Certainly you can criticize their approach and batting but there is a difference between making an informed critique on their batting and going after them as players. Ramiz does the latter.
This is a very very old fashioned team in terms of the team composition, their playing style, approach, strategies etc. There's no two ways about that. This is a team that belongs more in the 80s and before and looks totally out of place in a Post Australian team of the 00s who set the tone of batting at 4 and over and then a Post Sehwag world of attacking the new ball.
These things are not in question here. The point though is, Test cricket itself is timeless, and it's history of 200 years is so vast and diverse, that the idea that there's only one way to be a good side is ridiculous. The other formats are different, there are more restrictions on you as a player, the format itself changes a lot and you have to keep up. Not Test cricket. The format and rules never change. It's still 5 days, played over 90s overs day, with 3 sessions and a new ball every 80 overs. This is why Pakistan's peak as a Test side also coincided with their decline as a LO side. These old fashioned players have all the freedom and time to make Test cricket their own. LO formats don't allow you that.
There is the Australian way epitomised by Warner today. That is effective and works brilliantly especially in Australian pitches and not so well in some conditions as recent past would have shown.
We have different conditions in the world today and some approaches work well in a wide array of conditions, some don't. There isn't really 'right formula' for all. The right formula is the one that works best for your team. It should be based completely on the strengths, ability, technique, skills of the players in the team.
This particular team, other than Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam (who is yet to establish himself at Test level) are not natural and fluent stroke players or timers of the ball. They are not adept at driving through the line, finding gaps, and timing to perfection.
Azhar, Misbah, Younis and Shafiq - the core of this batting line up - All 4 of them need a very very long time to get set every time they start an innings. And that includes every time they start an innings after a session break or the start of a new day. Their batting philosophy is based on one simple theory - get set, get your eye in, get a feel and understanding of the pitch, bounce, and in the process, see of the new ball, wear out the bowlers, grind down the opposition, and then you find that you the runs on the board at the end of the day.
This is who they are. You can't change that. All 4 of them are still very different to each other though. Shafiq, once he can get set can be an extremely fluent stroke players, no less than the best in the world. He has pretty much all the shots, great at both front and back foot, can play on both sides of the wicket. He has the cuts, pulls and the drives and punches. A delight to watch once set. He is the guy who can step up the scoring after he is set.
Younis Khan also takes a very very long time and struggles a great deal for his first 30 runs. It's not even the number of balls or time for him, it's usually the runs. If he gets his first 30 runs, even if it takes him 100 balls, chances are he will go and get a 100. His first 30 runs can take him a very long time, but if he gets that, he can step up the scoring rate too, and becomes a completely different player, finds gaps, picks up singles, rotates strike at will. He is not as fluent a stroke player as Shafiq but can match his scoring rate still.
Azhar and Misbah are slightly different from the two above. They take a long time to get set, but even after they are set, because of their limitations in shot range and stroke play, they are often not able to match the scoring rate of the above two. Misbah can step up with his massive sixes if he gets the spinners once has seen of the fast bowlers and can go berserk every now and then especially if he gets Steve Smith, but unless spinners are bowling a lot and he can sweet and reverse sweep them, his scoring rate will be in the 40s.
Azhar does not have Misbah's big hitting ability, nor does he have the pull or cuts. He takes a lot of time, and while he has drives straight down the ground, unless he gets that length, he will struggle to find boundaries. But what he has demonstrated over the last 3 years is incredible temperament, patience and mental strength. The guy can bat and bat and bat.
The reason Pakistan's scoring rate has been slower than normal in this series is because the YK and Shafiq are struggling for runs and the majority of the scoring has been done by the Misbah and Azhar. In each of the first 2 tests, if it was YK or Shafiq getting a ton along with Misbah or Azhar, you would have seen a much better scoring rate overall because YK/Shafiq would have made up for the lack of scoring opportunities created by Azhar/Misbah
Now this is just who they are. These are their limitations and strengths. You can criticise them or appreciate this, that's your prerogative but criticism of them as players and questioning their intent, saying things like "they are negative players, playing for a draw" is just terrible analysis and commentators who resort to such lazy assessments should be called out. They are old fashioned, but this is also the best performing batting line up in the world in the last 6 years. That's Test cricket.
