Pakistan8217;s problems

The reasons why Pakistan failed so abjectly could fill a book. To save your time, we bring you the five most plausible reasons...RUNNING ON ...

The reasons why Pakistan failed so abjectly could fill a book. To save your time, we bring you the five most plausible reasons8230;

RUNNING ON EMPTY

Pakistan8217;s pace bowlers were supposed to dominate the Tests. Not only did that not happen, Pakistan can8217;t even blame injuries. Shoaib 8212; the only recognised threat 8212; survived almost till the end, Sami played right through. Shabbir was the only first team choice to fade away and he was the third seamer. Umar Gul was not an option, otherwise he would have played the first Test. Iftikhar and Rana Naved were not options. Also, there was no variety on offer. All right-armers; two fast and rest basic medium pacers and nothing more

ALL SPUN OUT

Saqlain and Mushtaq Ahmed 8212; not even discussed through the series 8212; are out of the picture. Shoaib Malik is around, but not yet Test material. Kaneria is, but he is yet to evolve beyond 8216;promising8217;. Not good enough unless we play on WACA-like pitches.

2-MAN BATTING LINE-UP

Pak banked on an inexperienced batting line-up, with Inzamam and Youhana the only experienced players. Younis Khan was left out. The opening pair was also a problem, where Pakistan tom-tommed the success of Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar in recent times. Farhat came good in one innings but Umar didn8217;t

MISSING THE BASICS

As experts on TV harped on incessantly, hardly any Pakistani batsman 8216;applied8217; themselves. Not one of them, except Asim Kamal at Lahore and Pindi and Youhana at Multan, looked like they wanted to hang around and play Test cricket. Which is why on at least four occasions in the series, Pakistan experienced batting collapses that realised four/five wickets instead of the usual one or two

OLD-STYLE COACHING

Coaching by instinct and being successful at it is a thing of the past. Miandad might have been a hit in the 1980s. But in the age of laptops and statmen, teams can8217;t succeed on instinct alone. The Pakistanis didn8217;t have a lot of technological help, evident in their lack of planning in dealing with particular batsmen or bowlers. Apart from figuring out Laxman8217;s weakness against the ball pitched up on middle, nothing else looked remotely rehearsed