When the last sun of this year 2023 will be setting, this year too Pakistan Cricket Will leave with some unpleasant memories.
Because Pakistan could not show any special performance in cricket like in other areas of life.
The year ends with the scar and shock of a second consecutive loss to Australia.
Cricket is the unofficial official and public sport of Pakistan. Majority of the people of Pakistan understand cricket as the meaning of sport.
For this reason, due to the public interest in cricket, the governing body of cricket, PCB, is the most discussed and criticized.
It may be the only profitable company in the country but with its rich income, its styles are lavish.
National team performance
If seen, the performance of the national team this year was mixed.
Pakistan started the year with a Test match against New Zealand. Pakistan couldn’t build a suitable pitch on their own soil and in what should have been an easy Test win, Sarfaraz Ahmed’s century barely drew.
The batting situation was such that Abrar Ahmad and Naseem Shah had to play the last five overs in darkness to avoid defeat.
At the end of the Test series, New Zealand also played a series of three one-day matches. Pakistan won the first match, but Pakistan lost the next two matches.
In this series, New Zealand presented the best example of modern cricket.
After two months, the New Zealand team came to Pakistan again in April to play a series of one-day matches, but nine of its key players did not come.
Due to busyness in IPL, New Zealand’s series win against the B team was easy, but those who talk about the quality of cricket did not give any importance to this victory of Pakistan.
Pakistan visited Sri Lanka in July this year and played two Test matches in both the matches with one-sided wins.
This win boosted the morale of the team and filled the record books of the board, but the series win did not improve the team’s ability as the Sri Lankan team could not play their traditional game.
The Sri Lankan team did not look united in this series due to mutual conflicts and factionalism.
Asia Cup
Pakistan got their first win in the Asia Cup when the team defeated Nepal and Bangladesh by a huge margin in Pakistan and reached Sri Lanka to play the second stage of the tournament.
The team that piled on the runs against Nepal barely got a last-ball win against Afghanistan, while India and Sri Lanka knocked Pakistan out of the tournament with easy defeats.
This was the first alarm. Which was ignored by the team management and the full result came in the World Cup.
World Cup 2023
current year World Cup Pakistan was among the top teams, according to most experts, Pakistan was a finalist, but contrary to all expectations, Pakistan could not reach the finals or even the semi-finals.
The team’s batting and bowling was substandard and defeats against a team like Afghanistan relegated them to the lower ranks.
Although England’s performance was also poor, the dispersal of Pakistani batsmen on the pitches of the subcontinent was beyond comprehension.
The bowling has also not been that impressive. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan and Usama Mir disappointed as Pakistan lost the important match due to their weak bowling.
Pakistan could only win comfortably against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka while the win against New Zealand was due to rain.
In this Dec. 14, 2023 photo, Pakistani bowler Shaheen Afridi bowls to Australian batsman David Warner (AFP)
Consecutive loss to Australia
The tour of Australia is still going on and the Sydney Test is still to come, but as per their tradition, Pakistan have lost both the Tests played in Perth and Melbourne.
Pakistan looked to dominate Australia in several phases in the Melbourne Test, but the hosts patiently pursued Pakistan’s bowling and batting and kept their nerve.
While Pakistan could not pursue the target due to psychological weakness.
Australia’s Pat Cummins bowled brilliantly but the target of 317 should have been met on an easy pitch.
Once again the Pakistani batting cheated and lost the Melbourne Test despite coming close to victory.
Defeated by Afghanistan
Pakistan this year one T-Twenty The series was played from Afghanistan to the United Arab Emirates. Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi In his absence, the team suffered a series defeat.
This defeat raised questions on Pakistani talent.
Unlucky year for Babur Azam
Despite being ranked first and sometimes second in the ICC rankings Babur Azam A total failure, he could only score 204 runs in nine innings in Test cricket.
Which did not include any centuries or half-centuries. Pakistan did not lose a Test under his leadership but was sacked despite two wins.
He scored 1065 runs in 25 ODIs this year, including two centuries and ten fifties.
But he could not score a century in an important tournament like the World Cup, which was expected of him.
Due to his not making a century, Pakistan’s batting remained muted. And their own performance kept falling.
He was somewhat successful in T20. He managed to maintain his influence with 446 runs in 17 matches and a century.
Pakistan’s Amir Jamal celebrates after taking the wicket of Australia’s Alex Carey on the second day of the Test in Perth, Dec. 15, 2023. (AP)
Pakistan’s batting
Saud Shakeel led Pakistan’s batting this year with 537 runs in five matches, including a double century against Sri Lanka.
While in ODI cricket after Babar, Mohammad Rizwan scored 1023 runs which included a century.
Pakistan’s batting has performed well apart from the World Cup. But Pakistani bowling could not impress.
Although Pakistan’s bowling has been successful against New Zealand and Sri Lanka this year, it has been substandard in the World Cup Asia Cup.
In the Melbourne Test in Australia’s tour, the bowling was excellent and the hard work of the bowlers brought them close to victory but the batting could not keep up.
In 2023, Abrar Ahmed took the most wickets for Pakistan in Test cricket with 15 wickets, while Shaheen Shah Afridi topped the list with 42 wickets in ODIs.
A change of captain
After the worst performance in the World Cup, PCB relieved Babar Azam from the captaincy and appointed Shan Masood as the captain.
The first series for Shaun has proved to be an iron pick in Australia.
Captaining a weak and substandard team is a tough test for Shaun Masood and he has lost two Tests but his positive style of cricket has impressed everyone and despite the defeat, experts are calling him a capable captain.
Inzamam-ul-Haq scandal
For the first time in the PCB’s history, the disclosure of a chief selector becoming a shareholder in a players’ promotion marketing company exposed the board’s oversight in important matters.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was the chief selector, is also a shareholder in a company that owns the marketing rights and takes commission from the players.
This is a process that makes the process of selecting players opaque to the chief selector.
The board constituted a committee to investigate the scandal which entered office.
Pakistan players Babar Azam, Shadab Khan and fast bowler Wasim Jr look dejected after Sri Lanka won by two wickets in an Asia Cup match at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September 15, 2023 (AFP/Eshra S Kodekra) )
The affairs of the board could not be improved
In 2023, PCB’s affairs could not improve. Just as the former chairman Ramiz Raja was ousted late last year and Najam Sethi became the chairman of a management committee, in the middle of the year, due to political pressure, Zaka Ashraf became the chairman.
This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).
Both of them were given the responsibility of holding new elections by the Prime Minister, but instead of elections, both of them started taking decisions considering the board as their fiefdom.
Although the foundation of the ICC’s membership is a regular board free from government interference, the ICC has also turned a blind eye.
The board is operating on an ad hoc basis at the time of writing. Although the provincial coordination ministry has warned the board not to take any decisions other than day-to-day matters, the board chairman blew the directive.
Domestic cricket
PSL was the most important event this year.
Lahore Qalandars had won the title for the second time, but the management of PSL remained under criticism for not having big names among the international players.
Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is the most important domestic event of the country which was won by Karachi under the leadership of Sarfaraz Ahmed.
Asad Shafiq played a major role in the win in Karachi by scoring the most runs. Karachi also won the National T20 Cup under the leadership of Asad Shafiq. Thus, Karachi was at the top this year.
Women’s Cricket
The performance of Pakistan Women’s team has not been very good this year.
Nida Dar was appointed as the new captain. Pakistan played 17 T20 matches in which they won seven and lost ten.
But the most important thing was that Pakistan Women won the series from New Zealand for the first time outside Pakistan, Pakistan won two in the three match series.
Similarly, he also won the one-day match against New Zealand for the first time.
Nida Dar, Sana Fatima and Bisma remained the prominent players.
Join Independent Urdu’s WhatsApp channel for authentic news and current affairs analysis Here Click
#left #unpleasant #memories #Pakistani #cricket
2024-08-29 15:19:09
