It's still anyone's cup!

I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the theslogblog’s one year of inactivity by writing something.

Considering that Pakistan was ranked handsomely at third place just a month back in both one-day and test levels, it did come as a mild shock when I learnt that Pakistan’s odds for winning the world cup are less than all the test playing nations with the exception of Bangladesh. However, even without Shoaib and Asif, I still have considerable belief that Pakistan can win this year’s World Cup.

Well firstly Pakistan still has a very strong team. The most critical player in my point of view would be Rana Naveed. If everyone could go back a year and a half, we would have an idea how Pakistan was winning matches. Important to note, we were playing more matches in the subcontinent. Also, Rana was by far our most dependable wicket-taker. We have a batting line up with commendable experience and class, save the openers, and if the bowling holds there is no reason why the team cannot win matches. Rana’s recent form has been the most worrying and crucial factor in our lack of success in South Africa. It is his and Umar Gul’s partnership with the ball that should more or less decide on how many runs the other teams will score. It should also be important to note that we beat India in the 2004-05 odi series in India WITHOUT Asif, Shoaib and Umar Gul. And we all know how it is to play against India in India on batting wickets.

What I don’t understand is how New Zealand have all of a sudden become favorites for the world cup. Yes they whitewashed a relatively “weak” Australian side, and I do think that they are a good team, but they certainly haven’t become world beaters all of a sudden. Everyone is forgetting that they were playing Australia in their own backyard and if they could go back a couple of years when the Chappel-Hadlee series was also played in New Zealand they can see apparent similarities to the recent concluded series. New Zealand successfully chased Australia’s 331 (a world record at the time) and lost by 2 runs chasing 322 in another match. And Australia was playing their best eleven.

South Africa has become the No. 1 team according to the one-day rankings. Again, most series that they have won over the last year were on home soil. I have a lot of skepticism on how their one-paced attack will fare in subcontinent type pitches.

All I’m trying to say here is that Pakistan may be a bit down these past few months but they most certainly aren’t out of it as yet. In fact they have as much (or as little) of a chance then any of the other teams playing. Statistics only show half the picture.