Hammad Shakil
Pakistan are struggling. They are struggling hard. They have almost hit the rock bottom in the most recent of the ODI rankings. Pakistan have always struggled in batting. Since 1952, when they played their first test only to be bowled out for 150 and 152 in the two innings respectively in reply of India’s first innings 372, they have been struggling. But still they have always found certain ways to neutralize for their brittle batting, courtesy their formidable bowling over the years. But having a below average batting line-up was never as big an issue as it now is! Pakistan ruled the cricketing world with their ever predictable ‘unpredictable batting’ and their most loyal weapon, bowling during 80’s and 90’s, as the great Viv Richards said in the ongoing PSL, “What I can tell you is that during the time of our absolute dominance, the only team that would give us problems was Pakistan, led by the great Imran Khan”.
Things have now changed a bit still a lot. Pakistan bowling has gone from supreme to average, from fast to medium, from legends to one-match bullies. Batting is as ‘settled’ as it always was, but the lack in bowling has made them look like from once a ‘hero’ team to a ‘supporting role’ team, which just fills the numbers in a series or tournament. This condition really hurts everyone watching and following cricket here, there, and everywhere.
It’s not that Pakistan have never produced quality batsmen though. From Hanif Mohammad’s longest till date innings of 337 (in terms of minutes batted) to Younis Khan’s fourth innings epic 171*. From Mohsin Khan’s double ton at Lord’s to Mohammad Yousaf’s 202 at the very same venue. From Javed Miandad’s stability to the side to Misbah ul Haq’s calmness. So many batsmen, so many records, still the most vulnerable of the batting line-ups!
But the main reason of Pakistan’s recent collapse in the limited overs is not mainly batting, probably for the first time, its bowling! As mentioned earlier, batting is doing what it always does. Collapse after collapse. Carnage after carnage. When teams are scoring 300+ with ease, we are still looking for a total around 230-240. Talking of the last 6 years, mainly the post spot-fixing era, teams have lifted their batting from 250 to 350, while we have somehow managed to lift it from 230 to 235, idiomatically saying, but stats don’t say a different story at all, as described by ESPNcricinfo’s Hassan Cheema in his blog on Dec 10, 2014, “Pakistan’s ODI batting a decade behind the rest”.
In almost 5 of these 6 years, Pakistan had the luxury of the magician Saeed Ajmal, and the container with an ODI economy just over 4 Mohammad Hafeez. In ODIs, they bowled their 20 overs in such a rather mysterious way that a target of 230 seemed 280, thanks to Hafeez’s habit of giving around 30 to 35 runs in his quota with one or two wickets (mainly left handers), and Ajmal’s consistency in getting big wickets. Alongside these two, Pakistan had, now retired from ODIs, Shahid Afridi. With these three spinners, Pak looked a star studded bowling lineup and even after scoring a mere 230 to 240, game remained 60-40 in Pak’s way. Afridi and Ajmal bowling in tandem was quite a common sight, with Mohammad Hafeez opening the bowling most of the times. This is how Pak ‘survived’ these years even after ‘consistently’ scoring around 230.
With Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez reported for their illegal actions and Shahid Afridi retiring, Pak are forced to think rather out of the box, which they are never used to! They have tried Azhar Alis and Zafar Gohars and Imad Wasims to minimal success. Post WC 2015, they were handed a 3-0 hammering against a team which had never beaten them in any format since 1999, but came back strongly for a 2-0 historic win against Zim at Lahore, then beat a weak Sri Lanka side in their backyard (a notable success though), played decently against Zim in Zim for a 2-1 series result (including that Malik run chase cut short by bad light), but then got heavily defeated first by England and then by New Zealand.
Pak need to manufacture ways to win matches, and the only easiest way is by bowling well. Batting is something that hasn’t changed over the years, while bowling has always came up with strong weapons to cover up for the batting. They need to invest in some allrounders like a PSL’s find Mohammad Nawaz, who could fill in the shoes vacated by Mohammad Hafeez, or some quality spinners, to cover up for Saeed Ajmal, or some quality pacers, well they have got one in Mohammad Aamir who has impressed after his return to cricket.
Pakistan are struggling! They are struggling hard! They’ve got to do something, they’ve got to win matches! They’ve got to keep themselves in the top 8 teams at least till the mid of 2017, otherwise they might end up playing the qualifying round to qualify for the ICC World Cup 2019, for the first time since the inception of World Cups!
Adieus…!!
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