LAHORE: There is a lot that the Pakistan Cricket team has to celebrate coming out of their massive 5-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka in the UAE.
For one, this is only the sixth time that the Pakistan team has made a clean sweep of a five game one-day series. Out of the previous five, two each had been played against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, both teams of no consequence that would at the time have considered even a single win in the series a huge achievement.
The only impressive whitewash was against New Zealand in 2003, and even then they had not come into their own and the games were played on Pakistan’s home turf. And while Sri Lanka too is weakened and wounded, and Pakistan still on their seeming Champions Trophy surge, the win is a great symbolic victory after a disastrous test series.
Secondly, in what is testament to bowling coach Azhar Mehmood’s dedication and professionalism, this is the first time in history where Pakistan has completed an entire five game one-day series without their bowlers delivering a single no-ball.
Azhar had promised earlier in the year that this was one of the key issues he would be working on and it seems to have paid off. Of course, the absence of Wahab Riaz did nothing to hurt Pakistan’s feat.
Moreover, the current team combo seems to be working to the extent that Pakistan now has a large reserve of players that can step in when required not be out of their depth.
Suddenly you see great Pakistan bowling line up with great bench strength, Good opening pairs, settled middle order, great wicket keeper and a leader in Sarfaraz and world class No 3 batsman, something which was missing since Bob Woolmer.
For all these reasons the Pakistan camp will return home for the final T20 in Lahore confident of their abilities, and with a sated coaching staff, management, and indeed, fan following.
The team would, however, be careful to learn some lessons after observing Sri Lanka so closely in this tour. They would also do well to remember that they lost the test series 2-0 and are currently sitting on the seventh spot in the rankings. The absence of Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan was made quite evident. Even in ODIs, it was only after Azhar Ali was demoted from the captaincy that the squad finally found their groove.
While looking back too hard and too long at the past will only be problematic, Pakistan’s captain and coaches must see that Sri Lanka are now truly facing the repercussions of losing Jayawardane and Sangakara.
While the immediate tremors are always the most visible, often teams lose the plot sometime after such a major transition, as is happening to Sri Lanka with their second 5-0 loss in a row.
Even teams as professional as Australia found it difficult to transition after the mass retirements of Ricky Ponting’s dream team after the 2007 Ashes and World Cup. The West Indies still have not managed to go close to where they one stood in world cricket.
Pakistan is luckily poised in a way that they could come out of their current situation, especially in test cricket, not just unscathed but even better.
This is why their thrashing of Sri Lanka should be a valuable lesson, as well as an example to avoid.
