I'm a bit of a father of optimism as you may have noticed by now. Well, Pakistan stand a good chance of beating Australia this summer in the Test series in my view and I am being downright serious. Even with their amazing capability where they amazingly lose from the jaws of victory! Even after their disastrous winless tour of Australia and the continuous losing streak against them. Because, the bottom line is : "Anything is possible with Pakistan cricket;" unfortunately, this analogy is often worse than good.
Series Possibilities:
2-0 to Aussies= unacceptable/poor/shambolic/embarrassing even more
1-1= Perfectly Acceptable/Very reasonable/ I will be happy in other words
2-0 to Pakistan= I will be stunned as I'm sure many of us will be but its not out the window
1-0 to Australia= Average, probably most expected
1-0 to Pakistan= Top result, will be a top achievement considering our lack of....
0-0= Rain is king, but this is very unlikely as you would know even in the UK, the home of rain but in Pakistan, the home of bad light and non-conductive test cricket it would have been a possibility...
WHY Pak May Win:
1) Ashes flashbacks. The last two times Australia have played Test Cricket in England they have lost ; 2005 and 2009
2)Pakistan will most probably have the bigger support.It is supposedly meant to be a "home" series for Pakistan. Certainly fans are expected at both Lords and Headingley with the vast Pakistani population in the UK.You might find me aka Maz there too, do say hi!
3)In contrast, with Australia, Pakistan have phenomenal memories in their minds of England; its where they won the 2009 T20WC after beating the Lankans at Lords on 21/06/09 by 8 wickets. Actually so have Australia; the 1999 WC final where they THRASHED Pakistan, oh who cares; we have the latest glory to savour upon in terms of tournaments played at the UK, yeah its lame but psychologically it all adds up in the end !
4)Australia are out of form and are not playing well at all against England in the ODI series. However, one can argue this would make them more determined to revive their form against the Pakistanis, but we'll certainly fancy our chances against them considering thier most recent international cricket form in England too!
5) Pakistani players have more county cricketing and league cricketing experience which could be useful. This includes the likes of Danish Kaneria, Afridi, Malik, Gul whereas the likes of Azhar Ali and Zulqarnain Haider have played league cricket for a few years now.Therefore, adapting to the conditions shouldn't be a problem at all for quite a few of the players
Overall, I am expecting Pakistan to have a successful summer of cricket, despite the poor selection and absences of YY and YK and hope they are able to put in some top performances to please their supporters, something they were unable to do in Australia this 09/10 winter.Pakistan play their first Test on the 13th of July at Lords.
Oz special
14 years ago
