“She (Sana Mir) failed to lead Pakistan in a proper way. Her own performance too was not satisfactory. The board is likely to take a decision next week about her future role in the team,” a source in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told APP recently.
Singling out the captain for the results of the team has been our go-to play every time national sides have failed to deliver on the biggest stage. It is ironic that it is in the realm of scathing criticism where we treat male and female athletes equally!
Question marks over Sana’s captaincy are understandable, even if over the top. But it’s the fact that there are apparently plans to completely remove her from the squad altogether that put question marks over the veracity of the claim or indeed on the judiciousness of those at the helm of women’s cricket.
With 153 runs in the tournament Sana Mir was Pakistan’s second highest run-getter, and that too in the lower middle-order. And with 6 wickets in the tournament she was only two behind the leading wicket-taker Asmavia Iqbal who led the charts for Pakistan.
Bismah Maroof is being peddled as Sana’s successor. Had Pakistan not lost Bismah in the second game against England, the results in the matches that followed might have been different. But in no sporting guidebook – or gospel of logic – would dropping Sana Mir and expecting a Bismah-led Pakistan to perform miracles make any sense.
As discussed last week, the same players that ended up as the only winless side in the tournament had done enough for Pakistan to be in promising positions intermittently throughout the campaign. These included matches against three of the four semifinalists, South Africa, India and Australia.
Where Pakistan lack, and need a lot of work, is the translation of those positions into wins. And that’s only possible when individuals step up collectively, and consistently.
Finishing winless should not be taken lightly. But knee-jerk reactions could make matters worse
For example, Pakistani batters scored five fifties in the tournament, and each of them came in a different match – Nahida Khan (79) against South Africa, Ayesha Zafar (56*) against England, Sana Mir (50) against New Zealand, Javeria Khan (58) against West Indies and Nain Abidi (57) against Sri Lanka. Had two of these come in the same match, Pakistan probably wouldn’t have finished the tournament winless.
Similarly, only two Pakistani batters scored two 30-plus scores in the tournament: Nahida Khan and Sana Mir. This meant that Nahida (173), Sana (153), Javeria (127), were Pakistan’s top-scorers in the tournament with Nain (114) and Ayesha (108) making up the top five. When the batters’ cumulative scores for the tournament is in the 100s, at a time when batters of other teams are striking centuries, this right here is the biggest problem for Team Pakistan.
Similarly, barring the twin left-arm spin attack by Nashra Sandhu and Sadia Yousuf against India, no two bowlers hunted in pairs to restrict the opposition. The opening spell by Asmavia and Diana against Australia was impressive, and managed to squeeze that world class batting lineup, but eventually they ended up with almost 300 because the pressure wasn’t maintained.
Asmavia (8) was the top wicket-taker for Pakistan, with Nashra, Sadia and Diana finishing with seven wickets each. Again, while Nashra’s 4-for stands out as Pakistan’s best bowling performance in the tournament, the 3-fors by Asmavia (England), Sana Mir (Australia) and Diana (Sri Lanka) all came in different matches as well.
Without a single player scoring two half centuries, and with only one 4-for spell in the entire tournament, any team would struggle. That even the performances that were next in line came sporadically extinguished any chance Pakistan might’ve had of putting up any wins.
Let’s make no mistake about it: finishing winless is a failure that should not be taken lightly. But what could make matters worse are knee-jerk reactions.
This is the first time the Pakistan women’s side has competed with all of the best ODI sides in one stretch. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the team can’t build on it in the near future.