{"id":884374,"date":"2026-09-08T11:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884374\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:20:12","slug":"it-was-clear-pakistan-would-struggle-in-england-but-they-were-set-up-to-fail-pakistan-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884374\/","title":{"rendered":"It was clear Pakistan would struggle in England but they were set up to fail | Pakistan cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

I failed the Tebbit test a long time ago. I was taken in by Shoaib Akhtar\u2019s R-rated speed, then locked up by the madness of Shahid Afridi\u2019s boom-boom-or-bust spirit. And so, despite spending most of my life in England, my heart has always belonged to Pakistan\u2019s cricketers. Maybe there\u2019s something there in wanting a connection to a family far away, some deeper diasporic stuff about a never-ending search for identity. Or maybe it\u2019s really this simple: Pakistan have produced plenty of the game\u2019s most captivating cricketers. When it all comes together \u2013 the ball reversing or turning both ways \u2013 it\u2019s a ride you never want to get off.<\/p>\n

The worrying part? It hasn\u2019t clicked for weeks, months, years \u2013 and the grimness is reaching new levels, the last fortnight particularly depressing for anyone with an emotional stake in Pakistani cricket. It was clear that they would struggle on the tour of England, who rarely lose a Test series at home. Even with all that boozy drama, they\u2019ve got Joe Root and Harry Brook taking turns as the best in the world. Chuck in Ollie Robinson with his 19th-century average and that seam attack has a sense of balance it missed last winter. Pakistan, on the other hand, have not won a Test series in England for 30 years and walked into this one having lost eight of their previous nine Tests abroad. The best-case scenario was that they would nab a game, as they\u2019ve done on several trips to England this century.<\/p>\n

But expectations can be met and still leave you dispirited. A batting lineup with several players averaging above 40 in Test cricket has yet to reach 200, with a weak tail incapable of helping them out. To watch the bowling has been to yearn for something that has vanished from the Pakistani tale: hide-under-the-covers pace. Mohammad Abbas\u2019s presence has been both a balm and a reminder of an under-utilised talent, a 36-year-old who has played only 32 Tests.<\/p>\n

Yet how can any player, even one as gifted as Babar Azam, adequately perform out there when under the employment of the Pakistan Cricket Board? The PCB and nonsensical decision-making go hand-in-hand, but even by their standards, the call to discard seven players and two coaches<\/a> with a game left to play is an ascension to another tier of mind-crushing absurdity, a late-night thought that should never have left the notes app.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just break down the ridiculousness. Sarfaraz Ahmed, relieved of his coaching duties, took the job in April and ran the side for six Tests. Across formats and including interim appointments (aren\u2019t they all temporary?) Pakistan have had 10 head coaches in the last five years. The left-armer Ali Usman was discarded after taking a five-fer at Headingley. Mohammad Rizwan has been haphazard with the bat but was integral to Abbas\u2019s success at Lord\u2019s while keeping up to the stumps, a key tactic for both sides in the series. Salman Ali Agha was the captain in Leeds, dropped in London and then pushed completely out of the picture. Of the seven replacements, five have never played at Test level; all have been set up to fail.<\/p>\n

Aaqib Javed is the board\u2019s director of high performance, sits on the men\u2019s selection committee and even had a brief crack as head coach last year. \u201cSomeone had to take action,\u201d he told Geo News, explaining the purge and shifting blame on to others. \u201cThe world is laughing at us because we can\u2019t even compete.\u201d The punchline, Aaqib has failed to clock, is not the team on the field.<\/p>\n

Aaqib Javed is the PCB\u2019s director of high performance. Photograph: KM Chaudary\/AP<\/p>\n

At the top of it all is Mohsin Naqvi, the board\u2019s chair, who argues that sport and politics should be kept apart while simultaneously working as Pakistan\u2019s interior minister. Like Aaqib he\u2019s spoken bullishly in recent days, defending the cull and deflecting any suggestion that Pakistani cricket is in terminal decline. \u201cDid cricket come to an end in South Africa and India after they lost to Namibia and Ireland?\u201d Well, no, because those two sides are celebrating world titles. Pakistan have won one Test series out of eight under Naqvi\u2019s control.<\/p>\n

There is no consolation in the shorter forms. Major white-ball tournaments \u2013 in men\u2019s and women\u2019s cricket \u2013 are less about the PCB\u2019s dysfunction and instead something far more toxic. They\u2019re a reminder of the bleak discord with India, prompting plenty of jingoistic nonsense, neutral venues and an absence of handshakes. When it comes to the actual cricket, India, propped up by their two premier leagues, operate on a different level.<\/p>\n

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Where have I turned to for respite from this series? Highlights from the Lord\u2019s win in 2016, to Sky\u2019s documentary on Akhtar\u2019s wild career. And with it I see a worrying cycle, where Pakistan return to England out of habit in years to come, only to be comprehensively beaten again and again. And back I go, further and further into the YouTube rabbit hole, to calm down. Is this what it\u2019s been like as a West Indies supporter for the last 20 years?<\/p>\n

But even here, in the supposedly safe arms of nostalgia, there\u2019s misery. To think of Pakistan\u2019s greatest cricketer, Imran Khan, is to be reminded of Michael Atherton\u2019s interview with his sons at Lord\u2019s, both fearing for their imprisoned father\u2019s health, a conversation that prompted the PCB to file a formal complaint with Sky. This is a ride I desperately want to get off, but the heart is tied to it. I expect it to break a little more in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I failed the Tebbit test a long time ago. I was taken in by Shoaib Akhtar\u2019s R-rated speed,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-884374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}