After all, there is
something in this Australian 'attitude' that teams around the world want to set
an example for themselves. Especially the teams that have never won a Test
series in Australia are constantly vying for the realization of this Australian
'dream'.
Pakistan is
definitely at the top of the list, not here for years, but for decades dreaming
of becoming a team like Australia.
On Thursday evening,
when Cummins decided to declare the innings shortly after the tea break, many
were shocked. Not only the general fans, some cricket experts were also
surprised that this would not become a crisis of overconfidence.
Although Australia
have seen aggressive captains like Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting
before Cummins, they may not have taken the risk of declaring an innings on
such a low total as the statistics say nothing, not even the slightest bit of
today's Pakistani wickets. Not sure when to do it.
And then in the
Karachi Test, Cummins had seen the spectacle before his eyes, but Cummins set
the standard for the Australian 'attitude' where he was so optimistic about his
victory that the strength of the rival batting line and the bitterness of the
Karachi Test Don't even think about the experience.
Usman Khawaja is
quite right to say that he did not bat on the wicket of slow bounce all his
life. The argument is that the Lahore pitch has not changed its mood over time
and has maintained its reputation for laziness.
After Cummins had
done a disservice to Pakistani batting in the first innings, his determination
was even more determined that he would trap Pakistan at any cost on this
crumbling pitch. However, on the note on which the day ended yesterday evening,
the door of victory was the preferred option for Pakistan.
The problem,
however, was that the pitch with the slowest bounce was going to get slower on
the fifth day, and as the ball got older, the grip on the wicket was going to
increase for both spinners and seamers.
There were signs of
Mitchell Stark's run-up getting deeper and deeper for Nathan Lane.
The additional and
self-inflicted trouble for Pakistan was that they dropped Faheem Ashraf instead
of resting Hassan Ali. This was such a serious folly that it is difficult to
justify it.
Because Pakistan had
already won the series against South Africa earlier in the year, Faheem
Ashraf's batting in both the matches had played a key role in getting the
innings out of the crisis.
After dropping
Faheem Ashraf here, it was clear that there was no reliable batsman in
Pakistan's last five numbers.
And then after Fawad
Alam's recent form, the team management should have realized the value of
Fahim.
Also read.
Australia's victory
over Pakistan in Lahore Test, series also in the name of the visiting team
"I don't know
about Khan, but Australia dropped its address, now it's Pakistan's turn."
Fawad Alam's style
of standing is again under discussion
But that is not to
say that Pakistan has not devised a good strategy to deal with this special
situation.
When it was clear that
Fawad Alam was going through bad form, Muhammad Rizwan could have been sent to
the top who was more confident and in better form after scoring a century in
Karachi.
The result was that
the review that Muhammad Rizwan should have taken was wasted by Fawad Alam
without any reason and more surprising was the attitude of Babar Azam who
insisted on taking the review to save the last authentic batsman with him. Did
not give
In such a situation,
it is appropriate to take a review without any reason, but the shock of Fawad
Alam's review was probably not yet on his mind that Rizwan also returned to the
pavilion.
But still it would
be an exaggeration to say that if Rizwan had taken the review, Pakistan could
have saved the match. Yes, some lives would have been lost in the fight and
perhaps even a draw would have been possible if Azhar Ali had not been the
victim of this controversial decision of the TV umpire.
But all these
possibilities are a reflection of the specific defense mentality that Pakistan
is struggling to get rid of.
Because Pakistan's
ultimate dream is to make a team like Australia and to cultivate the same
attitude.
But the point is
that with such a batting approach, Pakistan cannot win a Test match in any
region of the world as we have seen here.
The irony is that
Mohammad Yousuf, who has been critical of Misbah's tick-tack, is currently the
batting coach himself, but the average run rate under his supervision has
fallen since Misbah's coaching days.
Until the Pakistani
middle order learns to run against pace bowling, the dream of playing in the
championship final is nothing more than a madman's dream.
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