Bangladesh played amazing game of Cricket in the 2 matches they played. Every player gave their 100% and helped the team to win historical series on Pakistan soil. Some stand out players for Bangladesh were Liton Das - 194 runs in 2 innings at an average of 97 and best score of 138 runs, Mushfiqur Rahim - 216 runs in 3 innings at an average of 108 and best score of 191, Nahid Rana - 6 wickets in 4 innings at an average of 39.5. Stats seems to be poor but the impact he had in the 2nd test helped the team win. And finally the player of the series Mehidy Hasan Miraz - in batting: 155 runs in 2 innings at an average of 77.5, in bowling: 10 wickets in 4 innings at an average of 18.6, which is extraordinary.
For Pakistan this series was a nightmare and they need to improve a lot in terms of their brand of cricket overall. Even though, they lost the series but they had some players who played well like Mohammad Rizwan - 294 runs in 4 innings with an average of 98 and best score of 171, Saud Shakeel - 159 runs in 4 innings at an average of 39.75. He only had one good inning of 141 runs and Khurram Shehzad - 9 wickets in 3 innings with an average of 24.44. He was the only successful bowler for Pakistan.
A very poor performance by Pakistan but it was not only because of the players the internal team environment is not so good and politics is ruining them.
WHAT WENT WRONG FOR PAKISTAN?
Around 3-4 days before I saw Dan Weston's post on LinkedIn, Misbah Ul-Haq, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Malik being appointed PCB ‘Mentors’.
According to Cricinfo, “The mentor roles have come under scrutiny not least for the salaries involved. Each of the five is believed to be on three-year contracts, earning in the range of PKR 5 million (approx. USD 18,000) per month. Those salaries have raised eyebrows because they are higher than what is paid to all but the most elite Pakistani cricketers - the category A players, Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan, in the central contracts pool.”
“For perspective, just the mentor salaries will total about half the PCB's entire broadcast deal for bilateral international cricket at home over the next 30 months. From August 2024 to December 2026, the PCB's broadcast deal is worth between USD 6 to 6.5 million. Salaries for the five mentors in that time will amount to approximately USD 2.7 million.”
“The roles are separate from coaching - each side will have a separate yet-to-be-announced coaching set-up - and do not require coaching qualifications. Three of the five mentors have served as Pakistan's head coach in the recent past and the PCB has not made public what metrics the mentors will be evaluated by, or why they believe the outlay will offer a return on investment.”
Considering this, around $2.7m will be spent on contracts for the mentors, with there being little clarity given on accountability. Plus, mentors is a vague term in cricket - I’m still not sure what they do, or are supposed to do.This is a high cost investment from the PCB which is far from guaranteed to yield any dividends. Instead of $2.7 on these five mentors, they could spend 20% on establishing the best analytical department in international cricket and save over $2m in the process - a move which would be highly likely to have a higher expected win % than hiring these mentors.There is definitely something political involvement in PCB, and I really don't know from where they are getting funds for this.
To conclude, Bangladesh will now tour India from 19th September and we can expect them to give a tough fight to us as they will have a lot of confidence inside them. It will be a great series to watch out. India on the other will have to find solutions to tackle Bangladeshi spinners on Chennai pitch. Comment your predictions for India vs Bangladesh Test Series.
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