Pakistan Cricket: Team's poor performance and questions raised on board's decisions

It is felt that Pakistan cricket has not yet recovered from the impact of the storm which had hit it badly in the past few days.

The last Test of the series against England is going on in Edgbaston, but the manner in which the Pakistan team has started it is enough to show that the situation is not good.

Because on the very first day, his first innings was limited to only 133 runs and even before lunch, he had lost seven wickets.

We will talk about the performance of the Pakistani team later, but it is very important to take stock of the situation facing Pakistan cricket at this time.

Because the manner in which the Pakistan Cricket Board dismissed Pakistan team's head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul in the middle of the tour and sent seven players back and sent seven others to England, did not make Pakistan cricket applaud all over the world, but made people laugh.

Some things have happened here which are important to mention. First of all, whose decisions were these very important?

A day before the Edgbaston Test, when Babar Azam was asked whether he was involved in these decisions, he clearly denied and clearly said that he also came to know about these decisions later. He himself was surprised at this.

Babar Azam also tried to save his face by saying that if you talk to the PCB about this decision, they will be able to give you better information, but he even went on to say that whatever decision the board has taken, it must have been taken after careful consideration.

Here the question arises that such big decisions were taken and even the captain remained unaware in this regard. This only shows that his board was not ready to give importance to the captain himself and such important decisions were taken without bringing him to his knowledge.

But here even captain Babar Azam cannot completely absolve himself of responsibility, because when he came to know that seven players of his team were being sent back midway, then why did he not show his authority in the capacity of captain?

Did he ask the board what was the reason for these decisions? Or he thought it best to remain silent. Here commentators and analysts are calling Babar Azam a weak captain.

If these decisions were due to disciplinary reasons then it would be understandable, as it has been reported in the media about the disciplinary inquiry against two players Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq. Pakistan Cricket Board has also confirmed these investigations in a media release.

However, earlier PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi had also justified the decision of dismissal of the head coach and recall of seven players and said that there was no other option.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has removed Sarfaraz Ahmed and handed over the responsibility of the Test team to Pakistan team's white ball head coach Mike Hesson. When he was asked about sending seven players back to their country, he also saved his face by saying that he was not involved in these decisions.

The question that arises is that the captain and head coach are saying that they were not involved in these decisions, then who took these decisions? One name needs to be mentioned here and that is Aaqib Javed, who is currently considered the most important person in every small and big decision related to the team.

It is Aaqib Javed who sits on TV and says that after the team's defeat in the Headingley Test, a message was sent to head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed to make some changes in the Lord's Test, but they did not happen.

Why did Pakistan team fail? In this tour of England and even before this, a lot of noise was made that Pakistan's bowling is devoid of fast bowlers, but the reality is exactly the opposite. The real issue is not bowling but batting, which has not allowed the Pakistan team to reach two hundred runs in any innings.

If we look at the four innings at Headingley and Lord's and the first innings at Edgbaston, the Pakistan team has been able to play 50 overs only once. Babar Azam is reminding that he was the Player of the Series in West Indies, but it is also not worth forgetting that he has not been successful in scoring a Test century since December 2022.

On one hand, the team's very disappointing performance on the field and on the other hand, controversies outside the field are also not leaving us behind. Jason Gillespie of Australia should also be mentioned, who was the red ball head coach of the Pakistan cricket team, but resigned after holding the post for only eight months and now he is continuously targeting the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Ever since Mohsin Naqvi became the chairman of PCB on 4 February 2024, the Pakistan cricket team has won only 5 out of 17 test matches and lost 12. Apart from this, he is at number 9 in both the cycles of ICC Test Championship.