A positive change has been brought by Misbah in the team. It’s a good omen for the Pakistan team from Misbah for bringing positive change to the team by changing his one-day game as well as attitude towards it.
As far as the Champions Trophy is concerned and the favourite team, in my view the West Indies cricket team is the real danger.
It’s surprising that no one talked about the danger posed to all teams by the brilliant players such as Kieron Pollard, Chris Gale, Dwayne Bravo, and others in the team. They have brilliant wicket taking bowlers. They have more one-day experience. It will be very interesting to see how the West Indian side plays.
But the unity shown by the Pakistan team at the Oval against South Africa was amazing. Pakistan had struggled in South Africa during a recent tour but it was because of the gross and the totally different conditions. It was also because we are poor in test matches. But in one-day game, we gave South Africa tough time.
I really liked the way Pakistan played at The Oval. The main bowlers were rested but Junaid, Wahab, Ahsan Adil and Asad played brilliantly. From the first ball, the body language was good. The attitude was right. South Africa looked dead. Pakistani team chased well and but I was scared that Pakistan gets under pressure when chasing and when wickets fall.
There is “no issue” with Pakistan’s bowling but the problem is in the batting area. The plan is that Imran Farhat will play as an anchor and will play as a test cricketer to last for 40 hours or so and the boys around him will play as they are in good forms and can play their game. Pakistani batting goes under pressure if there is an issue with the openers going down quickly.
Wahab Riaz was crucial in getting Pakistan win the match against Ireland but Kamran Akmal also did well. I have told Wahab to take batting seriously. I told him that if you are dropped as a bowler you will be taken as a batsman. If he improves then Pakistan’s batting combination will improve tremendously.
In the back drop of the IPL scandal there would be pressure on India. Normally in such situation players don’t admit that they are under pressure but such situations does have affects. Media is not doing anything about the IPL. There are no breaking news every two minutes in England and players don’t feel pressured.
