Illogical selections cost Pakistan dear: Mohsin

The ICC World T20 2012 tournament is now entering its conclusive stage with Sri Lanka and the West Indies confirmed as worthy finalists for the finale on Sunday. Whilst the attention of the cricketing world may well be focused on the eventual winner of this trophy, the process of post mortem and analysis for the inability of some of the other participating teams to make it to the final stage is also in full flow. Nowhere is this more evident than in Pakistan where the exit from the World T20 is bringing in strong reactions from observers and experts alike.
Mohsin Khan, the ex coach of Pakistan who was replaced by Dav Whatmore in February of this year, has experienced the highs and lows of working with Pakistan team. He has also been a vocal critic of the approach of the Pakistani think tank for this prestigious competition. PakPassion quoted Mohsin as expressing his bewilderment at the inability for the Pakistan team to make it to the final despite having one of the most talented squads to ever represent Pakistan in such as tournament. Planning in a high profile tournament such as this played a key role in the eventual outcome and in Mohsin’s view, the management seemed bereft of ideas in this department. “First thing and it has been a problem in the whole tournament, it’s the playing eleven. The selection of the playing eleven was not correct and in almost every match we didn’t see the game plan being implemented on the field, if there was any game plan at all!” “I think if you don’t have a good game plan and you don’t go for one plan, you go for at least ‘plan A’, ‘plan B’. Especially when you come to the shortest version of cricket, which is much faster and you have to make your decisions quickly. So I think having a good game plan is the most important thing to win a match.” “We had the best pace and spin attack combination but we simply did not have the plan to go with it. You can have the most talented team in the world – 11 super stars if you like – but without proper planning you will achieve nothing” In Mohsin’s view the selection of the squad is important but the utilization of such resources is paramount to success. He pin pointed the inability of the management to come up with a good combination as a reason for failure. “Your opening slot wasn’t finalized. The most confident opening batsman of your team, Nasir Jamshed, was at number three. Instead you try out a slogger (at opening) just to gamble on him – Imran Nazir, he’s a slogger. He wasn’t being successful but you kept on carrying on with him. Then you have Kamran Akmal, who should have opened the innings, which actually suits him that position. His performances in the past have come as an opener and you misused him.”
The appointment of Mohammed Hafeez as captain for the T20 squad had received mixed reviews in the past but Mohsin felt that in this tournament, Hafeez did not lead from the front and possibly placed his own well being ahead of the team.
“The captain kept his position fixed in the batting line up. He refused to sacrifice his batting position for the good of the team. He could have said that I’ll let Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal open and I will come down at 3 or 4 to bat. I think the captain should think of the team first and then himself.”