Now, this is what passes as effective sports journalism. This has been a year in which Pakistan tied India in India in tests, won a ODI series against India, tied a test series against the West Indies and swept them in the ODIs, defeated England in tests and ODIs, and beat India in another test series. Now that Pakistan has lost the ODI series against India, suddenly, if you listen to this article, its time to man the lifeboats. Pakistani cricket is falling apart.
Some of the criticism is valid. Poor fielding. An opening pair crisis in tests and ODIs. But the remaining criticism is just plain silly. Questioning Shoaib Malik's performance at the number 3 position has become a very popular thing to do these days. A well sorted out article in Cricinfo, goes through Malik's stats and shows that he is the most effective batsman at the No. 3 position over the last 18 months and over the last 18 months is the fourth best ODI batsman in the world. Why people would want to mess with that kind of success is really ludicrous.
I think everyone needs to calm down and take this entire series in some form of perspective. Salman Butt and Rana Naved have had a poor ODI series. Imran Farhat once again demonstrated why he has been in and out of the squad with his performance. Yousuf and Younis didn't really click effectively in the last few matches. Its alright. This is a good squad.
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