Why Pakistan Lost The Brisbane Test And More Importantly Why It Wasn’t A “Punjab XI”

So, here is a quick analysis of Pakistan’s defeat during the Brisbane Test and an explanation of why the team that played the opening encounter was most definitely not a “Punjab XI”.

Read: Why Mickey Arthur Is Right In Criticizing Waqar Younis For Throwing Misbah-ul-Haq “Under The Bus” And Why PCB Needs To Remove The Two Gentlemen ASAP

Poor Selection During The Brisbane Test

Pakistan’s think tank for sure selected a pretty poor playing XI for the opening Test of the two match series. They played an out-of-form Haris Sohail ahead of Imam-ul-Haq at the crucial number three position and then they also made a ridiculous decision to drop Pakistan’s number one Test fast bowler i.e. Mohd. Abbas. With Imam and Abbas playing; Pakistan might still not have won nevertheless, the green shirts would have most probably fought better. The blame for the embarrassing innings defeat then lies with  the chief selector, Misbah-ul-Haq without a shadow of doubt.

Read: Second Day Of The Brisbane Test Explains What’s Wrong With Pakistan Cricket Under Misbah-ul-Haq And Why He Made A Huge Mistake By Dropping Mohd. Abbas

Defensive Mindset

Babar Azam, Mohd. Rizwan, Shan Masood and Asad Shafiq scored decently during the game. However, they only managed to bat well when they played with a positive intent to score runs. It is then no surprise that people like skipper Azhar Ali and Haris Sohail failed. They sure need to up their game and do away with defensive and negative tactics that they are so used to. You might survive a session at most by blocking everything in Australia but you are not going to win games if you don’t look to score.

Similarly, not bowling Naseem Shah after he picked up the wicket of David Warner showed the defeatist mind set of Azhar. It showed that the captain had already given up on the third day of the Test and hence, did not wanted to aghast one of his young quicks in a lost cause.

Azhar Ali like Misbah then cannot escape the burden of blame and thus, needs to pull up his socks before the Adelaide Test. Otherwise, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is better off getting rid of a negative captain like him who even at the Test level bats with an outdated batting style.

Read: With Many Cricketers From KP Including Youngsters, Shaheen Afridi & Naseem Shah In Pakistan’s Australia Bound Squads, It’s Unfair To Call It Punjab XI

Why It Wasn’t A Punjab XI

So, while we can all criticize Misbah-ul-Haq, Waqar Younis and Azhar Ali for their incompetence; it is simply unfair to blame them for supporting cricketers who belong to the province of Punjab. To be precise as many as six players in the eleven came from KPK (Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohd. Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Shaheen Shan Afridi, Imran Khan and Naseem Shah). On the other hand, there were two from Sindh i.e. Asad Shafiq and Shan Masood and three from Punjab i.e. Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail and Babar Azam. Brisbane Test then clearly showed that the ethnic divide and Punjab XI kind of labels come from the mind of hatemongers and losers and not from the cricket board itself.