Just how bad is this Pakistan side?
Scyld Berry has called them the worst in 50 years. Stuart Broad declared that a whitewash for England should be comfortable. Plenty of others have raised similar calls of despair. And after a thoroughly one-sided drubbing for Pakistan at Headingley, it is hard to debate these conclusions.
For those tasked with the postmortem, the exercise feels futile, and repetitive. Just a few weeks ago, the conversation was about how Pakistan keep losing the same way, due to their truly soulsucking collapses. Fast forward to here, and the only difference in this Test might have been that Pakistan barely created any stability to collapse from, choosing instead to spend their entire time in Yorkshire in utter disarray.
While it is easy to pick out various indiscretions with bat and ball, perhaps the most symbolically potent were those in the field. How about missing a run out chance because you are appealing for an lbw? Or repeatedly looking to field with the boot instead of a dive, and conceding the boundary anyway each time? Or setting up the slips with no breathing room in between, and still letting a catch go between two of them?
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Pakistan’s Test troubles are hardly new, having finished last in the previous WTC and gunning for the same spot this time around. So who is to blame for this unending malaise?
Given the era we live in, it is almost obligatory for the experts to blame T20s and franchise leagues, and throw in words like greedy, mercenaries and selfish. Except, this is almost an all-star XI of domestic stalwarts in Pakistani first-class cricket. Azan Awais, Imam ul Haq, Shan Masood, Abdullah Shafique, Salman Ali Agha and Saud Shakeel are all amongst the top domestic batters in recent years, while each of the bowlers are also chart-toppers. None of them is a major T20 star, and several have never had steady gigs in that circuit. So it’s not like the chase for franchise riches has undone the skillsets of these players, who all should be able to at least bring the experience needed to thrive in longform cricket.
So if the players aren’t bad, why are they playing so poorly?
To answer that question satisfactorily, it might help to take a look at Bangladesh. The team is currently basking in the glow of one of the greatest upsets in cricket history, but what is truly fascinating is that their previous match was a convincing loss to Zimbabwe. Bangladesh didn’t react to that defeat by the Stalinist purges that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) enjoys so much. Instead, they put their faith in a side that has consistently put up great results over the past few years, rather than overreacting to one loss. And so the next result was unforgettable.
In contrast, the PCB has changed just about everything there is to change over the last few years, almost always without any sense or sensibility. There have been a staggering number of changes in the coaching slots, with head coaches and skill coaches alike being chopped and changed constantly. Same goes for the selectors, who have had all kinds of permutations in their setup, contributing little more than organisational chaos in the process. Perhaps most egregious has been the various administration’s approach to the pitches.
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After the Ramiz Raja regime converted all pitches to their flattest yet, Pakistan didn’t win a single Test at home for two years, losing six and drawing four. That sixth loss led to a complete about turn, as a new PCB administration brought in everything short of ploughs and rakes to rough up their home pitches. It brought a series win against England, but both West Indies and South Africa later showed up the limitations of that approach. And once the team left these minefields to play at more conventional tracks away to Bangladesh, South Africa and England, they struggled to even look competent.
Given all these changes, it feels almost unnecessary to mention that the captaincy and playing XI have also seen a constant churn. But the scale of these changes, and their lack of foresight is perhaps best exemplified by Abdullah Shafique. The one-time hope for the future had somehow found himself playing Grade-II cricket, his career in seeming limbo. But a rash of injuries and Pakistani selector logic suddenly had him rushed out to the Caribbean. In his four innings since then, he has easily looked like Pakistan’s best batter. So what was he doing in the wilderness a few weeks prior?
There is no obvious answer, but one cause might be how the PCB is currently being run. Despite ICC chief Jay Shah’s political connections, no other administrator in cricket can quite match PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi’s brief of being involved in negotiating the end to a war. Of course, he is doing this in his dual role as the country’s interior minister, a job that should make running the world’s most chaotic board pretty much impossible.
But not to worry - early on in his run, the chairman appointed Sumair Ahmad as the board’s COO. Sumair had spent his entire career as a bureaucrat, working in the Prime Minister’s office prior to his new posting. How exactly was a person trained to handle civil administration going to manage running the board was a question few were willing to ask.
It is difficult however to draw a straight line from these shenanigans to Pakistan’s current form. After all, Sumair Ahmed wasn’t feeding half volleys to Joe Root, and Mohsin Naqvi wasn’t playing silly shots to provoke collapses. But equally, it feels pointless to blame players who have shown in other contexts that they have the required skills. After all, several of those who were struggling in this Test have had decent careers in county cricket. The reality is, there are no simple answers and no quick fixes to be had here.
Test cricket is about many things, but at its core it is about patience. Patience during a spell, during a session, during a series and a season are all necessary for success. As the limits of Bazball perhaps showed us, there is only so much innovation you can bring to a century old format. Instead, it demands a commitment to process, to patience, to perseverance.
For all their unending problems, it is this lack of patience that is perhaps the most pervasive in the current Pakistani side as well as the larger system. But led by a board as prone to chasing headlines as their batters are to chasing balls outside off stump, it is hard to imagine Pakistan finding the patience they need.
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