Pakistan’s recent Cricket Form
Pakistan gears up for yet another go at Australia. Will it be 14th time lucky for Pakistan? Well the signs are not that great. Pakistan cricket has been in utter turmoil in recent months, after a disastrous tour of Australia where they lost everything, 3 test matches, 5 ODIS, and a T-20. Several players were handed bans following an inquiry into the team’s performance. Only to be overturned after a few weeks.
Later Shahid Afridi was named Captain for all formats and made to take back his test retirement after 4 years. There were a number of young faces and a rejuvenated team. The T-20 World Cup saw a mixed campaign but the semi final loss against Australia actually showed signs of unity and potential in Afridi’s young team.
After an unsuccessful Asia cup Pakistan managed a 2 nil T-20 win against Australia and once again things started looking better. The first test match against Australia though took them pretty much back to square one. Once again, a change of Captain and talks of bringing back the old players began. When will this stop one can never say. This time though things were a bit different, Shahid Afridi decided to once again call it a day in his test career. His reasoning though was quite logical, the all rounder said that he just does not have the temperament to play test cricket and is wasting a spot in the team. He said that a specialist should be included in the test team rather than a part timer. So Muhammad Yousuf came into the frame, there were rumours that PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt was having talks with Yousuf to take back his retirement and join the team, and it is believed that Yousuf may actually be part of the team during the 4 match test series against England.
For now though Salman Butt, who, was deputy to Afridi, has been handed the reins. Butt is a man with a sensible head on his shoulders and has been, in recent times, Pakistan’s best batsman in all formats. He was the top scorer for Pakistan in both innings of the first test against Australia. Salman is young and has a lot of cricket ahead of him. While talking to media he said that if he is to take the team forward he needs to be given a longer stint and proper time to lead the team. That speaks volumes of his maturity and sense of the game, but in a country like Pakistan one can never tell what will happen next. For now though he has a monumental task at his hands, to beat Australia in a test match, something Pakistan has not been able to do in the last 13 attempts.
The irony here is that Afridi decided to hang his test boots saying that a specialist should be in the team, and still the man most likely to replace him is also at best a part timer. Shoaib Malik is the man expected to play in the 2nd test in place of Afridi. Malik started his career as an out and out off spinner who could bat a bit. Later his bowling sort of faded away and he started to concentrate on his batting. He has a test average of below 40 and has just 19 test wickets to his name. So was the sacrifice by Afridi in vane? Well it would depend on what Shoaib Malik can come up with in the 2nd test.
As for Salman Butt, let’s hope that the burden of captaincy does not affect his batting form, because if he also joins the list of underperformers, Pakistan would have a whole new problem on their hands.
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