The Roar’s editor Patrick Effeney argued on Wednesday that the Pakistan series will be about revenge for Australia.
“Powerful enough to inspire them to a 3-0 victory?
“I should definitely think so.”
Effeney is right to note that Australia should not lack motivation against Pakistan.
Yet to accept his premise that Australia should harness feelings of revenge and not redemption to annihilate Pakistan would be to ignore the lessons of Australia’s most convincing Test series win of the 21st century – the Ashes whitewash of 2006-07.
Ricky Ponting saw that series as a redemptive – not a revenge – mission.
“There wasn’t one team meeting where I, as captain, implored the players to get even with England. We wanted more than that”, Ponting wrote in the introduction of his Captain’s Diary 2007.
“It was about us – as individuals and as a unit – improving ourselves to the point where we could perform at the highest level we believed we could play.”
Instead of getting even, that Australian team wanted to get better.
Of course, you can argue that Australia was aiming to even the score with England in the process of becoming a better cricket team.
But there was no conflation of anger with success. Such a conflation would be problematic, because even if Australia achieved their objective against Pakistan – a 3-0 series win – a change in focus would then be necessary for the Indian tour that follows the Pakistan series, from getting even to becoming better.
All the pent-up anger in the world wouldn’t help in India, and it would be nothing but a distraction in Australia’s quest to improve in cricket’s subcontinental destinations.
It would lead to an obsessive focus on the result, at the expense of the process – how Australia would improve their cricket enough to make the desired result in India possible.
Also, Australia’s current team doesn’t seem to contain many players who feed off revenge better than redemption.
Fielding is the one clear advantage Australia has over Pakistan. The amount of catches Pakistan drop is high for a top Test team, especially in the slips cordon.
At last count, Mohammad Amir has seen 11 catches dropped off his bowling since he returned to the team after his ban at Lord’s earlier this year.
While Younis Khan kept the wolves at bay with a magnificent double century at the Oval earlier this year, it is his slip fielding that is the clearest indication that age, unfortunately, may be starting to win the battle.
Yet, to put it exclusively down to age is not a convincing explanation. 42-year-old Misbah ul-Haq is not an egregious example of a bad fielder, and indeed he is reportedly still the fittest man in the Pakistan team.
Additionally, the younger members of the Pakistan team don’t seem to be significantly better than their seniors.
Fielding can be the central plank in Australia’s quest for redemption both at home and overseas because being the best fielding team in the world isn’t about getting even with the opposition, but continually looking to improve.
And what better time to start than with a series where the value of good fielding should be more obvious than usual?
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.
Harshal Patel was not a happy man!
David Lord has been remembered as an icon of Australian sports journalism following his death, aged 84. The renowned writer and broadcaster was an…
Sign the man up for a contract next season!
RCB have suffered a massive HEAD-ACHE after Travis Head smashed the fastest century by an SRH player in just 39 balls, as they amassed…
A brutal century by Travis Head has blasted Sunrisers Hyderabad back into the Indian Premier League play-off places in another match for bowlers to…
Two Aussies abroad have endured wildly different fortunes as Jake Fraser-McGurk joined the world stage with a thrilling first IPL half century, but Scott…
