Aaqib Javed's post mortem: Lack of experience in the ranks hurt Pakistan
If you’re trying to identify the reason for Pakistan crashing out of their home Champions Trophy, look no further than this one: personnel. Specifically, the inexperience of that personnel. This was the main thrust of white-ball head coach Aaqib Javed’s post-mortem.Pakistan have one more match to play, of course, against Bangladesh, who are also already out of contention for the semi-finals. That match in Rawalpindi on Thursday is also under serious threat from rain, and perhaps a sodden outfield, with this having been a wet week in the city.Aaqib spoke at length about the various permutations and combinations in selection that could have improved the team’s output this tournament. But, clearly still hurting from the loss to India on Sunday, he made the point that India’s XI had a far greater body of work on their resume than Pakistan’s.Related
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“When Pakistan and India are playing, it’s not only cricket – it’s more than that. You need a lot of experience,” Aaqib said. “This Indian team was the most experienced – they have almost 1500 games together. And Pakistan is on the bottom, with less than 400 games together. If you look at players like Babar Azam, [he] is the only one who has played more than 100 games. Then there’s Mohammad Rizwan [88 ODIs] and then Shaheen Afridi [64 ODIs].”The rest of them have less than 30 matches. Tayyab Tahir has played like eight games. Imam-ul-Haq [73 ODIs] was coming back in the team. The main thing is, when nothing works, and when you are talking about more than a game, then the experience counts. There is no doubt.”Part of this lack of experience was also down to having lost Fakhar Zaman, one of their most aggressive batters and one of the stars of the 2017 Champions Trophy triumph, in the first game of the tournament. They were also without Saim Ayub, who had hit 235 runs and taken two wickets in Pakistan’s 3-0 ODI series in South Africa in December. Ayub had been ruled out of this tournament with an ankle injury.”Similarly, we had to bring in Khushdil Shah because Saim was unfit. The reason is that in one-day cricket, you cannot go with five bowlers. You have to make a combination of seven batsmen and four bowlers.1:31
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“When Saim was there, he used to bat at the top and he used to bowl five to seven overs. When he was not there – we saw that if you do a little research – even with the terrific performances that Khushdil Shah has given in one-and-a-half years of cricket, his wickets… there’s no comparison. It was not even a close case or anything. But our job in the selection committee was to give the best replacement option.”In the absence of these players, it was down to the big five: Babar, Rizwan, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah and Afridi to step up, Aaqib said. But match-winning performances from these players never came.The five of them have come under particular fire in Pakistan since the team’s exit.”A common person who doesn’t play and is not part of the team management wants reasons and the names of people because of whom this team is losing,” Aaqib said. “As far as Babar, Rizwan, Shaheen, Naseem and Haris are concerned, our plan was to make the best possible XI or XV. There is no doubt that Shaheen, Naseem and Haris are excellent bowlers. If you compare them with the bowling attack of any team, they are one of the best fast-bowling options.”And if you look at Babar – apart from him, what other options do you have? We always say that if the team loses, change the team. This is the most inexperienced team already.”