It is examination time once again for the Pakistan cricket team. But unfortunately, the syllabus, the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021, is too challenging this time, because of the inexperienced team. PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja and his captain Imran Khan have been telling us over the years that our team should enter the field for world competitions without fear.
Cricket is often known as a slow sport, but the emergence of T20 leagues and the batsmen with fearless approaches have changed the notion. Here fearless cricket means that you are fully equipped with player abilities, be properly trained and have all the information about your game.
The experience for any player around the world is the secret of its success and it is by no means intended that inexperienced and young players should not be given a chance in international matches or mega events. However, such players should be properly trained over time so that they can learn from their seniors’ experiences and the dressing room.
And yes, the quantity of young players are also crucial. The selectors should not include six to eight young players at a time, but infrequently add youngsters to the squad and give them a chance to learn by staying with the seniors. So that when they enter the field, they have the talent as well as the experience of the seniors.
The national selectors are faced with a conundrum. Some players picked for the Pakistan’s Twenty20 World Cup next month are not finding form at the National T20 Cup. The National T20 Cup, underway in Rawalpindi, had assumed greater importance in terms of Pakistan’s preparations for the World Cup, which begins from Oct 17.
From Pakistan’s World Cup squad, only captain Babar Azam, wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan and pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi have shown good form in Rawalpindi. Batters Azam Khan and Sohaib Maqsood, pacer Haris Rauf and all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz haven’t performed so far.
Sindh’s Hasnain and Mohammad Wasim of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also done anything impressive yet. The two players whose inclusion in the World Cup squad saw chief selector Mohammad Wasim come under fire, Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah, have also had poor returns.
But those who are being tipped to replace them in the UAE-bound squad haven’t been performing either. Cricket is a game in which pressure is the most important thing and the better you play under pressure, the better the result will be. It isn’t important that those who are playing well in national matches may also perform play well at international platform. The ground, the wicket, the opponent, even the fans are very different from the local level.
Instead of selecting players on the basis of local matches, the selectors should consider their international performance. We cannot experiment with new players in mega events like T20 World Cup. Teams from all over the world prepare for mega events by sending their players to various international tours before selecting anyone.
The chairman and chief selector have announced the squad for the World Cup and now there is a need for the whole nation to support it. Every time, when a new chairman or chief selector comes, he makes changes and brings in the players of his choice and after watching their performances they can be criticized. It is not appropriate to criticize without scrutiny.
The government gives a chairman and selector 4 years and he tries to run the cricket board and the team by enforcing his own policies and in the end, the board is falling behind instead of moving forward. So the point is that all the officials who have assumed office together have pushed Pakistan cricket backwards.
