What's wrong with Pakistan's Test Team?

Azhar Ali: Struggled against the Zimbabweans

Cricket is a rhythm game; the more flow you are in and the better you play. There was a gap of 4 months between Pakistan’s successful Test series against England and their next Test series against Sri Lanka.

Additionally, there was an elongated gap of 8 months between that series and their next Test series was against South Africa, earlier this year.

Then they waited another 6 months to play Tests against Zimbabwe.

Such scheduling helps no one. You can blame the ICC or other cricket boards all you want for not giving Pakistan a good schedule as per the FTP, but the only one to hold accountable for this is the PCB.

I understand that Pakistan cricket is suffering because they can’t host any team in their own country, but that does not mean that the administrators cannot lobby with other boards to arrange more tours. Especially, when the board has witnessed a rise in the team’s Test performance.

Players like Azhar Ali, who only play Test cricket, suffer even more as they are kept away from international cricket for long periods of time. Azhar has been a pillar for Pakistan in Tests and a key component of their success in the earlier part of Misbah’s captaincy tenure; however he failed miserably in the series against Zimbabwe.

Can you really blame him? He played no cricket at all besides some meaningless domestic ODI games between March and August.

Only the PCB is to be blamed for that.

The fans will continue to cry and complain about Misbah’s captaincy, Hafeez’ non-performance as an opener, the lack of flair of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq but the truth of the matter is that Pakistan cricket is suffering the most because it is not playing enough.

It is not touring enough.

Pakistan can’t host cricket at home, which effects the amount of revenues the board can generate. That impacts the number of development tours that an Under-19 team or a Pakistan A team can make to gain experience of foreign conditions. A lack of international cricket, at home, means that players wait for long periods between tours making them lose their flow.

A greater reliance is put on ODIs to generate funds, which impacts the number of Tests Pakistan plays. This has impacted players like Aamir Sohail and Mohammad Yousuf in the past, and now it is impacting the careers of batsmen like Azhar Ali and Taufeeq Umar.

Amir Sohail once hit 205 in a Test against England at Old Trafford. The commentators likened him to the great Sir Viv Richards. After that series, Pakistan did not play a Test for another 6 months.

Mohammad Yousuf hit the most runs in a calendar year in the history of Test cricket in 2006. He went on to play only 6 Tests over the next 30 months!

So yes, while a defeat against Zimbabwe is sad and embarrassing and humiliating, the players are really not at as much fault as it is being portrayed.

The board, the domestic structure, the international isolation of the country are big reasons for our downfall. The fact that we even manage to win in these times is an achievement.

Hopefully the upcoming tours at “home” in the UAE will bring some smiles back on the faces of Pakistan cricket fans.