Stop patching up the leaks – replace the boat
Abbas Hasan
As I write this article it is most probable that after the win at The Kia Oval, Pakistan’s cricket team has zoomed up the world ranking and will probably become the number one test side in the world, particularly as it is looking difficult for India to win the last test against the West Indies.
Yet, at the same time, the one day team is ninth in the world ranking and may not automatically qualify for the World Cup in England in 2017. Never has there been so much difference in ranking in what is essentially the same team but in two different formats of the game. It requires much cogitation as to why this is so. The answer may be out down to two players: the Test Captain Misbah and his number four batsman, Younis Khan. We have been looking for stop-gap solutions but little long term thought as to how to reconstruct the team after these two.
Both Misbah and Younis have played an exemplary cricket for their country, but the fact is that there now is an inherent risk: Younis is officially 38 years of age (chronologically 40), while Misbah is 42 years of age. The sands of time continue move relentlessly, and they will not play for ever. It is time that we start looking for replacement for these stalwarts while they are still playing so that they may be groomed under them and benefit from their experience.
There are other senior players in the one day squad who in their mid to late thirties are also getting on in years such as Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Mohammed Hafeez the team needs players in their early twenties so that a natural selection process may take place and in the end hopefully we will achieve a solid young team. Batting, fielding and captaincy has always been the Achilles heel for Pakistan and the PCB should focus its strategy and thoughts as to how it should consolidate and secure the team’s performance in tests and enhance its performance in one days and T-20.
Of the young players there are at least three batsmen who have stood out as members of the under 19 team that played the final of the U 19 cup two years ago but lost to the West Indies in the final, all now twenty years old two years on hopefully these players have matured and can now be exposed to the rigors of international cricket they are – Sami Aslam, Imam Ul Haq and Kamran Ghulam.
The left handed Sami Aslam has been given a berth in the last two tests and although he did not do brilliantly in at the Oval his put up a creditable performance particularly at Birmingham, doing much better than many of his more experienced team mates. We must remember that Aslam holds the record of scoring the second highest number of runs as an international under 19 player after the South African wicketkeeper Quinten DeKock, which merely emphasizes his pedigree as a batsman.
Imam Ul Haq from Multan is another left handed opening batsman who has scored more than 1,000 runs in a season as a young player. Recently while playing for Islamabad he scored a century against Baluchistan, he has a batting average of 44 with a strike rate of 70 he is a solid player who deserves to be considered in the first team. But again as with all these things it is important that we give these young players time to fit into the groove, it is unfair to expect them to work miracles immediately but they need exposure. The fact that he is Inzamam Ul Haq’s nephew should not be held against him but he should be played on merit alone. Mind you Inzi’s average was 40 in international one days.
Kamran Ghulam is probably more of a T-20 / one day player than a test player but he too is worth looking at, his average of 28 does not fully reflect his true potential, but a strike rate of over 70 is very handy lower down the order. He is a right hand batsman but a slow left hand bowler making him one of the few ambidextrous players in the world today, a talent we should exploit.
The captaincy and fielding issues are more complicated. The Australians have a very scientific approach to both. They practice hard but also identify potential leaders early and groom them, as with Steven Smith, they are sticking with him despite the slump in form. I would hazard that today Sarfaraz would make a better captain then Azhar Ali, but then that would be putting the hex on him. But whatever it is in the one day format and T-20 format the leadership and batting issues need to be addressed and soon, as those are the more lucrative and popular format of the great game of cricket.