It’s an open secret in the cricketing world that Pakistan are a highly unpredictable side; they can surprise any side on their day and their batsmen proved it once again against New Zealand in the first Test in Abu Dhabi last week.

Pakistani bowlers bowled out Kiwis at 153 and 249. In the first innings it was a golden opportunity for the Pakistani batsmen to take the control of the game with a huge first innings lead as the Green-shirts had been playing on the same pitches for over a month.

On their home ground (UAE) they beat Australia in all three formats a month ago. But New Zealand bowling, especially that of debutant Ajaz Patel, shocked Pakistan.

It is hard to believe that from 147-4, with 29 runs to win, Pakistan were bowled out for 171, losing the Test by just four runs.

Defeat with only four runs was the narrowest defeat by Pakistan and overall it was the fifth smallest defeat in Test history, the smallest being West Indies’ one-run win against Australia in Adelaide in January 1993.

It was the third occasion when Pakistan failed to chase down targets of less than 200 since 2017. They had lost by 106 runs chasing 188 against West Indies in Barbados and by 21 runs chasing 136 against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi, both last year.

Pakistan lost their last six wickets just for 24 runs, which is also their third worst in a chase. They had also lost 6-18 at SCG in 1972-73 and 6-23 at WACA in 2004-05 in Australia.

Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur was very disappointed with his team’s batting performance; he described the loss one of the worst defeats of his career.

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed blamed poor shot selection by the batsmen as the reason for the loss. "It is disappointing, the start of the day wasn’t good, but the way Azhar and Asad played, we should have finished it off," he said.

But before blaming other batsmen, skipper Sarfraz should also take the responsibility and review his batting performance. In both innings he threw his wicket while playing his favourite sweep shot to Patel.

After the match, the skipper admitted his mistake. "I’m very disappointed that I couldn’t preform with the bat. I’m disappointed with the shot I played and got out," he said. But it was too late.

It was New Zealand captain Kane Williamson’s 9th win in 18 Tests as captain. He described Abu Dhabi win as one of his best so far.

Man-of-the-Match Patel’s 5-59 in the second innings was the second best by a New Zealand spinner on Test debut. Alex Moir took 6-155 against England in Christchurch in 1951.

Batting coach Grant Flower’s performance is also questionable because he has been associated with the team from a long time. ,The batsmen seem not to have learned how to handle a pressure situation.

No doubt, Fakhar Zaman, Imamul Haq, Babar Azam and other youngsters are talented players, but due to lack of proper guidance they are inconsistent and lose their wickets in crunch situations. To remove their weaknesses, an experienced batting coach is required.

The Green-shirts are number one in the Twenty20 format, 5th in One-day Internationals, but seventh in Test matches. No other team has such a huge ranking difference.

India are on top in Tests, second in ODIs, and third in T20Is.

The main issue with Pakistani batsmen is temperament. Due to too many T20 leagues, our batsmen have lost their temperament. Now they want to hit every ball and can’t wait for a bad delivery.

Pakistan traditionally have not had a good run in Test cricket, especially since the early ‘90s. We have been considered good at ODI cricket and just competitive enough in Tests.

Under the mature and calm leadership of Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan became a strong Test side. In 2016, Pakistan became the number one Test team following an impressive 2-2 draw in the four-Test series in England. But it was a short-term success story as Pakistan failed to retain the top position. The year 2017 was not a great year for team Pakistan in Test cricket and the number one team slipped to seventh.

After the retirement of Misbah and Younis Khan, a huge gap has been created in the middle order. The vast experience of both vaterans was the backbone of Pakistan batting.

Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babazr Azam and Haris Sohail are capable but most of the times they throw their wickets. They need more counseling from the coaches to show more character to tackle pressure moments as it is necessary to win Test matches against big teams.