The year 2019 has seen many questionable calls by Pakistan cricket managemnet, including several mistakes and blunders, Geo News reported,
The departing year had the Pakistan Super League (PSL), the World Cup and a home Test series after a long drought of ten years. The year saw a plenty of action but at the same time it saw the equal amount of mistakes as well.
The contributers of these mistakes not only included the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the cricket management, but the captain(s) — former and present — as well as the players.
Fakhar Zaman’s presence in the team, despite poor form
Everyone, except the cricket board selectors knew that the opener Fakhar Zaman had been out of form since the summer of 2018. Over a 26-game block before the World Cup (WC) 2019, the average score of the batsman was 29.34 runs. Despite having knowledge of the stats and clear signs that the left-handed was not performing well, the board went into the WC with just him and Imam-ul-Haq as their only two openers.
Fakhar performed even worse and averaged even less at the tournament, with his 23.25 runs per innings often leaving Pakistan team short of a solid opening foundation which in-turn placed unwanted pressure on the middle-order to make up.
Trusting Misbah with dual role
Despite having much bigger and better cricketing setups, Australia, India and England had neither thought of ditching their chief selector and handing the additinoal job to their team’s head coach. But PCB still went for it.
The move was criticised by many who considered it to be an ill-thought decision and the board weeks after former captain’s appointment itself realised that he would need a coordinator as well.
PCB later appointed former Test spinner Nadeem Khan as the Coordinator of the National Selection Committee following a recruitment process.
Sarfaraz Ahmed’s ill-timed replacement
After Pakistan teams poor performance in the World Cup and failing to even qualify for the semi-finals, the cricket board brought many changes in the team after the tournament except for the captain Sarfaraz Ahmed. Replacing Sarfaraz then would have made more sense at the time but PCB flinched and missed the opportunity.
Later in October 2019, once the time had passed, the board eventually decided to go for it. It was clear that Sarfaraz had been sacked after severe criticism from the team and the public which he received after the defeat from the hands of Sri Lankan team.
The sacking in October was then termed unjustified and criticised by many as an ill-timed move.
Naseem Shah’s selection for Australia tour
The board selected fast-bowler Naseem Shah in the Pakistan squad for the first time against Australia knowing that the talented Mohammad Asif had earlier struggled alot on his debut tour of Australia. Yet, the 16-year-old pacer and the 19-year-old Muhammad Musa were picked against a stronger english side.
Choosing Haris Sohail over in-form Fawad Alam
PCB selected Fawad Alam for Sri Lanka Test series after his excellent performance and multiple centuries in the domestic tournament. The decision was lauded by cricket lovers but sadly, he was not picked in either of the two Test matches.
Instead, the board retained out of form Haris Sohail, saying that he can also bowl. Sohail bowled a grand total of 10 overs over two Tests and scored a small amount of nine runs on the only occasions he got to bat.
