It makes me laugh when people suggest Shoaib Akhtar should have been in the field when India was piling up amassive score on the third day of the Rawalpindi Test. He should have tested himself out for an over or two is thepopular refrain.
Who are they to know he never checked himself out? He must have done so in the nets prior to the day's playand found out he wasn't in any condition to bowl as only few can in international cricket.
Please also do not pick him for laying his bat about in the final moments ofthe Pakistan innings. A physical situation can improve over an extra night's rest. No cricketer wouldhold himself back when the opposition is tightening the screws on a match.
I also must clarify he never told me Inzamam-ul Haq was not giving him the field he wanted. Some imaginativewriter has been working on it.
At the end of it all, the startling truth has been the failure of the Pakistani fast bowlers to subdue the famed Indianbatting line-up. Shoaib tried all through to get his out-swinger going but could not summon it. Mohammad Sami wasnowhere his best and suffered from a fault in his bowling action.
Sami is a different force when he is able to bowl his out-swingers. But in this series most of the time hisdeliveries, instead of leaving the batsmen, were going on to their pads and were easy pickings. He also had the rough of afew decisions and dropped catches piled on his agony.
How we wanted Umar Gul to be available in the final Test. He did in Lahore whatthe Indian bowlers did throughout the series -- bowl from stump to stump at a good length and allowthe ball to move.
The Pakistani bowlers could not get the reverse swing they wanted and as I had said before the series began,the Indians were too adept to fall to it alone. Pakistan should have picked Abdul Rauf at some stage of the series. He is cast inthe Gul mould and has picked wickets by dozens in the domestic competition.
The Indian bowlers, hitherto believed to be the weak link, bowled out of their skin.Lakshmipathy Balaji was splendid in the final Test and Irfan Pathan throughout the series. Theystuck to a line within the stumps. The Pakistan batsmen would do well to take a leaf out of the remarkable Indians.
Rahul Dravid is a mobile coaching clinic. You just have to watch and imbibe his technique. Pakistan were on a roll atthe fall of the first wicket but he just blunted them and was rock solid. I have also begun to come round to the thinking it iswrong for critics to pick on Virender Sehwag or V.V.S. Laxman for their technical deficiency.
All the Indian batsmen have remarkable body balance at the point of executing strokes. Itgives them control.
The Indians finally appear to have a good combination. It has been together for the last two or three years and is nowsettled. Pakistan did not have the batsmen who could match them. They did not show the maturity required at this level. EvenYousuf Youhana was nowhere near his best in the series.
Pakistan erred greatly by not recalling Younis Khan. He has five centuries from 15 Tests and could have steadied theinnings. Young Asim Kamal showed if you have the proper technique, this Indian attack could have been mastered.
Most of the Pakistani batsmen were falling over and playing away from their body. They looked worse in the secondinnings but then it is understandable. After fielding for two days in the sun, it is difficult forthe openers to get their feet going. They needed better footwork to survive the moving newball.
Still, it is not as if the sun has set on Pakistan cricket. We have always been blessed with exceptional talentand we don't lack them even today. But we need proper people to run it. The chairman of ourboard is weak and so is the case with the coach and manager.
Inzamam should back his young team and help them become the cricketers the country needs.
PTI
