When the Pakistan cricket group performs groups comparable to Zimbabwe, the West Indies and Bangladesh, it normally dominates them. Possibilities of embarrassment are slim to none; victories nearly all the time assured.
When it clashes with groups its personal dimension comparable to New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka, it could go both method relying on the place the sequence is being performed, what the circumstances are, yada yada yada. Who dominates, who does not, it is a toss-up.
When its path crosses with true heavyweights comparable to Australia, issues naturall have a higher propensity to go ugly … or uglier.
However true carnage is witnessed solely when Pakistan comes into contact with its best enemy: Pakistan itself. Assume Venom to the Spiderman.
It was this venom that bonded with the Greenshirts through the Asia Cup 2018 and will utterly take over its host through the two-match Check sequence with the Aussies that begins right this moment.
Those that assume it was the brilliance of the Afghans, the Bangladeshis and the Indians who did what was finished to the Pakistani group final month, assume once more. The Afghans didn’t make Pakistan take a flawed squad to the UAE, the Bangladeshis didn’t power Pakistan to stay with choices that weren’t working, and the Indians actually didn’t put a gun to their heads to make schoolboy errors.
It was all Pakistan’s personal doing. Which is why the duty forward appears much more daunting than it must be. If confronted with a brilliant robust opponent, you may be taught from defeats, analyse errors, tweak technique, and repeat till in the future you do what was as soon as undoable.
However what do you do when the true opponent is you your self. How do you treatment the most cancers that’s rooted deep inside your system, and sometimes relapses: typically within the type of unfathomable discarding of Azhar Ali, inexplicable benching of Junaid Khan after which illogical recalling of Mohammad Hafeez.
The evil inside, the alter ego, the malignant development, no matter you may wish to name it additionally insists on making Check cricketers out of run-and-gun of us comparable to Fakhar Zaman and Faheem Ashraf. It is akin to asking Usain Bolt to win the Boston Marathon.
Whereas these two with probably the most blatant of short-format methods are within the Check squad for the Australia sequence, Sami Aslam, a batman made for the longer format is just not. If the argument in opposition to him is that he failed in one of many two innings of a current tour match in opposition to Australia, then what about Abid Ali who scored 50s in each the innings?
If current type is not the standards, and if temperament and method is not the criterion, then what’s? How is it determined that Shan Masood, who had by no means performed an ODI, must be taken to the Asia Cup, solely to go unused after which dropped for the Check sequence, for which he too appears a greater match.
Let’s not even open the can of worms that’s Fawad Alam.
When you could have persistent dilemmas comparable to these, who your opponents are and what the format is develop into irrelevant. With all due respect to the Aussies, they don’t matter right here. Not as a result of they’re the weakest Aussie facet ever assembled throughout all codecs in all sports activities however as a result of their destiny, like Pakistan’s, rests on which model of Pakistan reveals up within the sequence.
Iron Man or Iron Maniac, Incredible 4 or Frightful 4, Spiderman or Venom or Champions Trophy or Asia Cup. what would Pakistan be like within the sequence in opposition to Australia, it unravels right this moment.