“A part of me wants to prove Cricket Australia wrong.”
That was Mickey Arthur, ahead of Pakistan’s second Test whitewash in almost eight years, their first coming merely two weeks ago.
They were going to fight conditions, where they had never won a Test series ever.
And this was Mickey Arthur or, "at least" a part of him, quite "willing" to prove his ex-employer wrong.
Surreal, as Arthur termed it then, was the experience not only for himself but also Cricket Australia as well as Cricket Pakistan. Throughout the series, the stronger team kept struggling with their choices for new ball. And the weaker team kept capitalising on them. Eventually, one of the most fragile teams in Aussie history whitewashed one of the most challenging sides, in Pakistani history.
Only a couple of months ago, Pakistan were the best Test side in the world. That mace? That was just a formality. The things, they overcame to rule the world, were bigger than the mace.
In stark contrast, Aussies were bruised by the shocks of nearly three whitewashes, 5 Test losses in a row. Steve Smith was feared heading towards a fate like Kim Hughes’ if not worse. He was called home, skipping half of their tour to Sri Lanka, only to rest and get prepared for a short tour to South Africa. There too he looked as miserable as in his last series against Sri Lanka. Another whitewash.
But Pakistan, quite unexpectedly, struggled more and gifted almost two and a half wins. The only half left out of the package could be attributed to misfortune, rain and Sarfraz’s gloves.
What went wrong?
Question Misbah first.
He was in control, in the very first session of the tour. Two bad sessions followed. Next morning, he was again in control, only until each Wahab and Amir started pushing for five-fors. After that, Misbah was never in command until their second attack- coincidently, without Amir -at Sydney. But, that was too little, too late.
If we speak of captains’ command and authority through the series, Misbah was not even half of Smith. He deserved to lose.
Batting?
Misbah failed to inspire. His struggles, if not reversed by Azhar, could have produced the worst stats for Pakistan batting in Australia.
Azhar played exceptional. Sami was poor. Babar was a failure. Younus, as always, did better than expected of him. Asad played two good innings. Sarfraz, as ever, remained a mystery. Sharjeel did what he had to. Tail was almost as good with bat as bad they were with ball.
Let’s question bowling.
Amir was a disappointment. He contained well, but lacked the right tools to get wickets. And, fortunately, he had no dropped chances off him to build a case this time. Apart from Gabba, he was lost all the time. He went wicketless in his last two games.
Wahab? He did a Wahab until he, somehow, convinced himself to follow Misbah. At Sydney, he bowled Misbah-esque rather than Wahab-ish. Yasir lacked flight and got the bashing of his life. As he claimed he was responsible for weird fields at Melbourne, Yasir was found more doubtful of himself than his captain.
This was, probably, Pakistan’s first series since I-don’t-know-when where they tried three different new ball combinations for three consecutive games, against the same opposition. Rahat looked short of confidence, at Gabba. He was replaced by Sohail, who turned out to be what he already was, a second innings failure.
Now let’s question the guys who are sent with the squad to help them out.
Azhar Mehmood, especially hired for these two tours across the Tasman, was supposed to help his bowlers with the lengths required for these conditions. He was selected with a view to his all-round experience on this sort of wickets. He proved to be anything but helpful. His bowlers struggled with ball, and surprised with bat. He should have been sent along as a batting coach instead.
Grant Flower, the batting coach?
He did okay. Azhar Ali paid off. Sami Aslam couldn’t. Babar didn’t. Batting collapses were fewer than expected. This, however, remains a mystery if Flower was the one helping our bowlers’ batting or was it Azhar Mehmood!
Steve Rixon, the fielding coach?
He should fire himself, with immediate effect. Nothing more.
Mickey Arthur?
Arthur joined Pakistan ahead of their toughest challenge in two years. As history suggests, flying off to England has never been an easy-go-lucky ride for Pakistan. But they successfully drew the Test series. Then, they lost 4 ODIs in a row and won the last one, also the only T20 game.
Arthur’s next series was against WIndies. Pakistan lost almost two Tests but, statistically, ended up 2-1. Their current run suggests it could have easily been 2-2, had there been one more in the schedule.
Since Arthur joined them, Pakistan have won all their T20 games, lost 4 of the 8 ODIs excluding Ireland, and lost 8 of their 12 Test encounters. Going into this series, Arthur had 3 successive defeats to his credit.
We need another para. Actually, we might need more than just one.
Ok.
For a cricket coach, of our times, the numbers are not encouraging, if not alarming. But more than his team’s current run, Arthur was concerned about a “part” of him that wanted to prove Cricket Australia - his ex-boss – wrong.
Arthur’s stint with Australia was nothing but dramatic. He was sacked by Australia in June 2013, well before the expiry of his contract that originally meant to end after World Cup 2015. Clarke XI were in England. They were only three days away from their practice match against Somerset, ahead of a tough Ashes campaign. Three days before the warm up game, Cricket Australia had to fire him.
Once again, he had fallen out with a Cricket board.
If not for Arthur, that drastic step was something unprecedented for Aussies. He, though, had a previous example to his credit. In 2010, he fell out with Graeme Smith. Though he blamed CSA for his resignation from coaching, just ahead of their tour to India. But it was more than that. His resignation, per se, was not a call of conscience, but a reaction to his employer’s unwillingness in continuing with him.
With him in-charge, Proteas reached the top spot in rankings. But later, both Australia and South Africa suffered Test whitewashes plus poor runs in ICC fixtures. His job, with Aussies, witnessed more controversies than his previous one. Homework saga was just enough to define his suitability for a coaching job.
No wonder Aussies fired him.
Then why Pakistan hired him?
For Pakistan, his appointment came as a result of a rift, between Afridi and Waqar Younis. It was nothing else but Deja-vu’. Like 2011, once again two past teammates failed to make peace with each other and a miserable show at World T20 in India broke all hell loose. Reactions preceded firings and a desperate hunt led to Arthur’s appointment.
Arthur was not a well-thought choice of Pakistan Cricket Board. There were many favourites at home. But the formulation of a consultant panel, comprising Wasim Akram and Ramiz Raja, meant nothing but a polite refusal to all the favourites. Aqib Javed withdrew.
Wasim and Ramiz just wanted to appoint a foreign coach. Arthur was the only choice. His appointment was as desperate as that.
When he joined, Pakistan had a pathetic T20 side. No different were they, in ODIs. But in Tests, they were unbeatable.
Now, after eight series- across all formats -with him, Pakistan end up being a good T20 side, an average ODI side, and a pathetic Test side. With three different captains, he has produced three different results. However, if we remove captaincy out of the equation, it is evident that his stint has helped Pakistan in shorter formats but harmed them in the longer format.
It remains, nonetheless, debatable that WI were a weak opposition in UAE than Kiwis or Aussies in their home conditions. While it paints tougher challenges for Test side, it also hints that most of Pakistan’s wins in shorter formats have come against a weak opposition, in favourable conditions.
But this run of Misbah XI is quite unprecedented. The recurrence of defeats, so consecutive and so weirdly fashioned, is alarming for Pakistan.
Misbah, a hero only months ago, is the biggest villain now.
Something must have gone terribly wrong.
Going down under, forecast for Pakistan wasn’t statistically, or historically, encouraging. But it wasn’t this bad either. They were not favourites. But neither Kiwis nor Aussies completely wrote them off.
But it turned out to be sloppy. What used to be quite a disciplined attack under Waqar’s watch, was now the most inconsistent attack. What used to be a reliable batting line-up, has gone more unpredictable. What used to be a close unit, now seems withering, if not “falling apart”.
This campaign down under has, unexpectedly, provided us more concerns regarding bowling than batting. Fielding is no different. Discipline was the tagline of this team under Misbah, only until a couple of months ago. But now, that too is off, just like many other tags.
Why Pakistan did this? Did they fight it? Or they just helped it? Is it a reliable team any more? With Misbah just an official announcement away, what is the future of this team? In what direction are they heading?
And what about Arthur in all this?
Arthur might have helped Proteas to the top spot in Tests and ODIs but there is little evidence that it was he, who shaped a team out of nothing, not Graeme Smith. For years, Smith was his buddy before he, eventually, became the reason behind his firing aka resignation.
Australia, initially, got it wrong but reached the right conclusion and sacked him, as hurriedly as if they needed to set an example.
Here is how Reuters summed it up, the day it made news.
“Mickey Arthur has been sacked as coach of Australia just two weeks ahead of the start of the Ashes series against England, after a series of poor results and a string of disciplinary issues in the squad.”
That’s what he, actually a part of him, wanted to prove wrong. We need no more words on how it unfolded.
Arthur’s induction into coaching slot, so far, has brought Pakistan more discomfort and less hope. He is what he shouldn’t be, a strict commander. And he isn’t what he should be, a good cricketing brain. His choices are yet to prove themselves good enough. Selection of Babar Azam, in Test side, hasn’t gone well. Nawaz, picked prematurely, hasn’t been tried enough. Irfan’s immediate send-off from England was a healthy gesture but Sohail and Sami’s, even before Sydney, was a poor call.
Before landing in Australia, he spoke to an Aussie radio host and compared Sharjeel to Warner. He also compared Babar to Kohli. Why? And even if he had to, he should’ve made his point after extracting something out of the two.
As for approach towards the game, he is more like Sarfraz, less like Azhar, and least like Misbah. He advocates for attacking brand of cricket. So does Sarfraz. That's debatable.
The notion of attacking cricket, it can be statistically proved, has never sat well with Pakistan, at least in last two decades. While Arthur is all for attack, Misbah was all for defence. Misbah’s approach has yielded more for Pakistan than Arthur's that has been, pragmatically, proven wrong long ago. We might write it off but, recently, there has been a fair bit of confusion, in Pakistan camp, on how to play. Their captain is all for defence while their selector and coach speak high of aggression. And the youngsters know who they need to follow, if they need to retain their spot.
As a result, batting collapses have become frequent. Bowling disciplines have gone highly out of proportion. That has to be, deep down somewhere, a clash of two contrasting ideologies.
Here is how Arthur plans his future. He supported Azhar ahead of a clean sweep against WIndies. But, with Azhar showing improvement in his decision-making as a captain and hitting the form of his life, Arthur surrealistically started endorsing PCB’s liking for Sarfraz across all formats.
Like all, Pakistan seek domination in all forms of Cricket but Arthur's history makes him “the least suitable man” to help them with their quest.
He speaks a lot, and acts even more. Remember that “F” word mantra, on camera, when Irfan strained? And that nonsense at Dubai, when Narine went after Hassan Ali in 2nd T20I? He is a guy, who creates more headlines than game plans. He assigns roles and exercises punishments. But he cannot come up with solutions.
If Pakistan need improvement on how they play Cricket, they need someone capable of something more than just shouting and reacting.
Halfway through the Australia series, Sheharyar Khan spoke of an evaluation of all coaches, at the end of this tour. But he exempted Arthur of the ordeal. Probably, he needs a bigger sample size to judge him and wants to test him more.
Or maybe, a part of Sheharyar also wants to prove someone else wrong.
