By SS
January 18 2004

With Pakistan losing the one day series against New Zealand 4-1, SS takes a look at some of the areas that Pakistan need to work on, in order to make them a more competitive one day outift. One day games as most cricket lovers know are decided on the finest of details and by the smallest of margins. Sometimes a brilliant piece of sliding in the outfield which saves a couple of runs, occasionally a brilliant catch at point, on other occasions a direct hit of the stumps from long on, sometimes it could be a brilliant caught and bowled effort and on other occasions it can be some superb running between the wickets.

Pakistans recently concluded one day series in New Zealand to me has highlighted two main areas that need a major improvement. These two areas are probably areas that Pakistani coaches and former players have in the past, probably shown a reluctance to improve and it is high time more effort was taken to ensure that the current crop of players and also future players are well aware of the importance of these two areas of cricket.

Firstly, running between the wickets. Pakistan tend to go through phases where they are the run out champions of the world and then seem to turn things around with a much more sedate and cautious approach to their running between the wickets. In my opinion, you have to balance the caution with some risk taking.

The most startling aspect of the current crop of players in the Pakistani team is that the only one who I would say is an aggressive runner between the wickets is Moin Khan. Yasir Hameed, the opposition have learnt is a player who pushes hard at the ball and opposition captains leave their mid on and mid off at the edge of the circle for him and let him drive the ball hard to these fielders. Instead of playing the ball with soft hands, he continues to push hard at the ball, with the end result being that he hits a boundary or nothing. He has to learn to rotate the strike. Imran Farhat, Yasirs opening partner is what I would call a cautious runner between the wickets, which I have no problem with, as he tends to have sound judgement when running between the wickets. The only criticism I would have of Imrans running is that he needs to push himself and his partners a lot harder. Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam ul Haq are gifted and world class players, but their records would be even better if they were not so lazy when running between the wickets. These top 4 batsman should be running the quick singles, turning the ones into twos by running the first one hard, instead of ambling the first run (Mr. ul Haq), by putting the fielders under pressure and turning twos into threes, by assessing which of the opposition fielders is right handed or left handed and by working out which of the opposition has weak throwing arms.

Our top 4 batsman need to make more of an effort as mentioned above, as there is an over reliance on the lower order to bail out the top order. It is impossible for the likes of Moin and Razzaq to score 10 an over all the time after the top order have botched up the innings. In my opinion the top 4 or 5 batsman in our team are not doing enough on a consistent basis and this starts with the running between the wickets.

The other aspect of the current Pakistani team which needs much improvement is the fielding. Whilst players like Afridi and Imran Nazir have found themselves out of favour, it is clearly visible that the majority of the current squad are not very athletic in the field. Ground fielding, diving, the ability to move quickly across the turf, catching and the ability to consistently hit the stumps are essential in the one day format, but I can honestly say that only 2 or 3 of the Pakistan team are acceptable fielders. I do not expect average fielders to be dramatically turned into Jonty Rhodes overnight, but one should be able to expect a decent standard of fielding from an international team.

Dropped catches, missed run outs and misfields all add up at and count at the end of a match, as well as influencing the result they tend to dishearten even the most experienced of bowlers.

With the abovementioned improvements and one or two changes of personnel, the Pakistani one day outfit can become even more competitive. The likes of Saleem Elahi, Shoaib Malik and Azhar Mahmood are likely to be “rested” for the next series, whilst it will be interesting to see whether the selectors go for experience in the one day line up or whether fresh blood is injected into a new look one day team.