Mohammad Yousuf Ready for Return
After another loss to the Australians in test cricket, Pakistan cricket finds itself surrounded by familiar unpredictability as captain of the test team http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 thought that one test was one too many for him and that the longest format of the game is simply not meant for his caviller approach to the game that is at times extremely reckless.
Vice-captain for the three month long tour of England, Salman Butt has been elevated to test cricket with the left-handed opening batsman set to lead the team in the second test of the series against Australia set to start in Headingly Leeds in two days time.
Just before the announcement of Butt as captain, speculations were rife in the media that Mohammad Yousuf the former captain who announced his retirement from the game some two months ago is set to return to the national fold.
In yet another dramatic move, the bearded batsman announced on the launch of his new meat franchise in Karachi that he was ready to take back his retirement if the team needed him, in the wake of the limited batting options in the country especially for the test series against England which would be another acid test for the Pakistanis.
Yousuf simply said that he was ready to return if asked by the Pakistan Cricket Board, and beyond that he was not concerned about who was leading and who was not.
The world record holder for most runs in a calendar year for a test batsman, amused the journalists present at the launch by saying that his opinion was what the media’s was on the appointment of Salman Butt, meaning that he was bewildered just like the media and the rest of the country.
Yousuf struggled to answer questions from some of the journalists who were clearly perturbed by the embarrassing run of test defeats at the hands of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, in which five were under his captaincy.
Yousuf who averages 53 runs per innings in test cricket, said that in the early 2000’s the Aussies were extremely tough to beat and on many occasions luck deserted Pakistan which resulted in defeats from seemingly impregnable positions.
He revealed that Australian batsman Justin Langer had confessed to Yousuf, Waqar Younis and current Australian captain Ricky Ponting that he had nicked a delivery from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 and Langer took them to the third highest run chase in test cricket at the time.
He added that luck similarly deserted the team in the Sydney test earlier this year which http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 had in their grasp before they succumbed to the pressure of chasing in the fourth innings of the match, needing 170 odd runs for a win on the final day.
Yousuf mentioned that if the team plays with determination and unity then they can surmount the Aussies and end their winning streak, which is not an indication of the strength of the current team, rather an indication of the lack of application of the Pakistani batsmen that time and again blow up golden opportunities of winning.
He added that the PCB needs to be careful about over exposure of T20 cricket that is ruining the temperament of the batsmen who are simply incapable of defending their wicket when the need arises.
Yousuf concluded that it was easy for any tail-end batsman to slog a few balls, rather than blocking even ten balls properly, and that is the state of Pakistani batsmen who are just adamant on attacking on spending enough time on the crease, what ever the situation be.
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