Pakistan Cricket Team Look to get into Winning Habit as they Prepare for England Tour
The Pakistan team would be looking forward to a conciliatory yet moral lifting win today, as they take on Bangladesh to complete their matches at the Asia Cup before packing their bags. The team will then head to England for a long series including Test matches, One dayers as well as T-20 games.
If one takes a deeper look at Pakistan’s two games in Sri Lanka, it becomes quite evident that luck just wasn’t favouring the men in green. Despite doing everything by the book and being good in all the departments of the game, it was the final 2 over’s in both games against Sri Lanka and India, where Pakistan lost their respective matches.
One can perhaps blame the players to a certain extent, as they did not use their dominating positions at different points in the games, to the best that they could have. It was quite evident that they played as individuals, rather than a team. That's an area where the team needs to improve on a lot.
Thus for all the problems Pakistan cricket has had to face in the past couple of months, it is quite refreshing to see that the players have managed to put the past behind them and display some good cricket in the fields of Sri Lanka.
Winning or losing is part of the game and if you ask even the most emotional of cricket fans, they would tend to agree with this fact. However, it is important that their team fights down to the last ball and does not look uninterested and sloppy.
So Pakistan despite their losses, seem to be gaining some momentum in terms of their players getting along with each other. Paceman Shoaib Akhtar, also looks the most disciplined than he has ever been in his international career; both his line and length and his overall attitude. He was reported on saying that he should have been dropped out of the team a lot earlier, so that he would have learnt his lesson and could have returned much earlier back on the team. However better late than never as they say, and thus it proved to be a positive out come from Pakistan’s Asia Cup tour.
Even Shoaib Malik found good form in the game against India after remaining out of the game for so long. His wife, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza was cheering in the stands, showing her full support to her husband. Under the leadership of the versatile Shahid Afridi, the promising victory seems probable; along with in form opener Salman butt and the Akmal brothers, the team looks fairly composed.
Now the only thing lacking is a win under their belts, as Pakistan in their past five one day outings have sadly lost. However, all that is expected to change today, as the men in green will look to comprehensively beat Bangladesh and set a good platform for their England tour. Pakistan’s come back in Cricket is rather tough amidst the well-knitted teams like the South Africans, Australians and West Indies in the England tour. Thus for the sake of dignity it is expected and hoped that Pakistan will be able to muster some of their pride back with conditions that usually support them.
Today’s match will be interesting in a lot of ways; a couple of players that need to be looked at include Imran Farhat, who made his first appearance in a one dayer in more than three years against India. It was part of a great opening partnership alongside Salman Butt, thus it will be interesting to see if he’s really in form and consistent or was it just a pure fluke of luck.
Bangladesh also have a lot to prove as it has been long since they themselves have won or come close to winning a one dayer. They have among their ranks an untested batsman/wicketkeeper in the name of Jahur ul Islam, who could be given a debut today. Also one other fact favouring the Bangladeshi’s is that on their day they can upset any team in the world. However against Pakistan, Bangladesh have lost all their one dayer’s so far played in 2010.
Pakistan will now leave Sri Lanka to go to England, where they will play Australia in two Twenty20’s and two Tests, followed by four Tests, two Twenty20’s and five one dayers against England.
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