“Why on earth was Babar Azam sent to open? How can you play one spinner?” – Former captain Intikhab Alam slams Pakistan management

Intikhab Alam doesn’t mince his words. The octogenarian is hurt and disappointed with Pakistan’s abysmal performance in the Champions Trophy.

Pakistan, hosting a global tournament after nearly three decades, couldn’t use the home conditions to its advantage, bowing out of the event without a victory. Alam – a former selector, captain and manager of the 1992 World Cup-winning team – blames it on the lack of stability, which resulted in too much chopping and change.

“Cricket is a game of vision. Until and unless you have continuity, you can’t have stability in the team. Unfortunately, for the last two years, four new chairmen have come and gone at the PCB. Along with a new chairman, every time a new selection committee and coaching staff came in. You can’t run a team like that,” Alam told  Sportstar on Saturday.

The success factor

It took Alam nearly 10 years to build a World Cup-winning side since being appointed the first manager of the Pakistan team by the late Air Marshal Malik Nur Khan, then PCB chairman, in the early 1980s. “What I am trying to say is, you need continuity. You need to have faith in your players and coaching staff. Give the captain a free hand. There should be no pressure on him. The major factor is planning and preparing for major events,” Alam said.

He remembers the time when Pakistan travelled to Australia a few months before the World Cup to get acclimatised to the conditions. “That helped. Even though we did not have a good start, we did not give up. Imran (Khan, skipper) told the team that no matter what, we should never lose hope. There was a huge understanding among the players,” he said, adding: “Unless and until you get the right people for the right job, you can’t have the desired result. You need to have cricketing knowledge to survive and bounce back.”

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan (centre) and his teammates celebrate after their victory over England in the World Cup final on March 25, 1992.
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THE HINDU ARCHIVES

The veteran is not in favour of a complete overhaul either. “That’s not the right way to go about it. You must know exactly what you want. The team selection was very poor in the Champions Trophy. When you are playing in this part of the world, how can you play just one spinner, Abrar Ahmed? He is not your best choice and then you have two make-shift bowlers. It’s a 50-over match and you have just one specialist spinner,” he said. “The strange thing was that you were playing at home, and even then, you did not know the conditions. Other teams like South Africa, Australia came in with three-four experienced spinners, and that tells you everything.”

‘Hybrid model should not happen’

Alam, who has put his money on a ‘well-oiled’ New Zealand team, believes the hybrid model may not work going forward as it does not offer teams a level playing field. “India is playing and staying in Dubai throughout. Now the other teams are complaining. But why complain now? This was discussed long ago. Why didn’t they say anything back then?” Alam enquired.

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“This should not happen in the future. The entire tournament should happen in one country so that all teams have an equal opportunity.”

Keeping the scoreboard ticking

A dot-ball disaster has also hurt the team. In the tournament opener in Karachi, Pakistan failed to score off 161 deliveries. Against India in Dubai, the number was 147. This amounts to 51.7 per cent of all the balls Mohammad Rizwan’s men have faced in the tournament thus far. Only Bangladesh (54 per cent) has an inferior dot-ball percentage. Australia has the lowest dot-ball% – 41.4.

With the batters struggling to rotate the strike freely, it made a huge difference.

“If you can’t play with soft hands or hit the ball between the gaps, you cannot get singles or twos. Instead of just blocking it, they could have easily placed it in the gaps with soft hands.

“As a bowler, when somebody hit me for a four or six, I used to be happy. When they take singles or twos, it brought me under pressure. The bowler doesn’t like conceding singles off every ball. It depends on how clever you are, and whether you understand the game and the situation you’re playing in. It’s the job of the coach and the batting coach to tell the player what to do. This is where we lack,” he said.

“When you are blocking the ball, you are putting pressure on yourself. If you block three balls, then it is natural that you would give in to the pressure and play a rash shot. In our team, we lack cricketing sense.”

Babar’s not an opener

Despite moving down to No.3 during the series against Australia and South Africa, Babar Azam opened the innings for Pakistan. The move surprised Alam. “Why on earth will you send him to No. 1? He’s not an opener. No. 3 is the backbone of a batting line-up and your best bet should come in that position, and he should have been told by the coaches to stay there for the entire duration and get a century. If he got you a hundred and someone else chipped in with 50 or 60-odd, you’d have nearly 300 runs on the board and that’s how you should be playing,” Alam said.

Babar Azam leaves the field after losing his wicket against India during the Champions Trophy.
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AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

“Even Babar should have refused to change his batting position. I don’t know who convinced him to open the innings. It was a bad decision.”

Alam, having traced Babar’s entire journey, does not hesitate to admit the star batter has flaws in his technique. “Early on, he used to be very vulnerable because his bat did not come down straight. He is very strong on the on-side and people who have bowled to him earlier know how to get him out. You need to bowl just slightly outside the off-stump because if anything is pitching on the middle-stump or coming in to him, he will hit you through mid-on or squarish mid-on. It does not matter how good you are, it’s important to realise that there’s always something wrong when things are not going your way,” he said.

When things don’t go a team’s way, it’s also the prerogative of a captain, coach and manager to get things back on track. And having done the same for several years as a manager, Alam believes that during his time, they knew the opposition teams inside out.

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“We knew that the Champions Trophy would be held in February, but what did we do? Did we prepare? We were busy chopping and changing, but you don’t play cricket like that. Not anymore. In the 1950s or 1960s, there was no concept of coaching. But that does not work anymore,” Alam said, clarifying that it’s important for coaches and managers to build a rapport with the players.

Need to have players’ back

Having handled the superstars of 1992 and 2009, when Pakistan won the T20 World Cup, Alam understands the importance of backing players. “You can’t select players based on their performances in the leagues. Four-day cricket is essential. Bowlers need to get fit and ready. These days, you pick somebody because he has done well in the leagues, but that’s not the right way. Unless and until your First Class cricket is proper, you can’t produce good cricketers.”

The PCB unceremoniously parted ways with Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie as head coaches of the white and red-ball teams respectively late last year, following a change in the Board’s leadership.

Gary Kirsten, former head coach of Pakistan.
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Dan Mullan/Getty Images

But Alam feels that with foreign coaches, language becomes a huge barrier. “Their philosophy of playing cricket is totally different. Since Gillespie had come from Australia, he had a different mindset. For a coach, it’s extremely important to understand the mindset of a Pakistani player.

“Unless you understand that, you are going to struggle. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you are not able to get the best out of each player, you’re gone. You can only do better if you understand the psyche of a player,” he stated.

In his long career, Alam remembers handling Sarfaraz Nawaz has been the toughest since he was a ‘prankster’, but even then, he managed to keep everyone together and ensured there weren’t any slip-ups. Similarly, he thinks that going forward, when Pakistan appoints a new coach, he should be given enough time before being judged.

“You have to give him time. You need to understand what he wants and how he wants to go about it. You have to give him a chance, and not unnecessarily criticise as that could put undue pressure on him,” Alam said, “If you have brought a coach, you have to give them at least two years to build a team.”