Is there a better, more hard working and unassuming workhorse of a fast bowler than our very own Umar Gul? He has been carrying one half of the Pakistan new ball load for the past several years with a consistency and poise that could only have been polished in the crucible of English County cricket.
In Pakistan’s Twenty20 against England, it was Gul who stepped into the breach to quell the hemorrhage of runs brought about by Kevin Pietersen against the inexperienced Junaid Khan. Gul is a genuinely fast bowler and has the ability to control line and length at express pace, something only the best of the best are capable of. A modest soft spoken man, he lets his performance on the field do the talking. Such a refreshing change from the self-styled greats that we have been afflicted with in the recent past, Umar Gul is certainly a source of pride for Pakistan cricket.
This was a satisfying win for Pakistan after the ignominy of the ODIs. The ODI mindset is quite different from that of the Test. In a Test match, a spinner has time to work the batsman out. He can apply close in fielders that the batsman is only too aware of. In the ODIs the spinner has to be in the run saving mode and the luxury of flight has to be dispensed with to a great extent. Thus the delicate balance between the spinner and the batter is tilted ever so slightly, but enough to make the difference. The relative ineffectiveness of the spinners allowed Alastair Cook and Pietersen to regain the form that they had been searching for and consecutive hundreds by both were enough to make the difference.
Dhoni’s remarks relevant to Pakistan
Mahinder Singh Dhoni is never one to hold back on his words and his statement regarding the fielding abilities of India’s aging trio of Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gambhir was quite significant. Dhoni has recently stated that India cannot afford to play all three batters because they leak an average of 20 runs an innings. Twenty runs an inning amount to four overs of batting, something any side can ill afford.
This is especially relevant to Pakistan because many of our players are hesitant to dive headlong for the ball to save boundaries. A boundary saved could be worth two runs. This lack of fielding commitment could be because our selectors do not lay as much emphasis on fielding as a specialty, so the fielders concentrate more on their one field of expertise and do not wish to injure themselves by doing something crazy while fielding. In Australia, for example, the selectors look for the player to be outstanding in two aspects of the game, be it batting and bowling, batting and fielding or bowling and fielding. If the same criterion was applied to our team, many of our greats would not have been able to get into the side.
It is simple math. Every run saved is one run less to be made, so if a side saves 20 runs more than the other, they have an extra four overs cushion when they bat. That is why Jonty Rhodes was gold dust for the South Africans. He hardly ever missed a catch; in fact he created catches from nowhere. He then stopped a slew of runs in the point-gully region. So, if he was averaging 30 while batting in ODIs, he was worth well over fifty an innings to his side.
This is an aspect that should not be lost to our selectors when they make their decisions. At the moment all our fieldsmen are capable but there is no one who stands out, someone who can electrify the side with his inspirational work. These fielding instincts are developed very early in a cricketer’s career and are difficult to instill once the incorrect mindset is developed. Whoever gets the Pakistan coach’s job would be well advised to do his ODI sums and focus on this vital aspect.
Punter, irresistible in his pomp
The Triangular series in Australia is beginning to pick up steam. The Sri Lankans are beginning to play some effective cricket and have had the measure of the Australians and the Indians. They may be the one team from South Asia who show total commitment while fielding. Perhaps it is because their grounds are less hard and their grass softer and more lush than their other regional counterparts. But commitment is a state of mind and the Sri Lankans certainly have that. They have left the absence of Muralitharan well behind and are playing some excellent cricket.
The curtain is slowly coming down on the stellar career of Ricky Ponting, with announcement by selector John Inverarity that he was being dropped from the Australian ODI side. Ponting has been cited as being the best Australian batsman since Donald Bradman. Few would argue with that, although Steve Waugh or Neil Harvey might also come into the reckoning.
In his pomp, Ricky was simply the best. Once he got through the initial few overs where he could be caught out reaching for the ball, Ponting was simply irresistible. His pull shot off even the fastest bowlers was one of the all time great strokes in cricket. What set Punter apart from his peers Lara and Tendulkar was that he was a superlative fielder, almost in the same league as Rhodes. No one hit the stumps with the accuracy and regularity as he did. His catching was also safe and sure.
In recent years, as the edge comes of his reflexes and eyes, he has lost the infallibility of his pull shot. There have been a run of low scores. But it should be remembered that Ponting’ last Test innings was a double hundred. There are not too many Test matches ahead for Australia and Ponting has expressed a desire to tour England in 2013. That tour would depend on Ricky’s performances in the series against the West Indies and South Africa. But till then retirement from Test cricket is entirely Punter’s call.