Pakistan will embark on their tour of Zimbabwe in a few days. This will be a short tour consisting of a single Test match, three one dayers and two T20s. This will be Pakistan’s first assignment of the new season (2011-12). This tour will provide an ideal launching pad to a young team before the more tough assignments later in the season. After the tour, Pakistan are to take on Sri Lanka in a home series in the UAE in October–November. In January 2012 Pakistan will take on world’s number one team England in a similar series in the UAE before another high profile tour of India in March and April (not yet finalised).
Misbah-ul-Haq, who is now the captain of all three formats, has a young but talented team on his disposal for the Zimbabwean tour. The Zimbabweans are playing well these days under their new captain Brendon Taylor after tumultuous six to seven years. They have just beaten Bangladesh in a one-off Test at home and also won the ODI series. They have some reasonable players in Taylor, Tatenda Taibu, Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda, Ray Price and Prosper Utseya — all of whom can stand up and deliver on their day. Being the start of the season for Pakistan, they need to plan and play well and then literally hit the ground running. There has had been a lot of hubbub last year and lessons should be learnt from it. With new season Pakistan cricket needs a fresh start. Despite their good showing of late, the Zimbabweans shouldn’t pose much of a threat to the Pakistanis.
Misbah and his men should aim to be positive in this series and take it as an opportunity to get into the groove before the tougher assignments later in the season against superior opponents like England, Sri Lanka and India. A closer look at the squad for this series reveals that the selectors have given fresh faces a chance. Only Misbah and Younis Khan are the two seniors in the side with the rest of the players still in the early part of their careers. Batting will revolve around the top two as well as Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal and Azhar Ali. It’s encouraging to see that a talented batsman like Rameez Raja has been given a chance and everyone who has seen him play talks highly of him. However, the selection of opener Imran Farhat simply defies logic. The southpaw has been given enough chances to prove himself since his debut in 2001 but has failed to deliver. He was dropped after the last year’s tour of England and since then hasn’t done anything of note in domestic cricket to be selected again. There is also the fact that Mohammad Hafeez has paired up well as an opener with Taufeeq Umar.
At a time when the selectors are looking forward to youngsters and going for the players who have done well recently, the selection of Imran Farhat is just like going back to square one. In the bowling there are quite a few new comers as Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz and Abdur Rehman have been rested (that too is a point of conjecture at the start of a series).
Sohail Tanvir makes a comeback to the side while Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema and Sohail Khan also get opportunities to put forward their cases at international level. Yasir Shah is also a new name and has delivered well in the domestic level with his quality leg spin which has gathered rave reviews from the master of leg spin – Abdul Qadir. All rounder Shoaib Malik was also cleared by PCB and might be included to the squad which will give more balance to the side.
The time has also come for the likes of Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Gul and Umar Akmal to jump to the next league and be more consistent with their performances. They are now the senior pros in the side and should perform. Especially Umar Akmal should realise the fact that he has great talent in him and he needs to be more consistent in his scores. After his opening salvos in 2009 he hasn’t been able to make any big impressions. The talent is very much there and all he needs is to convert them into more consistent results. Umar Gul might not be on the tour but he too needs to take his game to the next level and become a force to reckon with internationally rather than be just a good bowler who clicks only sporadically. Saeed Ajmal has had a good season with Worcestershire in English season and now he should be more productive on international level especially in Test cricket.
Overall the team looks to be a good one and it’s an ideal opportunity for the players and the board to leave the past behind them and start afresh and make up for the lost ground. Pakistan can still be a formidable team which with proper direction and management can test any opposition in any condition. The resources are very much there and the blend of experience and youngsters can do the trick well provided the team and the management shun politics and stay professional and focused. After all Pakistan just lost in the World Cup semi-final of World Cup and their performance in that tournament was nothing short of fantastic.
It’s just that they need to show intent and the role of captain Misbah-ul-Haq and coach Waqar Younis will be very vital. They will have to lead the way to take this unit into the new phase of Pakistan cricket.
