Pak vs India - First Test (April '04)

Well I would say the first day was a pathetic one for Pakistan and I know all of you would agree. Its all our fault.

- We have to hold on to catches to get them out. They wont go away to the pavillion themselves. We gotta catch them. No wonder Sehwag made 228. He should make 448 if we dont hold on to his catches. i mean a batsman gets out when we take the necessary steps to do that and catching is definitely one of them.

- POOR Team Management - I am sorry folks. I am the biggest fan of Javed Miandad and Inzamam ul Haque is the best batsman in the world. But the team management seems to be eating grass these days. They dont learn at all and maybe dont think either (or do so in the wrong way). Team selection was pathetic. I could not believe Danish Kaneria was not playing in this match. Come on man you have to have a leg spinner to attack the indian batting line up PACKED with Right-handers. How could you expect an off-spinner being more of a threat to right-handers than a leggie. Also I guess we could have played two spinner for that matter on such a dead track. So many fast bowlers! Are you nuts? Ok fast bowlers dont hurt but they are all the same type. Most of them bowl INSWING which is easy to defend and play for right-handers. Inswing is not big threat for batsmen like the Indians, at least in the tests. Yes they are good in cramping them up in the one-dayers but in tests you have to get them out by getting them to make mistakes. I hope you dont expect Shoaib or Sami to to break through the bats of Tendulkar etc? I mean Inswing is no threat at all man. This is the same phenomenon we faced in Australia in our last test series there. We weren't able to get them out!! Only coz except Wasim Akram all of them were basically inswing bowlers. And Aus and Indians are good enough batsmen to defend simple Inswing. Saqlain, although worked very hard, is quite predictable and surely out of rythm. Look at Shane Warne and Murli. They are having a great time in such conditions not so far from Multan. But we chose fast bowlers. Maybe we are too smart for me to get or something is wrong there. Also the field placing was mindboggling to say the least. We never attacked Sehwag throughout the match.

I feel the same poor team management led us to loose the fifth one-dayer as well. We CANNOT imagine chasing on a pitch like Lahore's. We had such a good outcome on the fourth match batting first. We had their backs to the almost. But still we wanted to expose our ugliest weakness i.e chasing in the last match.

I know its easy to speak sitting in your homes but it is as easy to think in the right way before the the match begins. Team mgmt needs real help. Bowlers need real coaching. Miandad does not help there. And there is no senior bowler in the team to guide the raw tearaways. Ppl are such big fans of Miandad (i am too) that they cant take facts. I have always said Pakistan needs a professional coach. At least a bowling coach. And someone who understands these tiny details which even the stupid newspaper reporters and commentators know about. We have to have a plan against each batsmen. It didn't show we had any against Sehwag other than dropping his catches and hoping he would go away himself. BASICS is the name of the game.


It will be very difficult for Pakistan not to loose by an innings at least.