The 1999 tour of India by Pakistan

 

Pakistan has gone on many tours throughout their cricket history but no tour by Pakistan was as successful with good quality cricket played as Pakistan tour of India in 1999. Pakistan cricket team was at it's peak form  and alongwith Australia it was ranked as one of the top teams in the world in 1999. It was no wonder why Pakistan was being considered as favourites for the 1999 world cup as it had legendary batsmen like Saeed Anwar and Inzamam ul Haq and a varied world class bowling line up boasting the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Shahid Afridi and All rounders such as Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood.

   The test series was tied 1-1 in the 1999 Pakistan tour of India. The first test played at Chennai was one of the closest test matches on history of cricket with Pakistan winning by just 12 runs. Chasing a target of 271 runs India were on a  very strong position with 17 runs needed and four wickets in hand and Sachin Tendulkar not out with a century score to his name. Right at that score Sachin Tendulkar got out to Saqlain Mushtaq and the rest of the Indian batting collapsed to defeat. Saqlain Mushtaq took 10 wickets and Shahid Afridi scored a match winning century in the second innings of the first test at Chennai. The second test was a one sided affair as chasing a target of 420 runs Pakistan were all out for 186 in their second innings with Anil Kumble taking a world record 10 wickets in that innings and with India winning comprehensively.

After winning the Kolkata Asian test championship match against India, Pakistan then went on to win the triangular ODI series also involving Sri Lanka by defeating India in the final at Bangalore. So in this way this was a very memorable tour of India by Pakistan in 1999 and Pakistani cricket team was successful in it boasting a team we might say Pakistan's best ever team in their cricketing history.

Australia tour to Pakistan 2022

Pakistan has always generally found it tough against most Australian teams of the past and present. In Australia- Pakistan matches , Australia generally have the upper hand and Australia always start as favourites against Pakistan. Pakistan havent defeated Australia in test matches since 2019, havent defeated Australia in ODI's since 2017 and they havent defeated Australia in Twenty20 Internationals since 2018. They have a pathetic record against Australia and it seems they have some psychological issues with Australia if not talent wise or professional issues. The last tour of Pakistan in 1998 by Australia wasnt a fruitful one for Pakistan. Pakistan lost the test series 1-0 to Australia and the ODI series 3-0 to Australia in 1998 Australian tour of Pakistan. Mark Taylor was the captain of Australia in their last tour of Pakistan in 1998.

Given that recently Australia has a pathetic record in test cricket in the sub continent. I rate Pakistan's chances highly in test matches because Australian's have an hereditary weakness against spin and in Pakistan spinning and turning pitches will be prepared. Pitches in Pakistan dont suit Australian bowler of fast and bouncy type of bowling so Pakistani batting will enjoy the Australian bowling. Australian batsmen have a weakness against quality spin bowling so Sajid Khan and Nauman  Ali can lick their lips.

Pakistan is a weak ODI team. They dont have the firepower in both the batting and bowling departments in ODI cricket. In batting their batsmen seldom score in excess of 300 runs which is a necessity in modern day ODI cricket and in bowling they lack penetration to bowl the opposition out.

Our Twenty20 team is extremely good, and I have a lots of hope from twenty20 team which reached the semi finals of Twenty20 World Cup in 2021 held in UAE and also we have to take revenge from Australia for defeating us in the semi finals of that World Cup.

In the end I will like to say Pakistan cricket team is in a roll winning 14 out of their last 15 international matches under Saqlain Mushtaq's coaching. I am sure Pakistan cricket team will give a tough fight to Australia.

Pakistan's best of All time all rounders

 

According to me, Pakistan's best three all rounders of all time are:

1) Imran Khan

2)  Shahid Khan Afridi

3) Abdul Razzaq

1) Imran Khan : I rate Imran Khan's as the best all rounder of Pakistan of all time. A great exponent of reverse swing , it was Imran Khan who taught Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis how to bowl late swing and reverse swing. It was because of Imran Khan teaching of the art of swing Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis became great bowlers and both had a long and illustrious careers. Imran Khan's stock ball was the off cutter and inswinging deliveries he used to bowl at will. At the peak of his career Imran Khan's dangerously fast bowling was matching the speeds of the legendary Jeff Thomson. Imran Khan was not only a great bowler but a batsmen of high quality too who can rescue Pakistani batting out of tough situations with his aggressive and long hitting.

2) Shahid Afridi: I rate Shahid Afridi as the second best All time All rounder in the history of Pakistani cricket. Shahid Afridi was the biggest crowd puller I have ever seen and he literally used to thrill the crowd with his hard hits and striking the ball infact smashing it to all parts of the stadium. He had one of the highest batting strike rates amongst the batsmen in the history of cricket. As a bowler he had many variations in his bowling including the quicker one which used to surprise many great batsmen, googly, flipper, top spinner and leg break.

3) Abdul Razzaq: I rate Abdul Razzaq as the third best All time all rounder in the history of Pakistani cricket. Abdul Razzaq can play any role as a batsman whether the sheet anchor role or the aggressor. Abdul Razzaq won many matches for Pakistan with his hard hitting for sixes and fours in a lot of matches and was responsible from rescuing Pakistan out of losing situations and winning those matches which were surely lost. As a bowler it is said that Sachin Tendulkar was Abdul Razzaq's bunny as Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed by Abdul Razzaq several times during his career. Abdul Razzaq was a true match winner with both bat and ball.

So these are my ratings for the best All rounders to ever play the game for Pakistan. Do you agree with my ratings. Please comment.

Pakistani Cricket (in depth): Pakistan cricket team in the Calendar Year 2021

Pakistani Cricket (in depth): Pakistan cricket team in the Calendar Year 2021:   Pakistan overall had a successful 2021 year in cricket. In 27 Twenty20 Internationals they won twenty matches, in 9 test matches they won ...

Pakistan cricket team in the Calendar Year 2021

 

Pakistan overall had a successful 2021 year in cricket. In 27 Twenty20 Internationals they won twenty matches, in 9 test matches they won 7 matches and only in ODI's they had a terrible year as they won just 2 ODI's out of 6 matches. In ODI cricket the dismal record of Pakistan cricket team is due to the horrible tour of England where they won just one Twenty20 match against England and were whitewashed 3-0 by a second string England side in the ODI series.

Pakistan had a terrible start to 2021 when they lost to New Zealand in the second test match of the series on the tour to New Zealand. But then in the home series PCB made changes by bringing in Babar Azam as captain of the test team and making Mohammad Wasim as chief selector.in place of Misbah ul Haq. The changes proved vital to the Pakistan cricket team as they defeated South Africa for the first time since 2003 in a test series 2-0 at home.  They went onto win 2-0 in Zimbabwe, drew 1-1 with West Indies and defeat Bangladesh in Bangladesh 2-0.

Pakistan had a disappointing year in ODI's in 2021 just because of their tour of England. Pakistan defeated South Africa in the ODI series played in South Africa 2-1 but on the tour of England Pakistan were clean swept by a second string England cricket team. On paper Pakistan were favourites to beat a second string England side missing several star players but the opposite happened and Pakistan unexpectedly were beaten badly.

Pakistan had a stellar year in Twenty20 cricket, winning a record 20 matches in a calendar year. In the twenty20 World Cup Pakistan defeated tough teams such as arch rivals India and New Zealand before losing heartbreakingly so to eventual champions Australia in the Semi Finals. Muhammad Rizwan played a vital role in Pakistan's success in Twenty20 cricket as he scored a world record runs tally in a Calendar year. The Babar Azam-Muhammad Rizwan opening pair four times reached the partnership of 150 plus runs.

Overall I will count 2021 as one of the best year in Pakistan cricket history performance wise. In 2021 Pakistan cricket team proved itself to be a force to be reckoned with in cricket.

Pakistan's tour of Bangladesh 2021

Pakistan had a hugely successful tour of Bangladesh. Although the twenty20 series was much closer than matches in the test series Pakistan nevertheless whitewashed Bangladesh in the Twenty20 series as well. Mind you Bangladesh fielded an extremely inexperienced team in the twenty20 series clearly missing the services of Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan while Pakistan were at full strength. Bangladesh in particular look an extremely weak team whenever they play without Shakib Al Hasan who is their only star player with a lot of charisma.

Bangladesh team showed fight in the first match and in the third match of the twenty20 series. In the first match if it wasnt for Shadab Khan and Muhammad Nawaz late power hitting Pakistan might have lost the first match. In the second match of the twenty20 series Pakistan won convincingly by eight wickets. In the third match, Pakistan had the control of the game until Mahmudullah's final over of the innings in which he picked up three wickets. Had Ifthikar Ahmed not struck a huge six of the third ball of the innings and Muhammad Nawaz not struck four of the last ball of the innings the match might have been decided by the super over. Having said that Muhammad Nawaz took a huge risk by leaving the last ball of the innings indicating to the umpire he wasnt ready before he struck the last ball of the innings for four.

In the test series Pakistan was ruthless even though Mushfiqur Rahim returned for the test matches and Bangladesh had taken the lead in the first test match. Abdullah Shafique and Abid Ali struck century opening partnerships in the both innings of the test match to ensure Pakistan won easily by eight wickets in the first test. The second test match was a rain marred test with rain ensuring any play on the third  day of the test match but Sajid Khan's spell of 8-42 left a Bangladeshi collapse of 87 in their first innings ensuring follow on. On the last day Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan resisted but were unable to prevent an innings defeat to Pakistan as Pakistan clean swept the test series 2-0 against Bangladesh..

Pakistan in this tour of Bangladesh proved to the world that they are not only a very good twenty20 side but they have an equally potent test side as well and they really have the temperament to play the longer versions of the game.

Pakistan's ICC twenty20 World Cup 2021 campaign

 

Pakistan had a dream World Cup until that dream was shattered by Australia in the Semi Final. Pakistan set a decent target of 176 runs thanks to Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman 's knocks. When Australia were 96 for 5 it looked like Pakistan had the upper hand and Pakistan were winning. On the other hand Stoinis and Mathew Wade had other ideas as unbelievably they had  a match winning 81 runs partnership which stole away the match from Pakistan's grasp. Pakistan was also unlucky they didnt win the toss as teams chasing especially in Dubai have a huge advantage batting second because of the dew factor. It is because of the dew factor Pakistan's bowling suffered as the bowlers found it difficult to grip the ball and make it swing.

Babar Azam's slow batting also let Pakistan down in the semi final. Babar Azam scored only 39 runs off 35 balls and wasted too many deliveries with dot balls. If Babar Azam played with a better strike rate then Pakistan would have posted a higher total with extra twenty or so runs and Australia might have never reached that target. Pakistan also lost the semi final because of Hassan Ali's poor performance. Hassan Ali not only gave away too many runs with his bowling but was also responsible for the defeat by dropping Mathew Wade. As we say catches win matches and had that catch being taken by Hassan Ali who knows Pakistan would have been in the final of this Twenty20 World Cup. Hassan Ali just dropped the Twenty20 World Cup by not taking that catch of Mathew Wade.

Overall Pakistan's performance was superb in the tournament winning five consecutive matches before the semi final. That performance also included a win against India which was Pakistan's first win over India in world cup matches. Having said that ICC should have staged the knockout matches at Day time as in the night the dew factor comes in which robbed Pakistan a place in the Final of the tournament.

In the end I would like to congratulate and thank Pakistan cricket team for it's superb performance throughout the Twenty20 World Cup and I would say it was a successful World Cup for Pakistan. I am proud of this Pakistan cricket team and they have made the entire nation proud of their performance.