South Africa tour of Pakistan

 South Africa is going to tour Pakistan for the first time since 2007. In 2007 home series against Pakistan the South Africans literally dominated Pakistan beating the home side Pakistan 3-2 in ODI's and 1-0 in test matches. The South African tour of Pakistan in 2007 was Inzamam ul Haq's last international series in test cricket for Pakistan. Inzamam retired from all forms of cricket after South Africa defeated Pakistan 1-0 in test series thus finishing their tour of Pakistan on a winning note.  Mark Boucher the current South African coach played that series for South Africa. My concern for Pakistan team is not in the 3 Twenty20 internationals but my real concern for Pakistan cricket team is the two test match series that Pakistan play in their home series against South Africa.

  I am showing my concern in test series for Pakistan because we have quite a settled and decent Twenty20 team and also because South Africa are sending their second string twenty20 team to Pakistan. On the other hand Pakistan has quite an inexperienced and weak test team. 

 Pakistan has a weakness in every aspect of test cricket whether it being batting, bowling or fielding and South Africa has a clear edge and superiority in every department of the game over Pakistan. In batting we heavily rely on Babar Azam and we have a weak and unsettled opening pair. We have Abid Ali as an opener who's performance overseas is not satisfactory. Our bowling is inexperienced and lacking penetration and relying heavily on Yasir Shah. Our squad of 20 players for the test series announced by the selection committee consists of nine debutant uncapped players showing inexperience and extreme weakness. 

Cricket is a team game and we cant just rely on one or two players something which Pakistan does in test cricket as Pakistani cricket team relies heavily on Babar Azam and Yasir Shah in test cricket. 

My prediction is South Africa will whitewash us in the test series 2-0 and we might win the Twenty20 series 2-1. I wish Pakistan cricket team the best of luck for their home series against South Africa. 

Waqar Younis the sultan of swing

 

Waqar Younis alongwith his bowling partner Wasim Akram were known as the Sultan's of Swing. Waqar Younis was renowned to bowl inswing, outswing, off cutters and leg cutters and yorkers at will all at very high speeds. Waqar Younis used to bowl reverse swinging toe crushing yorkers which used to prove deadly and unplayable deliveries to not only tail enders but also to world class batsmen.

Both Wasim and Waqar used to win matches against the opposition which Pakistan were sure to lose only for Wasim and Waqar to bowl the opposition out and rescuing Pakistan by winning the matches for them in such tight situations. Wasim Akram was known to get the top order out regularly while Waqar Younis was known to get middle order and tailenders out regularly with his pace and reverse swing. Wasim Akram was known to get the batsmen out with new ball while Waqar Younis was expert with the old ball reverse swinging the old ball at high pace to bamboozle the batsmen. 

Waqar Younis took 373 test wickets and 416 ODI wickets to become one of the top wicket takers for Pakistan in their international cricket history. One regret Waqar Younis will always have throughout his career will be that he never was in the winning team for Pakistan in any ICC event or ICC tournament. He missed the 1992 World Cup with injury which ironically Pakistan won under Imran Khan's captaincy. 

Waqar Younis after his retirement after the 2003 World Cup in South Africa a tournament in which he was captain became coach of the Pakistani cricket team several times. He is currently the bowling coach of the Pakistan cricket team.

Pakistan Cricket team in the Calendar Year 2020

 Pakistan cricket team reasonably did well in 2020. They performed well in Twenty20 internationals by winning 7 matches and losing just 3 with one ending in no result. Although the series wins came against weak teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and they failed to win against stronger teams like New Zealand and England series wise. I would still say Pakistan performed better in Twenty20 cricket in 2020 as compared to 2019. I am saying this because Pakistan lost to a lowly rated Sri Lanka whom not only sent their second string team to Pakistan in 2019 but was a team missing several key players. Losing to that Sri Lankan team was very disheartening for Pakistan cricket and Pakistani fans. Although in 2020 Pakistan performed better losing the series only against New Zealand 1-2, and drawing with England 1-1 besides winning against infact clean sweeping Bangladesh 2-0 and also white washing Zimbabwe 3-0. whereas in 2019 Pakistan hardly won any series and were defeated badly by the opposition seeing their ranking drop from first to fourth in ICC rankings.

Pakistan started 2020 seventh in ICC rankings and finished seventh in the ICC rankings by the beginning of 2021. In five test matches Pakistan won just one test match against Bangladesh and lost two, one against England and one against  New Zealand and drew the remaining two test matches against England. Pakistan should have won the first test match against England in Manchester when having set a target of 278 they let England win by three wickets as Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes helped England to recover from 112 for 5 to 258 for six. By that time both Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes had scored centuries and they proved match winners for England's unlikely victory. If Pakistan had won that test match they might have gone on to win that series as the last two test matches were rained off. The fault that I found with Pakistani batsmen in tests in 2020 has been their overly defensive batting. Pakistani batsmen dont look for scoring opportunities as a result opposition bowlers find a way to get them out. 

In ODI's in 2020 Pakistan won two matches and lost one, all against Zimbabwe. The third ODI ended in a tie after full fifty overs with Pakistan losing the match in super over. I dont know why Babar Azam didnt bat in the super over as Khushdil Shah and Iftikhar Ahmed were sent in as a result we lost that match when both these batsmen got out cheaply to Zimbabwe bowler. 

Overall it was a successful year in Pakistan cricket with Pakistan having a positive winning percentage in Twenty20 internationals and ODI's.