RINGSIDE VIEW – The curtain has come down on yet another rubber this year where Pakistan has done exceedingly well. And it has been conjectured not by a solitary analyst but a bevy of commentators that it could still have done better, that too against a side ranked a few notches higher, speaks volumes about the distance this seriously scarred and much-depleted Pakistan side has covered over the last one year.
To have overcome the trauma of the happenings of the later summer of 2010 in England, the lingering impact and aftershock of which is still being felt through sentencing and rejection of appeals, this quickly and with such aplomb is indeed credit worthy. And on this count none deserves recognition more than the skipper extraordinaire, Misbah-ul-Haq.
Always calm and composed, Misbah in the last year and a bit when he took over first as the Test captain and then replaced the mercurial Shahid Afridi in the overs-limited formats too, has tried to shape the side in his own image – replacing volatility with reliability, less emphasis on individual glory and higher stress on the value of team work. The impact has been phenomenal.
It may have been even more devastating on the opposition had Pakistan took full advantage of the positions that it had played itself into. The most recent cases in point: two Tests that book-ended our win against Sri Lanka, and the solitary ODI loss.
The cribbing of the commentariat itself is a positive. When the side is already punching above its weight, its occasional inability to go for the jugular and settle for a draw when it only had to dare to win disappoints only because the capacity to achieve that is so palpably there.
Having come this far that too would come – perhaps by the time we take on England, come the New Year.
So much has been said and written on Misbah and his brand of no-fuss, no-hysterics style of leadership. One had the opportunity to speak to Waqar Younis, the man who in his own way has contributed big time in this most wonderful of revivals though he is no longer there as coach. He believes that Misbah’s being open and upfront in every situation, especially when a senior had to be consigned to the bench, and being communicative and understanding with the boys in private is the key to his commanding the respect of his charges. With that critical part of the battle won, the rest fell in place and the team shaped up.
Perhaps Waqar is right. The unruffled manner and the grace with which Misbah handled the return of Shahid Afridi made it obvious that behind the quiet and affable demeanour, here is a person with spine who would not countenance being overshadowed even by a larger than life persona that Afridi without the least doubt is. In similar situations one has seen past captains getting nervous twitches, shrink and self-destruct. The whole lot of them had this issue whenever Wasim Akram made one of his myriad returns in the 1990s and early 2000s.
At the moment, the good thing is that the nucleus has been formed. In one-day cricket when you have such quality all-rounders, as many as seven of them capable of turning any match on its head, you cannot do much wrong – especially when the spinners literally choke the life out of batsmen in the middle overs. The one possible chink is the opening. By now it should have been clear, no matter how many runs he scores in domestic cricket, Imran Farhat is not the answer to our prayers. A halfway decent opener to go with Mohammad Hafeez, and our batting would look far more balanced than now.
In Test cricket too, though the combination changes with the onus on the pace of Umar Gul and spin of Saeed Ajmal, we have other handy operators in Aizaz Cheema with Hafeez providing depth. For the Tests, the batting issues mostly stand resolved. The opening pair is settled, Younus Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq are rock solid, and though Azhar Ali’s strength in technique enables him to stay in the middle for long stints, the problem is the pace of scoring. As we found out to our cost, even in Test cricket, the exceptionally sedate manner is no longer the done thing. Azhar, and of course Younus and Misbah too, need to show a little more urgency without courting danger. The forward-defensive prod to the half-volleys and full tosses is indeed most unbecoming.
That said, the going is good at the time being, and the prospects in the near future looks even brighter. But things could go wrong and unravel in a jiffy. One has seen that happen before, and there are omens that it could come to pass again. Watch this space for more on that.
