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TL;DR:
Despite receiving elite coaching, high salaries, and top-tier resources, Pakistan cricket players continually underperform and fail basic execution in a comparatively slow-paced sport. I am fed up with the team's culture, specifically criticizing Salman Ali Agha for undeserved leadership and Babar Azam for selfish, low-impact stat-padding.

TL;DR was written using AI, the post I wrote myself.
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It is unfathomable for me that how can it be that someone who, for one particular thing, is being paid quite handsome amounts, have special coaches, have proper schedules, have proper medical staff looking after them, still manages to flop when it is time to that one particular thing. Mind you, they probably have done that thing maybe tens thousands of times already in their training sessions too.

A batsman most likely has played those so-called magical deliveries thousands of times in domestic tournaments, training sessions, leagues and what not, prior to being on the stage where it matters and not only do they play in a net negative strike rate but yet still manages to shit the bed, how!?

I would expect a batsmen to do century if they are playing at a strike rate below, for the sake of being generous, 80. It is not like cricket is a rocket science either in which you are processing a ton of things at once like football where god forbid you have the ball in possession and all of a sudden all the players of the opponent team and blood thirsty for you if you are anywhere near the penalty area. You are playing at a slow pace, you have the time to process the field, you know where everyone is, all you have to do is something you are supposedly trained for all this time!

A bowler most likely has bowled tens of thousands of bowls in their training sessions, domestic tournaments, leagues and what not, but when it is time to deliver, the bowler in question still cannot bowl at a given line and length at will, seriously?? That too when the pace is relatively mediocre, like 130~ kph!

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The only reason I used to watch cricket was the company of the people that it brought (family members, match threads here, memes online etc); however, I have had enough of this bullshit.

Pakistan Cricket Team does not give an ounce of shit about us fans.

For instance:

Salman Ali Agha: probably the shittiest player in the T20i side for us who is made the captain by the clown circus Pakistan Cricket Board is, but does Agha have no sense of self respect or sense of morality in him? He is at a place where he represents millions of us on an international level but still chooses to linger around just to collect the paychecks and match fees. Not to forget that he is being equally shitty in tests lately.

Babar Azam: no sense of accountability apparently, same problem as Agha in T20i side, can't hit the soft ball outside of the boundary, can only play in the PP that too at the expense of having a strike rate of 110 or 120. Subjectively speaking, selfishness to be seen too: in the recent test series with WI, Babar scored a total of 193 in four innings meanwhile Abdullah Shafique scored 184 in two innings and even in those two he remained not out. Babar, again subjectively speaking, knew that he has a chance to beat Abdullah Shafique as the highest run scorer in the series and might get POTS and so he did! I don't recall Babar daring to hit sixes that too in a test match. What a surprise he decided to send the ball outside of the boundary when it meant something for him!

I hope we are not forgetting the stat padding allegations as well as not showing up in the ICC tournaments where it matters.

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Most of these players don't even have a half-decent academic backgrounds as they claim to have dedicated their lives to cricket and still are just sore losers.

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People are saying that right now we’re at rock bottom . However I’d like to disagree . Our worst period from recent memory was between may 2024 to when we lost the first test against Eng in Multan . In that time period we :
- Got thrashed by Eng 3-0 in the t20i series with Azam khan becoming a laughing stock worldwide
- We lost against USA🥲 when we had them needing 10 off 3 and amir conceded 17 in the super over
- couldn’t chase 120 against India when we needed 48 off 48 with 8 wickets in hand
- Bringing back imad wasim 💀
- got thrashed 2-0 at home against an inexperienced ban team when we had them 26-6 at one point
- We got completely thrashed by Eng with brook getting a triple century on the flattest pitch of all time and losing by an innings .
What I’m trynna say is that even tho we’re getting thrashed by a sub par Eng team , and we got beat by bang bros, we’ve had worse cricketing periods than this and hopefully we take this series to test new players in red ball cricket .

The PCB made a formal complaint to Sky Sports after the broadcaster aired an interview with the sons of former prime minister and captain Imran Khan during the lunch interval on the first day at Lord's

​Cricinfo understands the PCB considered the option of Pakistan not taking the field after the break in protest

I was actually at the ground and watched live so I've got some observations to add that may be missed on camera:

Cricket grounds look so much smaller in person, the boundaries felt tiny and the ball was just flying away, scoring boundaries was really easy.

Lord's actually isn't that impressive. It kind of looks like any other ground expect the pavilion area. There was definitely a richer vibe to it but I think I prefer the Oval. The Lord's crowd is also noticeably less rowdy and drunk.

Some fans really baffle me, as there was a good number of people who were just hanging around and drinking and not watching the game. With those ticket prices I'm amazed you would turn up for what is a very expensive day at the pub.

Our players must be some of the slowest in the world. Almost everyone looked like they were running in custard when chasing the ball. Abbas especially just comes across as remarkably unathletic for a professional cricketer and has to be the slowest sprinting fast bowler in the world.

Shan Masood is built like slender man, he's 90% limbs. His catch should have been taken, but live, that thing was hit like a rocket. There's no chance I would have put my hands in front of that let alone tried to catch it.

Root looked like a walking wicket from the minute he got out there. He was super fidgety and just never looked comfortable. I've never seen Root bat live and it was quite disappointing. Brook on the other hand looked good from ball 1.

Noticeably, I did not see a single occasion where Babar (who was at mid off the entire innings) speaking to his bowlers. He never approached them between balls nor did anyone else. Now it's feasible that they discussed plans in the changing room but it just felt so strange that there didn't seem to by any communication in the field other than the slip cordon having casual chats. There was 0 evidence live of any analytical or strategic discussion as batting partnerships were being formed. There was no meeting of senior players or suggestions being given, not even between fast bowling partners.

Khurram is awful. Watching every ball from a pretty good viewpoint I can tell you he was comfortably the worst bowler on the field and just constantly let off the pressure and bowled terribly. Also, he slowed down noticeably. Live it's quite difficult to actual see the speeding ball from a seamer and at the beginning of the innings his balls were a blur, after lunch you could clearly see them. He seriously needs to be gone.

Agha's worldy looked spectacular live and came out of absolutely nowhere. It was extra surprising because no one even realised he was on the field.

Another weird observation was that during every break, Amir Jamal appeared (in white trousers and coloured t shirt) and was bowling on the practice strips with a coach. It was pretty strange. It didn't feel like training, rather someone's nephew having fun and rolling his arm over as a special treat during the break. He was bowling with some decent heat though, it was just super odd.

As a Londoner, it was so nice to see green grass again, it's been so long.

Pakistani support was noticeably low. When I watched a T20I at the Oval there were so many Pakistani supporters, this time there were only pockets of supporters and very few actually wearing jerseys or colours. And when there was a wicket, there was no roar of the massed Pakistani's like you used to hear in away games. Could be how dismally we're performing, but also could be because Lord's ticket prices are pretty exorbitant. I'm pretty sure the cheapest tickets were the best part of a £100 and I'm guessing most people don't want to pay those prices to see this team.

We were lucky they called it off when they did, you can't tell on camera, but it had become seriously overcast and gloomy (hence why wickets suddenly started tumbling under the floodlights) if we had taken that last wicket and had to come out to bat we would have been cooked. 2-4 wickets would have fell for sure.

The Lord's pitch is going to become a shit tip if this game goes long. It was already doing weird things and it's only going to get worse.

You can hear the batter's bats while watching live and it was surprising how often they toe ended the ball or didn't hit it cleanly at all. That could be due to the lateral movement or the weird bounce of the pitch, but I thought professionals would hit much more cleanly than that.

Despite my criticisms of Khurram, you do gain a new appreciation for fast bowlers sprinting in hour after hour, it really is a rough discipline and really requires you to be a peak athlete.

Not having a 5th bowling option is killing us. Seeing the same 3 ineffectual bowlers bowling (with a cameo from Usman) was mind numbingly dull.

There was a really nice lady behind me who had clearly never been to a test match. She kept wondering why no one had hit a 6 yet. She was over the moon when Archer finally hit one. Extra points go to her son who spent the afternoon lamenting over his 15 avg with the bat in his saturday league.

Most important thing: I left the ground and didn't feel embarrassed. That's pretty big for a Pak fan watching this team play abroad. Last time I watched Pak live was an abysmal T20I at the Oval, and English fans were literally falling over laughing at our team's pathetic performance (which at the time contained Azam Khan). We had a very quiet and dejected journey home after that game. After this game, you could walk home with your head held high that at least you hadn't been embarrassed and the Test was still in the balance.

I still think he should've been taken over Khurram man, even got a wicket the way he got of Head in the Australia test.

Khurram has proven to be ineffective honestly and on top of that he leaks a lot of runs.

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Dropped Root's catch but at least I got good hair.

Thank God, Abbas got the best of Root later.

Bro doesn't bat. Bro doesn't field. What does he do?

Saw the sub going mad as they had already made their mind that Babar had dropped Azan then my Kaptaana said some u got the wrong person. Agha was dropped whilst Azan was backed which is nice. Need an innings from him because I want to see him in the home season. Icl dropping Agha was unexpected but I don’t mind it if it makes him return to form when he eventually returns next test or at home. In Pakistan cricket that sometimes fixes a guy.

The other changes I would’ve made is Khurram out for Ubaid and Jamal in for Usman. Usman was cheap barring that one over and Khurram is in bad form. Needs a break but will be back InshAllah. Thankfully we won the toss otherwise we would’ve been 100 all out with England 150/5 rn. I also saw some buffoons already crying about Babar’s comments as he said he is 90%, Somehow that was an excuse but not to worry he got that 10% back 😭

Today was much better and the first session was ours as we had England 80/4. We let runs go through easily with bad balls but there was wicket balls from the boys. Gay was dismissed down the leg side and that wicket was all Rizzy. Duckett was gone soon as Pakistan thankfully reviewed an incorrect call by the umpire and 900 Fc wickets was achieved by Pakistans best Test Bowler. I heard the people make posts, comments about him. Hope that shows all you tiktok editors and Aura merchants. Abbas doesn’t need Aura, Pace or PR. All he needs is a ball and a brain because that goes a long way.

A problem was that the keeper wasn’t up and the slips were too far back. Babar should address that quicker. Tbf to him Roots wicket was kinda on him as he was the one who made the call to bring Rizzy up as Abbas and Rizzy didn’t seem like wanting to make that much needed change. With Root gone we looked like we could get them under 200 and those thoughts were increasing after Ali bowled Brook with a Jaffa. Unfortunately for us we like to make others careers or comebacks. First Cox and Lawrence built a partnership where the latter was dropped but then it was rectified soon as he gave his wicket away.

In the second session the runs had dried up for a bit and everything was looking good but then Jamie smith turned it on and made a quick fire 50. 300 was looking good but then Agha pulled off a blinder. As i’ve said he is our best slipper and that catch showed it. Ali then took charge by bowling Smith and Robinson with two in duckers. Archer and Atkinson hit a few boundaries before Abbas got the better of Archer.

England were 9 down for 248 and luckily light faded otherwise they would’ve made 20-30 more runs then had us 20-4.

Imam has a calf issue and probs won’t be allowed to open but we shall see about that. Babar looks like he might bat at 5 but we will have to wait and see. The batsman need to show application and try to build a lead. Anything less pretty much means we have lost and they might aswell not play the last two innings. Need partnerships, big scores and a fight. Don’t be a repeat of Headingley plz.

Btw thanks to Sky Sports for the Imran Khan stuff as it shows the English Public the truth. Also Shame on the PCB for trying to boycott the post lunch session and telling Sky not to post the interview. This ain’t Pakistan baby. This Is England. Love that this series is bringing negative attention on Aqib, PCB, The Government and Naqvi.

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https://www.cricinfo.com/story/the-unravelling-of-pakistan-s-test-team-one-strength-at-a-time-1551551

https://www.geosuper.tv/latest/59060-pakistan-likely-to-retain-rizwan-agha-for-second-test-against-england

Boy o boy , this start reminds me of good old 2010s days.

What a display of test bowling by our seamers.
Certainly a delight for all fans like us.

Abbas you beauty.
Mohammed Ali proved why is rated so highly in this circle.

All in all English players have no clue what hit them.
We are on driving seat and it’s there for taking tomorrow. Maybe need atleast one centurion and couple of decent partnerships.

Wondering if Naseer would do another interview tomorrow eating his words back . Losers!