A Distraught Pakistani and dear friend of the flyslip, Zaid, sent this one in.
Captain Malik or Captain Mistake?
I feel that twenty twenty cricket is the easiest form of the game to captain in. Shoaib Malik, Pakistan’s young skipper, failed badly vs Sri Lanka in both matches. The first match he got away with, but if it was test or 50 over cricket the result would most probably be very different.
Malik’s Mistakes vs Sri Lanka
1. (first match) captain Malik wins the toss and choses to bowl first on a pitch that is getting harder to bat on
2. (first match) Captain Malik brings Umar Gul on in the 15th over so he can only bowl 3 overs max (note gul took four wickets in those 3 overs)
3. (first match) Captain Malik comes into the match and plays one hell of a slow innings forcing other batsman to take risks and get out
4. (1st match) Captain Malik sends in Sohail Tanvir ahead of recognized batsman Fawad Alam and makes Pakistan’s task more difficult
5. (2nd match) Captain Malik brings on Umar Gul too early and well…just watch this to see the result
6. (2nd match) Captain Malik brings on Akhtar in the 15th over…now this is where Gul would have been brilliant as shown in the next over Gul bowled who took a wicket and should have had another
Now after that Akhtar over the match was over. Now you say “why bring on Gul? he got hammered by a rookie!”
Well a few days before captain Malik said Gul is the best bowler with the old ball, so why bring him on in the 5th over and then why not bowl him when the opposition is under pressure rather than giving it to the out of form Shoaib Akhtar.
All this one a short T20 match. Malik’s time as skipper is running out. I would take anyone as captain now- Afridi, Misbah, Younis, or even Yousuf
I’d like to say to Zaid that I really would like to see the Pakistan team play – but when is that going to happen – keep reading about all the forthcoming tours – but when do I get a chance to criticise Malik myself? The only Pakistani cricketers I see are in county cricket here – either very very very good – like Imran Tahir who completely changed round Hampshire’s fortunes this season – or not at ALL good (Shoaib at Surrey)
whose fault is that? all the countries are canceling on pakistan for the wrong reasons
you saw the t20 last week, he looked lost and made some horrible decisions
you saw him in the asia cup, vs india vs south africa
its not like malik has been captain for a short while its been over a year and nothing hes done has impressed me
Ceci> How true, even I havent seen Pakistan play since…urrm I think the 2020 World Cup ?
They have no test cricket for this whole year.
But it looks like that new bloke Ijaz Butt, any relation to Salmans butt?, is doing a proper clean up.
Lawson apparently is 'useless' according to him.
Maliks captaincy is pretty weak. Ive heard a lot of noise from the Pakistani contingent about it.
Lets see if Zaid shows up. Ive sent word to him.
unfair to lawson IMO what Ijaz Butt said
what more can a coach do? the captain needs to lift his team and make the big decisions during matches
Zaid> In all fairness to Ijaz, I think any country would be looking to chop off Lawson considering the performances he has delivered so far.
Malik is to be blamed too but surely the coach has to take on some responsibility. He is the man calling the shots behind the scenes.
Although no one knows what kind of power he has though.