Losing the opportunity of winning the Test series against the West Indies wasn’t the only low point for Pakistan, as one notes. They emerged with a 1-1 series outing against a Caribbean side that often looks the part of a competitive unit in certain white ball games instead of the red ball challenge. Now, it appears as though Pakistan’s misery continues and woes get even deeper as newer challenges, particularly in the overseas conditions come about.
No randomspeak this!
After losing the opening Test at Leeds’s Headingley Carnegie and that too by a margin of an innings and 103 runs with two more red ball contests to go in the near future, Pakistan’s problems in playing the game away from home have truly risen to the fore.
Their inability to deal with a fast bowling attack that probes more questions than it answers them and the seeming difficulty to stitch useful stands with the bat, such a cornerstone to nailing Test match contests, have hurt the side badly.
But while many would label their most recent defeat to England to the fact that their most dependable and loved batter Babar Azam wasn’t around owing to injury, then perhaps the same would be more like carpeting the real problems instead of addressing them.
In truth, barring Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafique, not too many batters in the side have been able to come to the side’s rescue.
Moreover, compounding their tremendous loss of form especially when playing away from home is the sheer inability to handle turn and bounce, as evident most recently!
It doesn’t paint a pretty picture to note that much of the subcontinental team’s recent run of form when playing outside of Pakistan has resulted in harrowing losses. The scoreboard reveals it all and the numbers can never lie- can they?
Here’s looking at their glaring picture when playing at SENA countries since June 2018:
In England - 3 Lost & 2 Draw. In Australia - 5 Lost. In South Africa - 5 Lost. In New Zealand - 2 Lost
For now, the bigger question is whether the entire think tank of the side can come together to arrest their dubious string of woes- a matter that will have to see more than just the side’s captain and vice captain to chalk out a plan inside the thinking room by themselves!
