Pakistan had a golden chance to win a Test series in Australia as the host team was perhaps the weakest side Pakistan ever faced there.
But Misbah and Co failed miserably in all departments. Pakistan’s famed bowling remained unsuccessful in bowling out the Australian team twice in any Test. Australia declared their innings four times in five innings.
According to coach Mickey Arthur’s report, bowlers are more responsible for the defeats than batsmen, but blaming only bowlers is not right. Inconsistency of batsmen should also be looked at. Batsmen never posted big scores in both innings of a Test: At Brisbane 142 & 450; Melbourne 443/9 & 163; Sydney 315 & 244. They never scored 250 plus in both innings.
The PCB should ask bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, who is being paid around one million rupees, what he did during the series. He says he can only teach the bowlers but can’t play in the ground. But this is the situation with every coach. It is the responsibility of the coach to improve the team performance through his skills and experience. Azhar did not do that.
Wahab Riaz bowled 22 no balls in the series. In Melbourne he bowled 12 no balls in one innings. Under the coaching of Waqar Younis, at least this problem was controlled.
In the first Test in Brisbane, Pakistani batsmen fought back remarkably which raised the hope that Pakistan would give a tough time to the Aussies in the next two Tests. But the team surrendered without putting up a fight in both Tests.
It was the fourth consecutive tour to Australia in which Pakistan faced whitewash. We have lost 12 successive Tests in Australia: three each in 1999, 2004 and 2009 and now 2017. Pakistan have won only four Tests in Australia out of 35.
The defeat in the third Test was Pakistan’s sixth successive Test defeat. West Indies beat Pakistan in Sharjah. We lost both Tests in New Zealand and then three in Australia. It was Pakistan’s worst losing streak in history.
Before this, Pakistan lost five consecutive Tests in 1999-2000: three against Australia and two against Sri Lanka.
There are once again voices being raised for removing Misbah-ul-Haq as captain.
Wasim Akram-led Pakistan also faced whitewash during the tour of Australia in 1999-2000.
Inzamam-ul-Haq was captain when Pakistan faced whitewash in 2004-05. In 2009-10 Mohammad Yousuf was the leader when Pakistan faced the third consecutive whitewash in Australia.
In the first three tours, Pakistan had more experienced players. When they failed to save Pakistan how could Misbah alone be held responsible? Is there anyone capable of leading this Pakistan side?
Is changing the captain or the coach enough to improve the performance of the team? No. No International cricket in Pakistan, domestic cricket structure, players’ power, fitness problems are the root causes of the team’s failure in away series.
Since 2000, Pakistan have had 14 coaches, including Javed Miandad, Richard Pybus, Intikhab Alam and Waqar Younis, who served more than once.
If the most successful captains like Clive Lloyd, Ricky Ponting or MS Dhoni led the Pakistan team and John Buchanan, Mike Hesson or Gary Kirsten coached them, they wouldn’t be able to convert the Green-shirts into match-winners.
New Zealand faced whitewash in Test series in India and in ODIs in Australia, but no one asked Captain Kane Williamson to step down or change the coach. We want to win every game without solving the basic issues.
The downfall of cricket in Pakistan has not happened all of a sudden; it has occurred owing to a plenty of problems at the grassroots.
Misbah is the most suitable person to lead Pakistan cricket team. He is a decent, cool captain with a great personality. He’s done an admirable job, especially bringing stability and consistency to the team.
Misbah deserves to be treated with respect. He took over when the team had lost 10 out of its last 15 Tests. He was named captain after the spot-fixing scandal during England tour of 2010.
If Pakistan have been whitewashed in Australian repeatedly, so have been the Australians in Asia.
Over the last four years, every team except Zimbabwe has won a Test in Asia, but not Australia.
In August last year, the Aussies were whitewashed in Sri Lanka and the third Test defeat was the ninth consecutive loss for Australia in Tests in Asia -- the second -- longest losing sequence for an overseas team in Asia after West Indies’ ten consecutive losses from 1997 to 2002. Australia’s last win in Asia came against Sri Lanka in 2011.
Over the past four years, Australia played 19 matches in Asia, won three (including a 2-0 series win in Bangladesh in 2006), lost 11, and four ended in draw.
It was the third consecutive series loss for Australia in Asia. Before this, they had lost 0-2 to Pakistan in the UAE in 2014-15 and 0-4 to India in 2012-13. The loss against Sri Lanka was their fifth in the last six series in Asia.
Veteran batsman Younis Khan finished the series with 9,977 Test runs, 23 short of becoming the first Pakistani batsman to score 10,000 runs.
After consecutive failures, he scored 175* in the first innings in Sydney but this hundred was meaningless as Pakistan lost the Test.
Younis Khan’s lean patch began with a duck in the second innings against West Indies in Sharjah, followed by 2 and 1 in Christchurch, 2 and 11 in Hamilton, and a duck in the first innings at the Gabba.
Surprisingly no bowler from either side managed a five-wicket haul in the series.
Pakistan’s Yasir Shah remained the most expensive bowler as he conceded 672 runs and went past Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan record of 649 runs against Australia in 2003-04.
Yasir took eight wickets at an average of 84, strike rate of 111.1 with economy rate of 4.53.
Fast bowler Mohammad Amir also failed to prove his worth. He took only five wickets, conceding 308.
Wahab with 11 wickets was the most successful Pakistani bowler.
It was the worst series for Misbah as a batsman. He scored 76 runs, averaging only 12.66.
Australian skipper Steven Smith finished with 441 runs, an average of 110.25. He hit two centuries and two fifties in five innings.
Pakistan’s Azhar Ali scored 406 runs in the series, the most by any visiting opener in a three-Test series. He surpassed India’s Sunil Gavaskar’s 352 runs in 1985-86.
Azhar also became the first Pakistan batsman toscore 400 runs in a series in Australia, beating Mohsin Khan’s 390 in 1983-84. He also became the first Pakistan double-centurion Down Under.