Column

It was disappointing to see how Pakistan performed in the opening one-day international at Guwahati.

They are simply not playing as a unit at the moment and unless they manage to turn things around very fast, India will have trampled all over them.

Naturally, a lot of responsibility lies with coach Geoff Lawson. He is relatively new to the job and our team, though he has been with the side for some time now.

He has been a part of, first the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa and then the series at home against the Proteas, and he should be getting familiarised with the task by now.

Our team has not been doing justice to its potential for the past few years.

I told Lawson in Karachi some time back, “If you lose to South Africa, the Pakistani public will not say anything to you. But if you lose to India, the people will not spare you.”

In this series, Lawson too is under as much pressure as the team itself. Though we have had overseas coaches, not just now, but for the last eight years or so, there is very little to show for that in terms of overall improvement.

Conversely, look at India. They don’t have a foreign coach — don’t even have a full-time coach — with all the work being done by local coaches and they have done well.

Very well, I would say. Against Australia they may have lost the one-day series but that was against the strongest team in the world.

Pakistan, on the other hand, was beaten in both the Test and ODI series by South Africa, who are not really in the same league as the Aussies.

They did not field well, did not bowl well and did not bat well. A team can only afford a poor performance in one department.

And Pakistan, at the moment are failing in all three.

India are strong chasers and no total seems to worry them, so putting plenty of runs on the board is vital.

I would say that holding Shahid Afridi back is a good idea. There is no use sending him up the order. If he is out early, one option down the order is gone.

He is a very senior player now in the side and it is best left to him to decide where he should bat.

Otherwise he can be sent in depending on the situation and he should look to capitalize if the openers and rest of the top order get a good start. In any case, he must bat ahead of Mizbah-ul Haq.