Pakistan's Capitulation

Well, the Pakistan Australia Test series seems to have been an anticlimax at the least. I expected the Pakistan team to come out all guns firing in the Melbourne and Sydney tests - after the expected loss in Perth. However, despite some sort of a struggle in the Melbourne test, it has been a fairly one-sided series and the result 3-0 speaks for itself.

The fact that their Captain and worldclass batsman Inzamam was out of action for most of the series, did not help matters. However, the bigger problem facing Pakistan at this point of time is the fact that this Pakistani side probably has the lowest level of talent seen in a Pakistani side for some time. That the below average (by Pakistani standards) talented side has very little international experience compounds the problem. I do not recall a Pakistani side going into a test match with only one fit wicket taking bowler as it happened at Sydney. The result was that this one bowler - Danish Kaneria - ended up bowling 50 out of a total of 118 overs and taking 7 wickets in the process. No test team can win test matches - let alone against the best side in the world with this strategy.

What perplexes me is the lack of fast bowling fire power at Pakistans disposal currently. Shoaib Akhtar is the only genuine wicket taking bowler that Pak has and he is prone to injuries and attitude meltdowns. Sami's test bowling average of 45 plus tells a story - he has certainly not lived up to the hype and promise he generated when he started out. Khalil and Asif have gone wicketless in their respective first tests. Navedul Hassan and Ifthikar Anjum remain honest triers at best. Danish Kaneria appears to be the only standout bowler on this tour and he is clearly overworked.

The only positive to emerge from this series from the batting point of view is quite obviously -Salman Butt. It remains to be seen if he can mantain his form and not fizzle out a la some of his predecessors in his role - Imran Nazir, Taufeeq Omar, Imran Farhat and even Yasir Hameer - who incidentally has yet to score a test hundred after his two hundreds on debut against Bangladesh.

The one day seried hopefully will be evenly contested - as the Pakistanis have continued to be competitive in the shorter version of the game - a result of having some decent all-round strength at their disposal - Shoaib Malik, Razzaq, Afridi et al.