we should have had some good left arm bowlers like him on our disposal.
I hear Dave Whatmore will be the next coach. This will get announced after the series.
WasIM Akram and yesterday Imran khan also vouched for his selection. Lets hope now that we let this guy do his job and help him become successful.
http://www.espnstar.com/cricket/international-cricket/news/detail/item754869/Akram-greets-Whatmore-selection/
@ Mohsin
Football is a different game, the main coach plays the role of a strategist the brain who controls the game and dictates all the moves, whereas cricket coach watches the game from the dressing room his role is there to improve the players technically. In America both Basket ball and foot ball coaches are participating in the game from the sidelines by directing the moves. They have an entourage of assistant coaches for on field training each one specializing in a different aspect of the game. The only advantage the foreign coaches have over local coaches is their access to modern analytical tools. I agree with you that a good player won’t necessarily become a good coach but the vice versa is also true in fact for a bad player to become a good coach would be far more difficult.
If we look at the last three foreign coaches they were all disastrous in my opinion.
They didn’t do anything which Pakistani coaches have not accomplished.
What we need is to revive a strong coaching system at the Academy level. The national team can even live without a coach.
Nobody has produced the results which Mudassar Nazar produced for Pakistan at the Academy as a coach, not many people know about his role in the development of players like Mohammad Aamer, Junaid Khan, Umar Akmal, Ahmad Shahzad, Mohammad Talha, Wahab Riaz and many others, only because he is a noncontroversial and non political person.
Can’t argue on that with you Wasim =) . Indeed Mohsin Khan was one stylish opener and had some great knocks both domestically and internationally. My own perception is that it is not always necessary that a great player at his times can become a great coach. For example I would not expect Pakistan batting problems to disappear if Inzi was made the batting coach. Our ex players that become coaches come with their own agenda and are not totally drama or politics free.
I believe we need a coach who is an overall better athlete that can pluck the best talent in the country and at the same time mentally and physically condition a group of 15 players who are just starting their careers in international cricket. I know you are from the U.S and I know that you know the selection criteria that is set for the selection football coaches is not always how many super ball ring one has but sheer coaching experience. Dave hands down has more coaching experience then Mohsin Khan that’s for sure.
As far as opening is concerned. Again my perception is that this problem will never solve until the seniors in the team take up the responsibility of stepping up and opening for the team. You can see any team and you will find that the new players generally bat at 4 to 5 position and work their way up the order. In Pakistan is quite the opposite. We tend to put fresh lot to get slaughtered right from the top and never give the youngsters a chance to improve or build their techniques (in other words we set them up for failure). I believe first 10 overs when the ball is moving around and when you are under pressure you need an experience player up there and not a rookie.. (Australia, India , South Africia, Sirilanka all open with their senior players usually ) .
All in all I whole heartedly agree with your comments above. I just feel we need to show players like Malik, Younis and others the door and invite new talent. I believe when that happens it would be a good time to get in a coach like Dave who can train them and give them a fresh start before we also lose them to politics and corruption.
“openers are the main problem and Mohsin is not cut for this challenge”.
Mohsin was one of the good and most stylish openers Pakistani openers how can we say that he is not cut for the job. I agree with you on Younis he should be out of the Odi and T 20 team. Farhat I am not sure as he is doing fine so far, its just that we all love to hate him for some reason. Its Hafeez who is not working.
We used to have a pretty strong tail at one time now they are all bunnies. We will have to develop proper all rounders until then we will struggle with these players.
This is not a very good team for shorter version.
Opening pair has always been an issue with Pakistan and will remain like that unless we get a foreign coach who can teach these youngsters how to play the new ball and show them to get a grip on nerves while under pressure. These are some reason why preciously we need Dave. Mohsin Khan is not cut out for this challenge. He is taking advantage of the fact that Pakistan is playing close to home on a sub-continent style pitch and above all has a slight better management after Mr Butt left. Wait till this team goes and play on fast track pitches . I will tell you right now they will fold like a deck of cards.
We need to strengthen our middle that has always won us games. How can you not mention Younis Khan. I cant stand his guts and presence. He is the most rubbish player I have seen for quite some time now. You give him a totally dead track He will score a century anything more than that he cant even score in double figures. I don’t know why would they take out Taufeeq Umar who was doing good and has good potential. Imran farhat is a leech that continues to suck blood of this team… Misbah can be a good captain for test but he lacks the kick that is needed in one dayers and 50 50′s where you have to have an aggressive approach.