It is astonishing that virtually everyone associated with Pakistan’s recent World Cup campaign has expressed satisfaction with their performance. The latest to do so was chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq who did so while stepping down from his position.
Why step down if you’re satisfied with your job? Probably because you’ve been informed that others who employ you weren’t quite satisfied.
How can a Pakistan side be satisfied by a failure to make the knockout stages at the World Cup? Let alone a Pakistan side that has the most talented limited-overs cricketers that the national team has had this decade.
Furthermore, the World Cup alone could’ve been accepted as a tournament where the side put on an average display. What has been reiterated in this space regularly is the fact that that a fifth-place finish at the World Cup came at the cost of a constant downward spiral in the ODI format since the Champions Trophy win in 2017.
Since then Pakistan had been whitewashed by New Zealand, Australia and England and overpowered at the Asia Cup by India – the four World Cup semifinalists. Additionally, Pakistan also lost the ODI series away to South Africa, with the side’s only 50 over success coming against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Sure, the team did play a few good matches at the World Cup, but almost all of them came once they were all but knocked out of the competition. It was when the pressure was at its peak that the team faltered.
Even if the run chases against New Zealand and Afghanistan were commendable – for which Babar Azam and Imad Wasim deserve a lot of credit – they came a little too late for Pakistan to keep their World Cup chances in their own hands.
Mickey Arthur
Such a scenario should see the axing of Coach Mickey Arthur and indeed Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed as well. Both of them have failed to boost Pakistan’s 50-over cricket, and have been cashing in on the Champions Trophy win for the past two years.
Arthur’s failures are epitomized by the fact that the Pakistani side’s fielding – one of the strengths of all teams that he has coached – remains as abysmal as it has been for a while. Meanwhile, Sarfaraz’s limitations as a player overshadow his debatable strengths as a captain.
The duo have combined to do well for Pakistan at the T20 format, without a shadow of a doubt. This is why there are whispers of both getting extensions till next year’s World T20 in Australia. That would be a remarkable self-destructive decision, if it indeed is implemented.
The T20 success for Pakistan does centre around the leadership ability of Sarfaraz, who has proven his 20-over captaincy prowess in the Pakistan Super League as well, where he led Quetta Gladiators to this year’s trophy and back to back finals in 2016-17.
Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq
That is perhaps why Sarfaraz should be retained as the T20 captain till the World T20 next year. However, he has no place in the ODI or Test side, where the Pakistan Cricket Board would need to find a different skipper – or two.
Imad Wasim or Babar Azam could be given the ODI captaincy – the latter if the aim is to make a four year plan till the ODI World Cup in 2023, and the former if the strategy is more open-ended. Similarly, Azhar Ali or Asad Shafiq could be given the Test captaincy, with Babar Azam – who does look like the future captain of the national side, either way – as the understudy.
One must concede that dilly-dallying over removing Sarfaraz as captain hinges around the fact that there are no straightforward replacements in any format for him. However, what seals the deal is the fact that he absolutely does not fit in the Test or ODI sides owing to his batting ability.
For Mickey Arthur, it ought to be farewell no matter who the captain is. If there’s no change at the helm that would simply signify the PCB’s satisfaction with a fifth-place finish at a world event, that came after a run of 10 successive defeats.
