With the PCB getting into punishment mode, a number of senior players, Afridi included, were reprimanded; some harshly and others let off lightly. And while some of the bans were upturned by an arbitrator following appeals filed against them, the leaked video fiasco, which revealed another murky side of Pakistan cricket, with back-biting and camp-culture being prominent, has only made things worse.

And so as Afridi leads his side into the Asia Cup, it is of utmost importance that, first and foremost, he wins the confidence of all the players in the side.

There has never been, and will never be, a lack of talent in a Pakistan cricket team. But while past teams have managed to put behind their individual differences and play as a team on the field, recent evidence has suggested that the current bunch of players are heading in the other direction.

The disaster in Australia was a culmination of all things wrong with Pakistan cricket. Since then, a number of changes have been affected in the hope that things can change for the better. The Asia Cup will determine whether they, indeed, will.

The newly-married Shoaib Malik, who has taken most of the brickbats in recent times for his divisive tactics both as captain and player, has been included in the squad of the four-nation series in Sri Lanka, as has been the other Shoaib (Akhtar), whose made news more for his misbehaviour and freak injuries.

Afridi couldn’t have asked for a bigger challenge so early in his leadership career. Not only will be have to prove himself as a tactician, but he will even have to deal with the likes of Malik and Akhtar in such a subtle manner that they are made to feel wanted in the team, so that they can put their best foot forward for Pakistan’s sake.

This will be far from easy task. But then that’s come with responsibility of leading a side like Pakistan.

Apart from uniting the team, Afridi’s needs to lead from the front himself. And this too will be an equally challenging task since accountability and Afridi have never met each other in the swashbuckler’s 15-year international career.

This is one of the prime reasons why he was not a certainty in the side at one point of time. In fact even these days he is more in the team as a highly-effective and sometimes match-winning leg-spinner.

While his bowling has turned into his greater strength, it is of utmost importance for Afridi to bat with a lot more responsibility now that he is the skipper. One is not saying that he should change his natural gave but if a sense of restraint can aid Pakistan in these times, then it is definitely worth it.

In short, the time has come for Afridi to take on the role of senior statesman now that there are enough mavericks to replace him in the likes of Umar Akmal and Mohammad Aamer.

All the other Asian sides are viewing the tournament beginning on Tuesday as the first step towards finalizing the squad for next year’s World Cup. It’s the same case with Pakistan as well, but they have an additional headache of putting together a ‘team’ first.

Afridi may seem the most unlikely man to reverse the damage done to Pakistan cricket. But responsibility makes people act in peculiar ways. Who knows Afridi, the captain, might be the Man Friday Pakistan have been so desperately seeking. At least the fans would be hoping so.

2nd Test: Australia VS Pakistan at Sydney (3rd Jan-6th Jan, 2010)
Result: Australia won by 36 runs.

3rd Test: Australia VS Pakistan at Hobart (14th Jan- 18th Jan, 2010)
Result: Australia won by 231 runs.

ODI Series:

1st ODI: Australia VS Pakistan at Brisbane (22nd Jan, 2010)
Result: Australia won by 5 wickets.

2nd ODI: Australia VS Pakistan at Sydney (24th Jan, 2010)
Result: Australia won by 140 runs.

3rd ODI: Australia VS Pakistan at Adelaide (26th Jan, 2010)
Result: Australia won by 40 runs.

4th ODI: Australia VS Pakistan at Perth (29th Jan, 2010)
Result: Australia won by 135 runs.

5th ODI: Australia VS Pakistan at Perth (31st Jan, 2010)
Result: Australia won by 2 wickets.

One easy observation off all this is — taking nothing away from the Aussies but Pakistan dug the pit themselves. Yes, they were outplayed but this all began after the Sydney fiasco. After Australia showed their fighting spirit in the Sydney test and won from the mandibles of defeat –Pakistan seemed to have given up. As far as Australia were concerned there was no looking back in their case. They wanted to improve on their performance and Damn well they did. The Aussies not just improved but dominated Pakistan throughout the test as well as the ODI series. The Aussies were relentless with their pace attack and bombed the Pakistani’s with 150+kmph bowling at the WACA. Some of the best performances that raised an eyebrow or two in the Test and ODI series are:

Pakistan

Umar Akmal- Umar Akmal performed pretty decently throughout the tour. He got constant starts in both the Test and ODI format. However, he wasn’t able to convert that into a big one. Perhaps, that was his only short-coming. Otherwise the young 19 year old has performed very well on just his second tour outside the sub-continent and his first against one of the top ranked teams. Umar Akmal is one to watch out for and it is vital that the Pakistani board do take good care of him and nurture the young man’s talent. One wasted opportunity that went begging was Akmal at 3. The management and the skipper Yousuf should have promoted the younger Akmal to 3 considering Younis khan’s poor run with the bat. Nevertheless, Akmal did the best possible,
He could do. Unfortunately, it was not enough for his team.

Mohd Asif- Asif broke into the spotlight with a wonderful display of bowling in the first innings of the Sydney test match with a 6- for. The lanky pace man with his wing and seamed got the Aussie batsmen wanting and was instrumental in bundling out the Aussies for a paltry score of 127. Asif however, was plagued with injuries throughout the series and missed out on quite a few matches. However, he did make good use of his opportunities and performed well in both forms of the game.

Mohd Aamer- Mohd Aamer, in spite of playing very few matches. He is Pakistan’s most interesting and exciting prospect in the future. Aamer with his skiddy pace and all this just at the age of 17 troubled Australia’s best batsmen. His swing at pace didn’t allow the batsmen to score freely especially in the death Overs. In an era where bowlers are injured more than wrestlers the Pakistan cricket board must like Umar Akmal nurture Mohd Aamer’s gifted talent so that he remains injury free and is Pakistan’s next left arm sensation.

Australia
Hard to name the whole team but, the whole team must be credited for their performance and for bringing the best out of each other at crucial moments.

Shane Watson- Shane Watson has simply matured beautifully as not just as batsman but an all rounder. His batting skills in both forms of the game have been exemplary and he has chipped in with his bowling at crucial moments across both series providing crucial breakthroughs. Watson had a wonderful test series against the Windies and continued in the same vain as Pakistan arrived. He deserved a much needed break at the latter stages of the ODI series. Watson is finally reaping the awards he put in behind the scenes. Watson must ensure that his body stays injury free and willing and the 27 year old could become one of the best all-rounder’s in the world.

Simon Katich- Katich has continued his good form for about a year now and has been one of Australia’s most un-noticed consistent performer. Katich’s effort must be lauded as he has been party to many Australian wins.

Michael hussey-MR. Cricket. The perfect name for the man. Fortunately, for Australia he has proven his test spot as well and has made it its own before too many questions were raised. He now looks a firm number 4 for the ashes and shall be one of australia’s pilgrim at the top of the order.

Ryan Harris- Played 3 matches picked up 13 wickets including two five fors and bagged the man of the series award. What a revelation! Truly, describes Australian cricket.

Doug Bollinger- Bollinger made his test debut last season against south Africa at home. His performance was ordinary. Take things forward 1 year later. With Mitchell Johnson resting for some part of the season Bollinger is Australia’s strike bowler. And, mind you Bollinger is still only a replacement for lee or bracken. Is that all about to change? Possibly, yes. Bollinger hasn’t put a foot wrong and should keep his spot even if Australia play full strength.

Both teams had weaknesses. Pakistan need to improve on their lackluster fielding and must show more will and determination in improve. Somehow one feels that with Mohd Yousuf as captain that spark seems to be missing. Pakistan need to Improve soon enough so that they can put forward a better display in the sole T20 contest where fielding is of utmost priority and then carry the same against England.

For Australia everything seems perfect at the moment. If they’d want anything, that would be their captain to strike gold again. Ponting after a super series in the Champions trophy as well as a good one in India has looked pretty average and much below his standards. Barring the match at Hobart ponting has had one of his worst home seasons. But, who can ever question Ricky Ponting. Who can ever question a great.

One thing is for sure ponting will definitely fight back and prove his critics wrong. As far as Australia are concerned they must win this one off T20 contest especially with the young blood that they have infused into their squad and better their T20 record. Australia have an ODI series with the West Indies to come followed by a trip to New Zealand for a 2 T20, 5 ODI’S and a 2 test series. They would want to continue their winning run and re assert their power as the number one ranked team in all formats of the game.

Harris then carried on his demolition job, akin to Adelaide, as Australia trounced Pakistan by a mammoth 135-run margin. None of the Pakistani batsman could reach even 50. Umar Akmal ended up being the top-scorer with 38 as the visiting side crumbled to 142 all out, well before the stipulated 50 overs.

The chase for Pakistan just never took off. Harris, bowling at a rather quick pace, was in his elements right from the word go. Salman Butt edged one that was directed in the other direction and Cameron White picked up one of the better catches you will see in the slips. Younis Khan went as quickly as he came, poking his bat at an outswinger from Harris. Pakistan never managed to recover from there on. On the contrary, they only went deeper into the mire.

Peter Siddle joined in the fun scalping two crucial wickets. He had the struggling Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Yousuf, both caught behind of Brad Haddin, who ended up plucking five catches. There was a semblance of resistance in the form of a partnership between Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam, but alas it could not last long enough to trouble the Aussies. Alam was run-out by Hauritz while Harris cleaned up Umar to all but seal the game. Shahid Afridi played a breezy cameo before departing, but it hardly had any impact on the game. Harris eventually returned to do the mop up job and finish with another five-for.

Earlier, in the day, Pakistan squandered their umpteenth golden opportunity to put Australia under immense pressure. Despite having them tottering at 190 for 6, they managed to let them off the hook as Hussey and Hauritz added 80 valuable runs for the seventh wicket and propelled their side to a highly competitive score.

All this after Mohammad Asif had dismissed Shaun Marsh cheaply and Naved-ul-Hasan accounted for Haddin just when he was beginning to look dangerous. Michael Clarke also failed to contribute much before getting run-out, while skipper Ricky Ponting’s promising innings of 30 was cut short by Afridi.

The in-form Cameron White began the resurrection work for the Aussies, in the company of Hussey, with a gritty 44. Still, Pakistan held the upper hand when Saeed Ajmal managed to send back White and Asif returned to dislodge James Hopes. Unfortunately, Pakistan could not capitalize on the strong position and allowed Hussey and Hauritz to get away.

While Hussey took his time initially, Hauritz went hammer and tongs to post an unbeaten 53 off just 39 balls. As Pakistan began to feel the heat, Hussey too joined in the action. He was brilliant in the powerplay overs. Australia scored at over 10 runs per over during this phase and it was enough to rattle the already flustered Pakistanis.

That itself speaks volumes about the quality and the number of personnel Australia have in their domestic circuit. After Friday’s clinical performance Australia are looking to clean sweep the series and take their total to 7 wins out of 7 this year which includes two in the test arena all be it against the same opposition.

Australia won the toss and with Watson resting it was Haddin and marsh who opened. Haddin played his own game trying to blast the Pakistani’s away but he tried one too many and was finally bowled by Naved Ul Hasan. Australia failed to build strong partnerships at the top of the order but again it was the in-form men in Michael Hussey and Cameron white who rescued the innings with half centuries.

But, the impetus to the innings was added by spinner Nathan Hauritz who absolutely blasted the Pakistani’s all round the park with a 39 ball 53 which included 4 massive sixes. For Pakistan it was Mohd Asif again who troubled the Australian’s with Saeed Ajmal chipping in with a couple too. The Australians made full use of their batting power play and scored 54 of their 5 Overs with the loss of just one wicket. The Australians amassed another big total (Mind you: Every total’s looking big for Pakistan at this stage) and ended at 277 for 8.

Pakistan came out after a good attempt at the Adelaide oval looking pretty confident especially with Fawad alam in – in place of Shoaib Malik. But, it was not to be as Ryan Harris the 30 year old bustling Queenslander with his deceptively quick pace dismissed both butt and khan within a space of two Overs giving himself figures of none for 2. Peter Siddle both Kamran Akmal and mohd Yousuf and once again the Pakistan top order batting left a lot to be desired.

It was again the young paid of Umar Akmal and fawad alam who tried to resurrect the innings with both of them making 38 and 21 respectively. The duo put on 60 before Alam pushed Harris to mid off where Nathan Hauritz who was having a wonderful day (at least with bat and in the field) hit the stumps directly and alam was caught napping.

Ryan Harris got his 3rd wicket off the match after he cleaned up Umar Akmal who tried to drop the ball down and run as the ball came off his bat and hit the stumps. It was tough luck for Umar Akmal but as mark taylor said on channel nine ryan Harris had created his own luck with some splendid bowling.

Shahid Afridi decided to take matters in his own hands with some magnanimous sixes of Hauritz that travelled more than just the distance. He made a quick fire 10 ball 29 before succumbing to McKay. The rest of the tail made a cumulative score of 12 and Pakistan were yet again embarrassed by another professional performance by the close knitted Australian unit.
The season with Pakistan is almost coming to a close and Australia would want to end it without dropping the match and the odds are on them doing so.

It would be interesting to see whether shaun tait who has been brought in as cover up for peter Siddle will get a game or not. If so there is every possibility and for the first time in history that a man who has taken two five wicket halls in two consecutive matches might be dropped. The Australians have had a fantastic series all this without their potential strike bowler Mitchell Johnson who has been rested thus far. If he gets a game it could be yet another clinical win for Australia in the teams last encounter of this series at the WACA cricket ground.

“The nearly man” (Watson) was again nearly there (century) but missed out again due to some lack luster running falling for 93. Ponting set up an aggressive declaration at 454 keeping in mind the abilities of his bowlers. Pakistan in their first innings were bundled out for 258 barely avoiding the follow on.

They struggled to build regular partnerships not just through the match but throughout the series. In Australia’s second innings the inevitable finally happened Watson got to a century all be it after being dropped on 99; nevertheless he did.

He was the only contributor in the Australian innings and Ponting declared at 225 thus setting up Pakistan 422 to win.

Pakistan were off to a decent start and ended day 4 at 170 for 3 with Skipper Mohd Yousuf at the crease along with young gun Umar Akmal. They were just 252 away from what seemed the impossible—and so it turned out to be as Mitchell Johnson ripped the heart out of the Pakistan batting order by getting rid of Umar Akmal and Misbah-ul haq.

Pakistan were reeling at 170 for 5. Nathan Hauritz made quick work of it and mopped up the tail with his first five-for.

Australia didn’t put a foot wrong throughout the test match. They had won convincingly again by a 170 runs.

Australia VS Pakistan: 2nd test Match

New Year Test and Ponting had won the toss and chosen to bat on an overcast morning at the SCG. It was a gamble which didn’t pay off. Mohd Asif had surely woken up the right side of the bed that morning. Australia were bowled out for a 127 in under 45 Overs. Asif had 6.

In their first innings Pakistan managed 333 with their top 5 all making sizeable contributions. Australia displayed a much better effort in their second innings making 381. At the end of day 3 it was Pakistan’s game.

Australia resumed day 4 at 286 for 8 with Siddle and Hussey at the crease. The duo put on 123 for the 9th wicket giving the Aussie bowlers 176 runs to play with. Australia had fought back—but it was still to be Pakistan, rite?

If you give Australia an inch—they will grab it, and so they did! In a small run chase Pakistan were off to a good start at 34 for no loss. Bollinger got the first break through—Farhat had gone. Iqbal and Butt followed suit as Johnson knocked off to in an over—one of ‘em brilliantly taken by Brad Haddin.

Nathan Hauritz took a splendid return catch of Yousuf. Umar Akmal too tried to hoick at one only to be caught by Johnson. That was indeed the final nail in the coffin. Australia had again come out on top.

Truly, it was a combination of Pakistan failure and Australian brilliance.

Not surprising then that Pakistan were blanked 3-0 by what has been rated by many, including credible voices, as an average Australian side. True, the unpredictable Asian side has produced wonderful performances when things have been extremely stormy off the field in the past (the T20 World Cup triumph being the most recent example).

However, this time the mess was just too much not to affect the side, what with regular skipper Younis Khan skipping the Test series, clearly indicating that all is not well in Pakistan cricket.

Among the many disappointments for Pakistan was the performance of the batters. Butt managed to strike one hundred, but his two run-outs really took away all the sheen from the performance while Khurram Manzoor, who was the only batsman to stand tall at Hobart, was brought in too late into the series.

A lot was expected of experienced men like Misbah-ul-Haq and Kamran Akmal. However, while Misbah flattered to deceive, Akmal went from being bad to worse, so much so that he had to be dropped for the last Test. Even as he struggled with the bat, it was with his gloves that he was appalling, and that’s just to put it mildly.

He dropped sitters one after the other and the disease spread to the others too as the Pakistani fielders went on dropping catches. It was a pathetic show in the field, one which would have embarrassed even club cricketers.

The bowling performance was slightly better, but not good enough to trouble the classy Aussie batsmen. Left-arm pacer Mohammad Aamer was undoubtedly the best of the faster men among the Pakistanis. However, his inexperience came to the fore at various crucial moments in the game as he let the pressure off the batsmen.

But, he will definitely learn from this experience and come out a better bowler. Umar Gul was also impressive in phases, but it wasn’t enough to make a significant difference. In the spin department, Danish Kaneria picked up a five-wicket haul. That apart though, he did not do much to aid his team’s chances. It has to be said, however, that with better support from the fielders, they could have done much better.

Turning to Australia, this series will be remembered for the making of Nathan Hauritz. In all three Tests, it was he who bowled Australia to victory. Though not in the same league as Shane Warne, he is unquestionably turning out to be a match-winning spinner for the Aussies. And he was amicably supported by the faster men.

Left-arm pacer Doug Bollinger was the best among the Aussie pacers even as Mitchell Johnson kept on getting the much-needed breakthroughs. Even Peter Siddle, who had struggled in the last few Tests, came into his own at Hobart as the series came to a rather predictable conclusion.