I grew up watching Imran Khan and Javed Miandad. I enjoyed the best of Pakistan cricket in the 90s. Especially in the ODIs, they were one of the most exciting teams in world cricket. Gradually, the glory days of Pakistan cricket have waned and what I watch these days is a team which can only deliver the goods rarely and plenty of crap most of the times. In the 50-over formats, they are nothing but a butt of jokes at present.
Watching the Pakistan ODI side, you always get the impression, they are still stuck in the past and despite the euphoria regarding Twenty20 format and Leagues, Pakistan’s approach towards the format remains old fashioned and funny. At times, you remain clueless about what Pakistan are doing in the middle. By stating about the change they stick with the same failed players of the past and still, I have not understood, how can you change things with these failed jokers.
When you see below average players like Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad is batting at the top, you can guess, how pathetically this team would fare and when you still notice the skipper to follow the path of a pragmatic stupid named Misbah-ul-Haq, you can only guess, this team has a bleak future in 50-over format. In West Indies, Sarfraz Ahmed gave me the impression of an attacking captain and one of those captains, who can handle pressure and has a head on his shoulder. But at Edgbaston, he left me speechless with his ideas.
He hinted about ‘out-of-the-box’ idea and boy, he did deliver everyone this with funny field settings and bowling changes. Opening the bowling with a spinner under overcast conditions was a sheer stupidity and a ploy which Misbah tried with Lord Hafeez. How can you ignore the importance of a pace bowler in such conditions and even when a pace bowler was introduced, the slip cordon was relaxed. And, it is needless to state, sloppy fielding and Pakistan are always synonymous
Again, let me tell you one thing straightforward, cricketers like Imad Wasim are those players who can trigger the taamashas in PSL and Twenty20 games and are overrated customers who can be of no use in longer formats. Glorifying the products of Twenty20 and Leagues would never change the fortunes of Pakistan cricket in 50-over formats.
This Pakistan team is lucky that someone like Imran Khan is not around and they are surrounded by a bunch of jokers who can only watch this team go down in 50-over format due to the toxic effects of Misbah-ul-Haq and do nothing. Had Imran been there, players like Hafeez, Shehzad, Imad and co would have been either serving tea at PCB office or cleaning the toilet of PCB.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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