EDITORIAL: To the utter disbelief of cricket fans in this country England completed a 3-0 clean sweep to become the first team ever to whitewash Pakistan on its home ground. It was clear right from the start that those managing the cricket affairs had not learned any lessons from past experiences. They kept making slow and turning pitches that favour batters even though our pace bowlers are some of the best in the world. The Rawalpindi stadium pitch was so bad that the Emirates Elite Panel of Match Referees termed it “below average” also giving it a demerit point under the ICC Pitch and Outfield. Yet even though visitors relied on their pace bowlers to take wickets, they walked away with a historic win over the hosts.
Speaking at a post-match presser in Karachi, Babar Azam tried to justify his side’s poor performance by laying the blame on the inclusion in his team of six new inexperienced players over the course of the series, and unavailability, due to injuries, of his main fast bowlers: Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Hassan Ali, and Harris Rauf. That though is not a good enough explanation. Abrar Ahmed, who made his debut in the second test as a ‘mystery leg spinner’ took 17 wickets, proving that provided a chance promising new players can be highly rewarding.
Similarly, Englander’s young leg spinner Rehan Ahmed bagged seven wickets on his debut, whilst Harry Brook, with experience of just one Test behind him, collected as many as 468 runs to earn the match-of the-series award. Nonetheless, Captain Babar Azam and Chief Selector Saqlain Mushtaq seem to have erred in the selection process for giving preference to ‘seniority’ and ‘experience’ over talent some young players had exhibited in the Pakistan Premier League or the domestic circuit. It also needs to be recognized that although an exceptionally outstanding cricketer with the bat, Babar with his defensive mindset has consistently demonstrated in all formats that he lacks what it takes to be a leader. He is unable to make field adjustments and bowling changes as and when required. Like the great Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli he should give up captaincy to focus on batting.
Before the upcoming visit of New Zealanders, Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Najam Sethi and all others concerned need to sit down and figure out the reasons why the team made such a poor showing and device a winning strategy. An obvious place to start is the insipid pitches in all our stadiums.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022