LONDON: When the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) asked Shoaib Malik to step down as captain and replaced him with Younis Khan following a couple of heavy losses in the home series against Sri Lanka this January, one of the people who took credit for the change in the team leadership was Intikhab Alam.

The Pakistan coach had all reasons to take credit for Younis Khan’s installation as captain as he was the one who wrote a damning report against Malik and also suggested that Younis was the obvious choice for the national team’s captaincy.

Less than six months later, Intikhab might be ruing his choice.

Though everybody from the coach to captain as well as the team manager would deny it, it’s quite an open secret that Intikhab and Younis are going poles apart when it comes to matters concerning the Pakistan team.

In the past few months, Intikhab has been regularly making statements about the boys having developed a great team spirit under Younis and that there is great understanding among the players and officials of the team.

Most of that appears to be mere lip service. Normally, you will find the coach and captain of any team side-by-side during team training sessions, trying to work out strategies for coming games.

But since arriving here in England, one has never seen Intikhab and Younis exchanging views about anything.

Probably, they discuss the strategies during team meetings that are held behind closed doors at the tournament hotel at Kensington High Street.

It doesn’t seem so. Just days before their opening match of the tournament against England the captain and coach seemed to be going in different directions on several issues.

Insiders in the Pakistan team told this correspondent that the main reason why Intikhab and Younis are lacking much-needed understanding is because they are completely different individuals.

While Intikhab is diplomatic and at times eloquent, Younis is a straight forward yet quiet man.

One source even went to the extent of saying that Younis doesn’t want Intikhab to continue as coach and wants somebody with whom he has a better rapport.

Their failure to work as a team has so far hampered Pakistan’s progress, something that was evident from their indifferent form in the practice games.

Their opening match against England could be a different story but one good result won’t mean that all of Pakistan’s problems are over.