How the Asia cup was lost?

How the Asia Cup was lost?

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Published by the daily “Pakistan Observer” Tuesday, April 22, 2014

– THERE is no shame in going down fighting. As they say, if fate has ordained defeat for you, give it a good fight. However, any team is as good as its leader. And there can’t be a better saying to describe the importance of a leader, than the one associated with Alexander the great, quoted as below:

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

What happened in the Asia Cup final at Dhaka on Saturday, 8 March, 2014 is a classic example of mental bankruptcy of the Pakistani cricket teams think tank, or the tour management committee, consisting of Messrs Zaheer Abbas, Zakir Khan, Moin Khan and Misbah ul Haq.

At the out set, two basic and important decisions (team selection and the decision to bat first) were wrong, where we made sure that the match was lost, even before a ball was bowled.

Always the basics of team selection stipulates that only fit players are selected. The whole world knew that Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Sharjeel Khan and Shahid Afridi were not 100% fit. If at all, we had to take chance with an unfit player, only Shahid Afridi was the person, where the gamble was worth taking. Otherwise, Suhaib Maqsood and other two fit players viz., Bilawal Bhatti and Anwer Ali should have played, for the unfit Umar Gul and Junaid Khan.

Now, coming to the batting first decision, again the whole world knew that we earlier won very close matches against India and Bangladesh, by chasing the target. May be the long list of unfit players included in the team, was the reason for the surprise decision of batting first, so that the injuries does not further aggravates, in fielding first.

After the disastrous top batting order collapse (exclusive responsibility of which falls on Zaheer Abbas, the chief batting consultant), Misbah and Fawad Alam, almost consecutively played four maiden overs, which practically reduced our innings to 46 overs. Such type of defensive approach is never adopted in an ODI match, under any circumstances; because of its limited overs nature. Yes, Test matches are saved under such type of circumstances, but in an ODI match, game is only played for victory; and victory can not be achieved by playing record number of dot balls, even if there is a collapse. How can any team forget the adage that offence is the best defence.

Furthermore, unfit Shahid Afridi was not played for his bowling prowess. Obviously, he was included, keeping in consideration his tremendous batting form. As such, at least for the last five overs Fawad Alam should have been called back, as retired hurt, to allow Afridi to have a go. Afridi was our nuclear weapon and the enemy was allowed to conquer us with, worlds most potent weapon in our arsenal, unused. We could not have given a bigger gift to our enemy, that too, in the most important final match.

In the bowling department, we perhaps wrongly believed that only one fit bowler i.e., Saeed Ajmal will single handedly take ten wickets in his ten overs. After all, the Sri Lankans were not in the finals for nothing.

The most pathetic and abysmal performances were given in the fielding and wicket keeping departments. Our teams fielding just gave a look of a third rate club team, if compared with the fielding performance of the Sri Lankan team.

As such, not only Mr. Shoaib Muhammad, but all those PCB stalwarts, who selected and appointed him as a fielding coach, must be debarred from handling any independent and important assignments in future. Pakistani team gave a much better performance in the fielding department, during the last UAE series matches. This proves that our fielding coach practically contributed in the down fall of the teams fielding levels. Hence, he also deserves to be banned from any future PCB assignment.

Misbah ul Haq, has again proved that he is not at all capable to lead Pakistani team to the victory podium of the 2015 ODI World Cup. He is being retained as captain, at our own peril. If Sachin Tendulkar, Younis Khan, Kumar Sangakara and so many other legends can play under their juniors, why can’t Misbah ul Haq be asked to play under a junior player?

Tags: My Views