CONGRATS GREEN SHIRTS!!!!!!!

Thank you team Pakistan for putting a smile on our gloomy and dispirited faces. It is not every day that the nation as a whole gets to celebrate such an enormous victory. Defeating the Australians with huge margins of 221 and 356 runs in the two-match Test series that concluded yesterday in the UAE is a remarkable turnaround for a team that was struggling only as recently as the One Day series against the same Australia. The second Test victory added another record to the streak of broken records the Pakistan team achieved during the two matches. The shimmering performance by Younis Khan, who scored a double century and three tons in three consecutive innings made him the second batsman in the history of cricket to do so against Australia, not to mention becoming the third Pakistani to reach 8,000 Test runs. The very same Younis Khan was dropped from the One Day squad on the grounds of his poor performance. The skipper Misbah-ul-Haq too came good at last, scoring the fastest fifty in the history of Test cricket and equalling the fastest century record of Sir Viv Richards, thereby once and for all wiping out his reputation of a slow scorer. The same skipper opted out of the last ODI against Australia, saying that he had not been performing well and needed rest. Such outstanding performances by these senior players is a pointed reminder to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that form is temporary, class permanent. It would be unjust to gloss over the younger batsmen like Azhar Ali and Sarfraz Ahmed, both of whom contributed towards the eventual victory. Similarly, when it came to the bowling side, Australia was once again totally outplayed by our young bowlers.
Apart from the stream of records the team has achieved, what makes this win a glorious and memorable one is the fact that all of it occurred at a time when our cricket lay in shambles due to excessive politicisation and mismanagement of the board. The team’s win is a blow against the recent rifts and rivalries within the team that had completely destroyed the atmosphere of the dressing room, as a result of which its performance had been deteriorating every day. Despite not having leading bowler Saeed Ajmal in the team, they managed to pull off a tremendous win, which should be a lesson to the PCB that a mix of young and experienced players can work wonders for the team. The PCB has yet to deal with its internal problems where many officials hold dual jobs, which can (and has) directly affected the team’s performance. Hopefully, the lesson has been learnt and the management from now onwards will fully support the team because only then can good cricket be expected from them.  


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