I have had two premonitions about Pakistan’s World Cup 2007 campaign. One, that the squad was perhaps the worst prepared ever for a World Cup. Second, that Inzamam-ul-Haq was too defensive a captain to lead Pakistan to victory.
Both these points stood out as Pakistan was given a thumping by a not-too-strong West Indies in the World Cup opener. For Pakistan, it was a glorious opportunity to start the World Cup on a winning note. But Inzamam kept making those fatal mistakes that has brought our fall so many times in the recent past. He again batted himself low down the order, used his bowlers in a manner that left a lot to be desired and generally was so slow on the uptake that he failed to cash in on the opportunities that presented themselves.
Back home Inzamam had said that he would bat up the order, but here again he stuck to his number five position. The question that I have repeatedly asked is, for how long is Inzi going to lead from the rear? With three wickets gone and not many runs on the board and the pressure of a chase pinning his back to the wall, how many times can he save the side in a rearguard? This tactic may occasionally succeed, but you do not get out of such situations every other day.Then there are selection issues. The combinations that we are using are not appropriate. Take the case of Imran Nazir. He is clearly not equipped to be an opener, for he does not have the temperament or the strokes to negotiate the new ball, especially when it is wobbling around at good pace. This exactly was the reason why Shahid Afridi was pushed down the order. So why are we indulging in an experiment that has already been tried and turned out to be a failure.
And we have a world class batsman who happens to be the captain and who insists at coming at five when either others had done the hard work or to the team’s chagrin already perished.Almost similar was the case with bowling combinations, not to mention the timing and manner in which the bowlers were used.
Mohammad Sami, one of the fastest in the world and who had bowled so well in the practice games, was consigned to the bench. So was the all-rounder Azhar Mahmood. Rana Naveed was preferred over them. Naveed does not have Sami’s pace to trouble the batsmen on the Caribbean wickets and his recent form has been quite poor. In the crucial slog overs, it baffles me that while one over of our best bowler Umar Gul’s was not consumed, Naveed was brought on. He was hit all over the park as West Indies scored 57 in the last five overs.
Though vital catches were missed, yet Pakistan got three wickets for 70-odd. That was the time when Inzamam should have applied the pressure. Instead neither Umar Gul nor Danish Kaneria - who kept out from the limited-overs cricket clearly looked rusty - were used in an attacking manner. As a result, Brian Lara and Marlon Samuels prospered in a 91-run stand that made the chase that much difficult before Dwayne Smith ensured a strong finish.The champion teams do not allow opposition to get away with once they have the sniff; their captains have the instinct to go for the kill. Sadly, at such occasions, Inzamam goes into a shell and we end up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. After this rather timid display, if Pakistan still harbours hope of making it to the semis, the captaincy would have to be spot on and our first choices in both batting and bowling far better. It is clear that Younis Khan - despite the utterly reckless manner in which he threw his wicket away - and Mohammad Hafeez are our best bets as openers with Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam following them in the order.
In bowling, instead of denting Sami’s confidence, Pakistan would need to back him to the hilt and use Kaneria as an offensive weapon - like we used to with Abdul Qadir in the 1970s and Australians with Shane Warne until recently - and not merely to stop the flow of runs in the middle overs. The task would still be uphill, for we would be carrying two points less to the Super Eight from this round. A setback such as this would be that much harder to overcome for the opposition we face in Super Eight is in most cases far more accomplished than West Indies. Link: http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/mar-2007/15/sports1.php
I agree with Imran on most issues
Inzi’s lack of aggression which was so evident during most of last year
Sami’s inexplicable omission
Not attacking when Windies were 70-odd for three
Inclusion of Rana Chacha and Imran Nazir - both are useless
Inzi not batting at no.4
I think Imran wants to see the following team play:
1- Mohammad Hafeez 2- Younis Khan 3- Yousuf 4- Inzi 5- Malik 6- Afridi (after next match) 7- Akmal 8- Azhar 9- Sami 10- Gul 11- Kaneria
This seems like the best combination in the circumstances, batting depth till 8 (Sami is no mug either), 7 bowling options - 3 seamers (Sami, Gul and Azhar) and 4 spinners (Kaneria, Afridi, Hafeez and Malik)
Re: "Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory" - Imran Khan
Hafeez kia kar raha hain?
Can anybody tell me why the worst opener in ODIs (in major teams) has made a comfy spot for himslef at the top?
People keep bashing Nazir. If Nazir fails, at least he hasn't eaten up too many deliveries. If he partially succeeds, he lays the platform with a nice quick cameo. If he succeeds, admittedly unlikely, then we have a potentially matchwinning innings.
Hafeez is only in the team for 10 overs of offspin. Fine, use him as a bowler. Just make sure he doesn't bat above Rana.
Re: "Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory" - Imran Khan
We made a huge mistake by including Imran Nazir in the world cup squad. Now he can keep messing up and we have no replacement for him. Despite ehsaan's reservations (who i know hates Salman Butt), Butt would have been a better choice as an opener. Of all the openers we have tried so far, he is the only one who passes the 'temperament' test and can go on to play a long innings. It was he (when in form) and Shoaib Malik who were responsible for Pakistan's surge in 2005. Unfortunately for us, he went severely out of form, and we spent the last half of 2006 on the hopeless Imran Farhat and Imran Nazir!
Re: "Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory" - Imran Khan
Hafeez kia kar raha hain?
Can anybody tell me why the worst opener in ODIs (in major teams) has made a comfy spot for himslef at the top?
People keep bashing Nazir. If Nazir fails, at least he hasn't eaten up too many deliveries. If he partially succeeds, he lays the platform with a nice quick cameo. If he succeeds, admittedly unlikely, then we have a potentially matchwinning innings.
Hafeez is only in the team for 10 overs of offspin. Fine, use him as a bowler. Just make sure he doesn't bat above Rana.
It's not just the runs but also how many overs you survive. Hafeez looks more assured than Nazir, besides, he compensates for a lot with his excellent bowling. I dont know if you were noticing, but he has been taking 2-3 wickets in nearly every game.
Re: "Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory" - Imran Khan
We made a huge mistake by including Imran Nazir in the world cup squad. Now he can keep messing up and we have no replacement for him. Despite ehsaan's reservations (who i know hates **Salman Butt), Butt would have been a better choice as an opener. Of all the openers we have tried so far, he is the only one who passes the 'temperament' test and can go on to play a long innings. **It was he (when in form) and Shoaib Malik who were responsible for Pakistan's surge in 2005. Unfortunately for us, he went severely out of form, and we spent the last half of 2006 on the hopeless Imran Farhat and Imran Nazir!
Agree with you 200%. In hindsight it was a huge mistake to take Imran Farhat to South Africa. If Pakistan had taken Salman Butt instead, I am pretty sure he would have impressed everyone enough to merit selection in our World Cup squad.
Yes he did go thru a rough patch in early 2006 (who does n’t) but I am certain that if Pakistan had taken him to SA instead of Imran Farhat, he would have done better than Farhat.
Re: "Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory" - Imran Khan
just my opinion, but apart from 5-6 special innings, inzi rarely led from front since becoming captain. his priority is more towards maintaining harmony within the team than getting results.
rather than a defensive mindset, he has developed a spiritual mindset whereby at the the end of the day, religous acheivement carries more weight any temporary match. i can just imagine what kind of prep talk goes before the innings:
"bhayon dil laga ker khialna, mager yeh nah bhoolna keh akhrat main yeh sawal nahi kia jai ga keh kitnay match jitai ya kitni wickets leen"
mods, i dont want to bring religon into this, buts lets face it, some players in our team are well on their way to becoming stoics, where cricket isnt all that important in the larger spectrum. and this imo will set a bad precedent for junior players.
Re: "Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory" - Imran Khan
^Inzi is not a tactician. He'll never win us games like Crowe or Border could, not with his captaincy that is. But he does bring unity and that's quite an achievement. Maybe Younis should give him more advice on the field like Gul's overs for example.
As for his batting, he should bat at 4 but that does pose a slight problem. Yousuf is not a slogger so he can't bat too low. This means that Younis will have to go up as opener and that may result in one of our best batsmen being uncomfortable.
His comfort is the reason Akmal is still in the team. If he could keep and bat, it would allow us to play another batter instead of Akmal.
Re: "Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory" - Imran Khan
Imran Khan hit the nail on the head!! His view is very much sensible. I applaud his views before the match and after the match as well.
I don't know why we took Hafeez instead of Salman Butt. Hafeez has played some 40 odd games with an avg. of 19.2. This is quite interesting comparing to Salman Butt who had an avg. of about 32 or 33. Still, I don't know what the hell goes around in Hafeez's mind. He played some 25 balls for his 11 than once again, out of no where, he plays a loose shot for no reason.
I don't know but had the catch been taken by Younis Khan, the total would have been around 200 but once again, Pakistan is as unpredictable as ever.
The bowlers did their job but the batting line up once again plummeted. Kamran Akmal is going downhill like a car on a slope. Can't say much about him. But once again, Inzi taking a defensive approach. I just can't understand that why he bats so low in the order when we need him top of the batting chart. He is perhaps the only player after Younis and Yousuf who play fast bowling well. Just don't know why Inzi waits for things to happen rather than making things happening.
Hope we learn from this mistake and blow out Zim and Ireland and then take an attacking approach to the Super 8 round. And yea, we deeply missed Shoaib Akhtar and Asif. No doubt about that!!
Re: “Defensive mindset snatches defeat from jaws of victory” - Imran Khan
Imran alway makes good points. Inzi’s low batting order choice and negative post toss selection as well as bowling strategies are well taken by the general public. Why? Because cricket fanatics want Pakistan to win!!
However, he missed one important avenue of this situation that the Pakistan team finds itself in today.
Inzimam is not a Captain by choice rather by default for our current PCB.
Which in itself has a lot to do with how the team is right now. A bunch of top class gifted and talented players that can’t win against the top teams consistently. PCB egos will not allow a hot head like Younis to lead right now. If they wanted a better captain they should have removed Inzi well in advance. Inzi is Inzi. You can’t change innate behaviour. Full Stop.
Coming back to Inzimam’s leadership and the team prospect. I think he should quiet the criticism by saying he has the stomach flu or something from now on or break his back and just sit out the rest of the matches untill maybe we are in the Semis.
Let Younis lead “FROM THE FRONT” as Mr. Khan proposes. And lets see how far we get. If he takes the team to the Finals. Point made by the critics.
If he shrivels and collapses. We know there is more to this farce then just Inzi’s leadership.
Yes ppl will jump on me by saying I am suggesting suicide for the team at this stage. But lets face it. Most ppl are predicting doomsday already for Pakistan Cricket. This is not that atleast. It is a change in “STRATEGY” (tongue in cheek:hoonh: )
I rest my case.:snooty:
Imran Nazir got out after hitting a six…Butt would have got out without troubling the scorers.