The Reverse Sweep

England vs Pakistan: 2nd test - Pakistan marks out of ten

Another defeat for Pakistan looked inevitable right from Salman Butt's foolhardy call at the toss. Butt's move was intended to  be a positive one, but the negative strokeless approach of Pakistan's batsmen was always likely to be ill-advised and so it proved as they fell to an embarrassing 72 all out. Pakistan could have collapsed into disarray after that, but they didn't and Butt must take some credit for that. His side fought back on both the second and third days to first restrict England to 251 after at one time being 177 for two. Then  the lower order resisted on the third day to avert an innings defeat and at least set England a target. The replacements for Kamran Akmal and Danish Kaneira, Zulqarnain Haider and Saeed Ajmal, both did well. However, there are massive problems to correct before the Oval with the top six batsmen and the abysmal fielding.

Here is how the Pakistan players rated on the Reverse Sweep report card:

Imran Farhat - 5 Was far too negative in the first innings when making a 24 ball duck, but was starting to look good in the second after a lot of hard graft, before his off-stump was removed by a jaffa from Swann. 

Salman Butt - 3 Brave but ill-advised call at the toss had the wheels falling off the Pakistan bus from the start. And it didn't get any better for the captain with two more single figure scores. Looks like he couldn't buy a run at present.

Azhar Ali - 4 Full marks for perspiration but not many for inspiration. Faced a tortuous 32 balls for his duck in the first innings and took a further 15 balls to get his first run in the second. Will be annoyed that he eventually undid his patient work in his second knock to be bowled through the gate by Swann attempting a booming drive.

Shoaib Malik - 3 Shifted up to four to provide some experience and solidity and was promptly out cheaply in both innings. Throughout his career there have been questions raised about Malik's technique at test level and he did nothing to contradict the doubters at Edgbaston. Maybe he was too busy watching his back with Mohammad Yousuf returning to the scene?

Umar Akmal - 4 Clearly has bags of talent, but is low on confidence and suffering from habitual poor shot selection. Looks like he could do with a batting masterclass from the newly arrived Mohammad Yousuf.

Umar Amin - 5 Looked better at six and got starts in both innings. Drives well, but perhaps this tour has come a bit early for this youngster? Struck again with his golden arm, as Trott joined North and Watson as Amin's test victims.

Zulqarnain Haider - 8 Kept tidily in the first innings with the only blemish being spilling an inside edge from Pietersen, but missed a couple of chances off Ajmal's bowling in the second. Nearly bagged a king pair but then showed bundles of character and quality to lead a lower order fightback. All in all, an extremely promising debut. Kamran who?

Mohammad Aamer - 7 Bowled and batted with a lot of heart without getting the wickets he deserved. Hung around for 117 balls for a resilient 16 in the second innings and looks to have the technique to develop into a good number seven. No wonder there are so many comparisons with Wasim Akram.

Umar Gul - 5 Will be devastated that his hamstring will prevent him playing on the expected reverse swing friendly pitches at The Oval and Lord's. Pakistan will miss his quality and experience.

Saeed Ajmal - 8 Where has he been? Bowled with guile and excellent variations in pace and flight to bag a five for as a number of England batsmen failed to pick him. Then scored a spirited first test fifty despite being battered and bruised by the England quicks. Has consigned Danish Kaneira to spending the rest of the summer at Essex. Lucky Danish.

Mohammad Asif - 7 Was his usual reliable self with the ball without grabbing the number of wickets he deserved. Must wish that he played in a team with better batsmen and fielders who can actually catch the ball.

England vs Pakistan: 1st test - Pakistan marks out of ten

After the euphoria of the Headingley win over Australia, Pakistan came crashing down to earth with a bump at Trent Bridge. The margin of victory didn't tell the whole story however, as on Saturday afternoon with England 98 for six, some Pakistan supporters may have been sensing an unlikely victory.

However, the Pakistan batting is in such a parlous state that even chasing a target of 120 would have probably been beyond them. To say the batters let down the star pace trio of Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer and Umar Gul would be a massive understatement.

The PCB have now pressed the panic button and sent for the cavalry in the shape of the supposedly 'retired' Mohammad Yousuf. That the Pakistan batting needs more quality and experience is a given, but bringing back Yousuf who has not played first class cricket since March seems strange when Younis Khan is also available and has recently played county cricket for Surrey.

The treatment of Danish Kaneira is even worse. Yes, he had an appalling match at Trent Bridge, but he did reasonably well against Australia and to send a man with 261 wickets back to county cricket rather than working with him in the nets seems very peculiar.  

Salman Butt certainly has a lot on his hands, not least the interesting prospect of brokering some sort of peace deal between Yousuf and Shoaib Malik, who have been at daggers drawn for some time. According to Cricinfo, Butt and team coach Waqar Younis were not even consulted about Yousuf's inclusion so the next few weeks could provoke yet more turmoil in the mad world of Pakistan cricket.

Here are the marks out of ten for the XI who played at Trent Bridge:

Imran Farhat - 6 Of the Pakistan top five, Farhat was the best of a bad bunch as at least he fought and stuck around for a while in both innings. The ball from Anderson that bowled him in the first innings was an absolute cracker that better batsmen than Farhat would have struggled to keep out.

Salman Butt - 4 Two single figure scores from the captain, with his dismissal in the second innings being particularly disappointing. Only two matches into his captaincy, Butt now has the interesting prospect of reintegrating the precious Yousuf back into the fold.

Azhar Ali - 4 Foolishly didn't refer his dismissal in the first innings, where he was caught after the ball clipped his pocket and then made a duck in the second innings. Should be retained however, as Azhar looked pretty good against the Aussies.

Umar Amin - 3 Likely to be the fall guy who has to make way for Yousuf, and to tell the truth looks a bit out of his depth at this level. The folly of playing two inexperienced players at three and four cost Pakistan dearly here.

Umar Akmal - 3 Poor dismissals in both innings having only scored four runs each time. The good impression he made in New Zealand and Australia over the winter is fading fast. Is it a lack of confidence or over-confidence?

Shoaib Malik - 6 Looked the most assured of all the Pakistan batsmen in the first innings other than Gul and also took a couple of wickets with his offbreaks. We wonder how much Malik is looking forward to his reunion with Yousuf? Oh, to be a fly on the wall of that particular meeting.

Kamran Akmal - 1 The wicketkeeper was going to have to go some to beat his Sydney flop, but he may just have managed it here. Stood too far back, so missed getting Morgan early during his hundred, dropped a straightforward chance to reprieve Strauss and then there was the astonishing missed stumping of Collingwood. To cap a thoroughly miserable match, Akmal then bagged a pair. Gets a point for his stunning catch to dismiss Pietersen in the second innings, although even that was a bit fortunate given that it stuck in his webbing.

Mohammad Aamer - 8 Showed more application with the bat than any of his supposed specialist batting colleagues, and bowled with heart, fire and skill throughout the game. A real talent.

Umar Gul - 8 Bowled like a drain in the first innings, but his brilliant 65 not out saved Pakistan from the follow-on. This seemed to inspire him and his bowling rhythm returned in the second innings with three deserved wickets.

Danish Kaneira - 2 A game to forget for Kaneria with 1 wicket for 171 from only 33 overs, but does he deserve to be sent back to Essex? A man with 261 test wickets deserves better.

Mohammad Asif - 8 Bowled beautifully on the second morning to inspire an England collapse and then reached his century of test wickets in only his 20th test to equal Waqar's Pakistan record. Rated the second best bowler in the world, and looked every inch of it. Like Aamer and Gul, deserves to be playing in a side with a stronger batting line-up.

Pakistan vs Australia - Pakistan marks out of ten

Pakistan cricket can be accused of a lot of things but boring is not one of them. Accordingly, a wonderful test match at Headingley had a fittingly nail biting ending before Pakistan finally threw the monkey off their backs and beat Australia in a test match for the first time since Mushtaq Ahmed spun them to victory at Sydney in 1995.

It may only have been a two match series, but the MCC Spirit of Cricket Series saw Pakistan field two captains after Shahid Afridi lost his marbles at Lord's. Salman Butt made an impressive start to his reign. He even showed he had that most important of assets a captain needs. Luck. Both times he brought on the part-time medium pace of Umar Amin he was rewarded with a wicket.

Despite possessing arguably the best pace attack in world cricket at the moment (although South African supporters may question that), Pakistan are far from the finished article. Butt is the only batsman who has sufficient experience and class and the side could do with at least one of Younis Khan or Mohammad Yousuf; both of whom average over 50 in test cricket.

That said, some of the ingredients are there to suggest that Pakistan are going to be competitive against England in the forthcoming series. Here are the Reverse Sweep marks out of ten for those that played in the two games against Australia.

Salman Butt - 8 (213 runs, Average 53.25, HS 92): Looked a class apart from his batting colleagues at Lord's, where he should have converted at least one of his fifties into a big hundred. Then from the chaos of Afridi's resignation, he captained the side with aplomb at Headingley. Now needs to get that batting average where it belongs for someone with his talent - over 40.

Imran Farhat - 7 (138 runs, Average 34.50, HS 67): Gets an extra point for his patient and composed 67 in the run chase at Headingley. He may not be the most popular player amongst his own supporters judging by comments on Twitter or Test Match Sofa, but the talent is there. Needs to make his Headingley knock the template for the future.

Azhar Ali - 7 (139 runs, Average 34.75, HS 51): Dropped in at the deep end for his first two test matches at number three and showed plenty of promise. His century partnership with Farhat in the second innings run chase at Headingley should have set up a comfortable win. Looks like he could develop into a decent test match batsman if given a run in the side.

Umar Amin - 4 (59 runs, Average 14.75, HS 33. 2 wickets, Average 9.50): Another debutant thrown to the wolves. Difficult to judge on just two matches, but with Butt suggesting Pakistan will resist the urge to send an SOS for Yousuf or Younis, we should know more about Amin by the end of the summer. Would seem to have a bit of a golden arm with the ball though - just ask Marcus North or Shane Watson.

Umar Akmal - 3 (56 runs, Average 14.00, HS 22): Immensely talented (as he showed on debut against New Zealand) but needs to learn to slip out of Twenty 20 and one day mode when compiling a test innings. Played some outrageous shots in the two games, mostly at inappropriate times. Needs to go back to the drawing board.

Shahid Afridi - 5 (33 runs, Average 16.50, HS 31): He came, he slogged, he retired. If he had hung around for another hour in the first innings at Lord's we would have been talking about one of the great counterattacking test innings. Of course, the script was very different. His brief captaincy though does seem to have brought some spirit and unity back into the Pakistan cricket side.

Shoaib Malik - 5 (36 runs, Average 18.00, HS 26): Mohammad Yousuf's best friend replaced Afridi at Headingley and as so often in his stop-start test career, Malik left many observers questioning whether he is good enough for the five day format. If Pakistan do send for Yousuf or Younis, it should be Malik who makes way.

Kamran Akmal - 6 (74 runs, Average 18.50, HS 46): Actually looked like a test class wicketkeeper again after the horrorshow of Sydney. His three quickfire boundaries in the second innings at Headingley finally settled the match in Pakistan's favour. Still doesn't justify his ability with the bat consistently enough though especially with his side's long tail.

Mohammad Aamer - 9 (11 wickets, Average 22.27, BB 4/72): This boy is going to be special. Wasim Akram has already conceded that Aamer is better than he was at the same age, which tells you all you need to know. Has wonderful variations of attack and a cunning brain. Has now dismissed Ponting four times in five tests, which will make him popular with England supporters. And he is only 18.

Umar Gul - 8 (8 wickets, Average 23.62, BB 4/61): The third part of Pakistan's fearsome pace triumvirate bowled well in both matches especially in the second innings at Lord's. Will hope for a hot English summer so that he can get his reverse swing going.

Mohammad Asif - 9 (11 wickets, Average 23.00, BB 3/30): Has unerring accuracy and it would seem comes from the same school of metronomic bowling as Glenn McGrath. Has 94 wickets from 19 tests at an average of 23.18. With controversy now behind him, Asif could now be set to challenge Dale Steyn for the title of the best seamer in the world.

Danish Kaneira - 6 (6 wickets, Average 34.33, BB 2/49): Played the support role to his trio of pacemen and did a decent enough job. Wouldn't have enjoyed his treatment from fellow leggie Steve Smith in the Australian second innings at Headingley.   

Pakistan's replacements for Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf

We scoured the internet to find a picture of Azhar Ali and Umar Amin - effectively the two replacements for Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf at numbers three and four in the Pakistan batting order playing against Australia at Lord's.

This was the only picture we could come up with.

I suppose it is hardly surprising then that both debutants looked a little bit out of their comfort zone against world class bowlers on a seam friendly track. As Alan Hansen once said "you won't win anything with kids".

Only Pakistan could ban their best batsman (Younis) indefinitely, then lift the ban and not pick him for the touring squad. But to then compound the situation and suspend Shoaib Mailk, rescind his ban and pick him for the squad, but then not select him for the XI is an interesting decision to say the least. We wonder where Yousuf stands on his 'retirement' now if he is watching the action?