by Shahzad Firdous
26th August 2010

‘Chaotic’ was the word used to describe the state of affairs of Pakistan cricket by Nasser Hussain, interviewing Mohammad Yousuf, after his fine innings that laid the foundation for Pakistan’s first innings lead. And chaotic is exactly what the situation of Pakistan cricket is but that is all happening off the field. On the field, the players are putting in huge effort to pull one triumph after another with limited resources that are available to them. Youngsters were thrown in at the deep end on the start of this tour. It came as a huge surprise when they managed to pull off an unexpected win against Australia and level the series. But that was largely due to special effort put in by the bowlers. Throughout this long tour, our bowlers have managed to bowl out opposition for reasonable totals. Not once have they allowed opposition to get a big total on the board although once or twice they looked like getting big scores but Pakistan struck back big time. It was in fact great spirit shown by the bowlers despite low totals put on the board by their inept batting and number of catches dropped by the fielders.

At the Oval, for the first time, Pakistan fielded a relatively stronger team and the result is in front of us. I have a feeling there is a lot more calmness in this batting with the return of Yousuf. Weaknesses in our batting weren’t addressed after we won against Australia and now we are in a situation where we can only draw the series by winning the last two tests which in itself requires a gigantic effort. There is no way you can field a completely young team and hope that they will deliver quickly. You have to field a blend of experience and youth so that youngsters are guided by the experience of seniors. Now what we can achieve on this tour is to first draw this series and then win the subsequent ODI and T20 series.

But our next tour is going to be of Dubai, Abu Dhabi where we are going to take on a formidable South African team. Star player, Mohammad Asif won’t be available for the series which is going to be a huge setback for the team. But fortunately we have the back up available in the shape of Wahab Riaz and Umar Gul. Irfan is also waiting to make his debut still. Saeed Ajmal has sealed his spot in tests for now with two splendid performances. However, the worrying thing for Pakistan is the form of Captain Salman Butt who started this tour on a high note against Australia. Imran Farhat has been abysmal on this tour; Azhar Ali has battled it out and shown that he belongs to international level. I am hoping he continues to get scores against his name. The effect of Yousuf batting on the other end is evident from how Ahzar Ali benefited and scored a big one.

Younus Khan is on sidelines, a man with an average above 50. Surely there was a reason other than cricket why he was out. It was the personal vendetta of PCB’s big bosses that Younus was kept out and a player who doesn’t belong to test level, Shoaib Malik was made part of the team. Big bosses of the PCB care nothing about the progress of the team. It is the players who with their individual brilliance have brought laurels to the country such as T20 World Cup, reaching semi finals of Champions Trophy and recent T20 World Cup. If we pick players like Asim Kamal, Younus Khan & Fawad Alam, who are finished products then there is no reason I see we would perform as badly as we did in first two tests.

The World cup is now just a few months away and teams are making preparations for that. On the other end, we are still trying things and not sure of our combination even. When the one-day series starts we will know what combination Pakistan is going to go with. We have preferred a Shoaib Akhtar in recent past that looks well past his prime and it would be better in my opinion if we pick much younger Asif and Wahab Riaz. The positive thing for Pakistan ahead of the World Cup is that we have fared well in ICC tournaments off late although we haven’t done anything in bilateral tournaments and series. For the team to do well in the world cup it is necessary that we play the right combination. Unless we play the right combination we cant expect to win!