Wisden: Why are Pakistan this bad at test cricket?

[sage]

https://www.wisden.com/series/england-vs-pakistan-m-2026/cricket-features/why-are-pakistan-this-bad-at-test-cricket

[singhvivek141]

Simple answer

1. No doctored "home" umpires

2. No bottle caps

3. Strict ICC regulations on illegal bowling action

4. Less chances of age fraud

5. No IPL (believe it or not, thats the biggest gripe they have).

6. Other Non Cricketing Reasons.

Edited August 22 by singhvivek141

[zen]

Every country goes through a lean phase in one format or the other. The great WI have declined in tests as well - one of the reasons could be players’ disinterest in longer formats considering the amount of cricket being played now. 
 

The teams that come out of such a lean phase, usually, would have gone back to the basics, backing the right talent for a period of time (no constant chopping and changing). 
 

If the reason is disinterest in the test format, maybe Pak can consider fielding a joint/combined test team with similar nations such as Bangladesh - maybe do a “Dhaka Agreement.”
 

 

Edited August 22 by zen

[putrevus]

Pakistan is useless side in all formats. It is not just test cricket.

 

Lack of cricket at home for decade plus was bound to take its toll.Like WI in 1970s and 80s, county cricket was finishing school for many of Pakistani cricketers.

 

PCB morons have no clue how to run the board.Which idiot steals the trophy.

 

 

[sage]

 

[Lone Wolf]

Mohsin Naqvi, Sharifs and Asim Munir are bigger reasons along with lack of Talent in the system.

 

Pak ex players and media lack the guts to bash Naqvi otherwise they will be rotting in Jail somewhere.

[Tillu]

The biggest reason is due to the shortage of funds required to develop gross roots cricket infrastructure which was provided by playing bilateral series with India in the past which is totally absent now.

Edited August 22 by Tillu

[mani sha]

GDP is proportional to success in sports . Pak poor economy is now catching up in sports last 15 years . If I were their board , I would bring in a ceo from outside to run their cricket - a- create a 10 year framework starting at under 12 . B- develop injury and workload mgt for all age groups starting with under 12 c - have 5 grounds with excellent facilities d - support 6 good domestic teams with good salary , infra and coaches . 
 

Pak system of plucking talent like Akram , past history of age fudging , ball tampering , illegal actions is no longer working . Add the army interference and lack of continuity with ex players almost creating rifts in team is not helping their cause.  

[tapandrun]

Bad at test cricket ?? is pak team good at other 2 formats  ???

 

pak team is not good across all 3 formats, same group of 5/6 players have been playing all 3 formats and they have failed to master any of the format. 

master 3 formats is difficult for a player, there can be few exceptions. 

 

Same 5/6 players are dropped just for the sake of dropping regardless how they are performing in that format. After some time they bring back same players.

Since Odi wc-23 babar have been removed and became captain about 3/4 times.

 

No current t20 batter has the skill set to bat the way others(from teams like aus/nz/sa/wi) are batting. team can not score 330+ in Odis which is becoming a par score now. And there is no world class test batter or no-one even in the reckoning

 

Pak pace bowling is all times low on pace and skill regardless of format , only spin has some spark with mystery spinner and some decent spinner in test

 

 

 

Edited August 22 by tapandrun

[DeepSpace]

where are pak phasst baaawlers? All I see are trundlers!

Edited August 22 by DeepSpace

[tapandrun]

6 minutes ago, DeepSpace said:

where are pak phasst baaawlers? All I see are trundlers!

There is ali raza and akif javed . Raza touched 150kmph in psl and akif touched high 140s kmph.

But can they do it in tests ?? Trends says otherwise.

[Lone Wolf]

5 minutes ago, tapandrun said:

There is ali raza and akif javed . Raza touched 150kmph in psl and akif touched high 140s kmph.

But can they do it in tests ?? Trends says otherwise.

PSL speed guns are al jacked up by good 3-4 kph at the very least.

Even this Mohammad Ali was bowling above 140-145 in PeeSL..

 

That being said Akif and Ali Raza aren't out and out Trundlers like the ones we are seeing.

Raza should have been part of Test squad at the very least and Ubaid shouldn't have been dropped after a reasonable debut in PoS

Edited August 22 by Lone Wolf

[Nikhil_cric]

1 hour ago, Lone Wolf said:

PSL speed guns are al jacked up by good 3-4 kph at the very least.

Even this Mohammad Ali was bowling above 140-145 in PeeSL..

 

That being said Akif and Ali Raza aren't out and out Trundlers like the ones we are seeing.

Raza should have been part of Test squad at the very least and Ubaid shouldn't have been dropped after a reasonable debut in PoS

Don't think speeds are jacked up but speeds will drop when playing Tests. 

 

Vyshak who played for Punjab Kings last year clocked 145/146 kph but I doubt he'd clock that in the longer formats. 

 

They just don't have the bowlers anymore to maintain anything above 133 + kph average speed in Tests. 

 

 

[Lone Wolf]

4 minutes ago, Nikhil_cric said:

Don't think speeds are jacked up but speeds will drop when playing Tests. 

 

Vyshak who played for Punjab Kings last year clocked 145/146 kph but I doubt he'd clock that in the longer formats. 

 

They just don't have the bowlers anymore to maintain anything above 133 + kph average speed in Tests. 

 

 

From what I have seen this bowlers don't clock these speeds even in T20 or ODIs when they represent Pakistan.

Akif Javed never bowled above 145+ when he played for Pak.

 

CPL also used to have speed guns which were jacked up.  Hasnain nearly used to bowl 157-158ks as per CPL I think 

[singhvivek141]

11 minutes ago, Nikhil_cric said:

Don't think speeds are jacked up but speeds will drop when playing Tests. 

 

Vyshak who played for Punjab Kings last year clocked 145/146 kph but I doubt he'd clock that in the longer formats. 

 

They just don't have the bowlers anymore to maintain anything above 133 + kph average speed in Tests. 

 

 

 

Actually Umesh, Shami & Bumrah maintained their pace across formats.

They didnt clock 150 consistently, but kept on oscillating in 138-145k range with peak around 147k across formats. Prasidh is another who who more or less maintains his pace in Tests and often goes upto 145-146 when in rhythm.

 

That 145/146 you saw wasnt the natural pace of Vyshak. He is more of a 130-138 bowler. Even Bhuvi has clocked 144-145 in IPL but he is a 128-135k pacer. 

Harshit Rana too is going in same direction, he has bowled 149k in IPL but for India he is happy bowling at 135-142k.

[Norman]

As if they're a top team in White ball cricket..

 

They're a mediocre side just like Sri Lanka, West Indies  who are just living on past reputation and old cliches like unpredictable, mercurial, phasst bowlers bla bla bla.

[bsriharsha]

Their country is in the dumps and that reflects on their cricket.

[zen]

3 hours ago, mani sha said:

GDP is proportional to success in sports

That is not necessarily accurate (Are you referring to GDP per capita.? Note that in terms of GDP per capita - Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have the highest GDP per capita in Asia. India is tied with Bangladesh). Otherwise India would be winning many more medals in Olympics, qualify for FIFA World Cup, and so on. 
 

Pakistan itself has won Olympic medals and World Cup in hockey. It used to do well in Squash too. 
 

Kenyan runners used to do well in long distance running. 
 

Better GDP can help with sporting infrastructure, open more avenues to take sports as a profession, create a larger pool of athletes and sports person, relatively more money spent on each individual, and so on, but it is not as direct as you imply.
 

Better GDP equals success in sports appears like a story that many in India tell themselves to console for a lack of success in sports in general despite a population of a billion plus.
 

Cricket is an outlier with only a handful nations in play. Dominance in cricket is hardly noted globally relatively speaking. 

Edited August 22 by zen

[bsriharsha]

They are a dishonest nation which always wanted to take shortcuts. The same which applies to their government now also applies to their cricketers as well.

1. Their government begs for handouts all the time when their military buys new arms.
2. They play the nuclear card in any conflict with India.

3. Their cricketers routinely age fudge, ball tamper their way and deceive their fansays into thinking they are special talunt. All the while, The army gives the facade to their idiotic population by claiming they won the war, they won in 1971, they won in kargil , they won in operation sindoor and what not

4. when the population is brainwashed and kept in control, where's the need for them to improve.
5. Also, their govt sells onions to raise USD for forex while their domestic population have to pay 200 PKR per kg. Onion rate per KG is like 20 bucks a kilo in India right now. That's the need for the government right now. Raising forex is more important than the well being of their citizens. 

 

With all those idiocies going on right now, what would the citizens do, be equally dishonest as what the government really is.

[Nikhil_cric]

3 hours ago, singhvivek141 said:

 

Actually Umesh, Shami & Bumrah maintained their pace across formats.

They didnt clock 150 consistently, but kept on oscillating in 138-145k range with peak around 147k across formats. Prasidh is another who who more or less maintains his pace in Tests and often goes upto 145-146 when in rhythm.

 

That 145/146 you saw wasnt the natural pace of Vyshak. He is more of a 130-138 bowler. Even Bhuvi has clocked 144-145 in IPL but he is a 128-135k pacer. 

Harshit Rana too is going in same direction, he has bowled 149k in IPL but for India he is happy bowling at 135-142k.

I know but that's my point. These guys can go all out in PSL.  They probably train just enough to bowl four overs at full pace in the PSL to get some attention but that's not their natural pace just like it isn't for Vyshak . I don't think the guns are particularly jacked up. 

 

They don't have bowlers like 2018 era Shami, Umesh , Ishant who could maintain very good average speeds over an innings. 

 

The last bowler who maintained high average speed for them in Tests is Wahab.

 

Naseem and Shaheen showed promise but their speeds went down after 2022.