Stani Army

Like their near neighbours on the sub-continent Pakistan will head into the cricket World Cup with the voices of their huge passionate support ringing in their ears.

Cricket is a religion in those parts, and while that has enormous benefits it also brings with it the pressure of expectation and the glare of the media spotlight with almost everyone in the country keeping an eye on their latest scores.

Pakistan have had more than their fair share of media attention in recent months, but upon their arrival in Bangladesh the players seemed quietly confident and content to concentrate on matters on the pitch.

Certainly the mood of this Pakistan team is key to their success. They possess the talent but it is their tendency to blow hot and cold that infuriates their passionate support – they know what the players can do, they just don’t always show it.

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Pakistan's new Test captain Misbah Ul-Haq showed the way with three half-centuries in four innings

Pakistan can come out of the drawn two-Test series against world number two South Africa with their heads held high. Though the argument may be that the wickets in the UAE were batsmen friendly, Pakistan’s reconstructed batting line up still held it’s own against South Africa’s, and South Africa had the better bowling attack. Let us also remember that Pakistan’s batsmen have struggled to pass 250 in Tests for a while now, batting paradise or not. Were it not for the time factor, Pakistan could have come close to or matched South Africa’s aggregated total in both the Tests, and that’s no mean feat.

The return of Younis Khan was a major factor in the ability of our batsmen to finally start playing Test match innings and setting Test match totals. The successful re-emergence of Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah Ul-Haq and Taufeeq Umar was also pleasing to watch. I have always been a big fan of Taufiq yet he is just one of many that have been the victim of selection favouritism in the past. He is a proper Test batsman.

Then there’s the emergence of the two youngsters Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. For some reason, Azhar, despite being a reserved young man, seems to really irritate the opposition, ending up at the receiving end of some hostile bowling. He did so in England and here against South Africa also. But his composure and temperament was a joy to see. Shafiq came into the ODI side in England and you could immediately tell the young man was going to be here to stay. I was hoping to see him in the Test side much sooner as it was clear he had what it took to succeed. He got his chance in the 2nd Test though, in place of the out of form Umar Akmal, and he didn’t disappoint with a well played 61 in the first innings.

The biggest positive after the performance of our batsmen was the captaincy and personal performances of Misbah Ul-Haq

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Asad Shafiq; looks to be made of the right stuff

Pakistan may find themselves 2-0 down in the ODI series against England but Stani fans can take some hope from the two performances, particularly today’s one. In the first game which Pakistan lost by 24 runs, the difference ended up being Umar Gul and his bad day at the office with the ball. Today it was the failure of the Pakistani batsmen to accelerate near the end of their innings and get the total up and around a challenging 310.

The most pleasing aspect was the emergence of what seems like another little gem for Pakistan in Asad Shafiq. He looks a ‘busy’ type of cricketer that keeps the scoreboard ticking by just dropping the ball and picking up vital singles. As he showed in the first ODI, and at certain times today, he can also attack and do so quite effectively.

With the  3rd ODI on Friday, Pakistan should look to make a couple of changes at least with Fawad Alam and Mohammad Irfan failing to impress. Though Fawad’s strike rate was good today, he still found it difficult to get the boundaries when they were required nearer the end of the innings.  I would certainly consider bringing in Azhar Ali in place of him, who showed in he Tests that he can certainly power the ball over the boundary.

As for Mohammad Irfan, I think he has a long long way to go. Though he does have the very useful physical characteristic of height, he doesn’t make the best use of it and was a liability in the field today. He certainly shouldn’t be discarded and forgotten about, but should be worked on closely back in Pakistan at the academy

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Pakistan have announced the squad for the upcoming ODI series and Twenty Internationals against England and there are a few interesting changes. It does seem that one squad of 16 has been announced for both formats with the likes of Abdur Rehman and Shoaib Malik who had made  the 14 man Twenty20 squad that beat Australia 2-0 earlier on the tour, missing out this time around.

The fortunes of Yousuf and Malik seem to be going in opposite directions

Shoaib Malik’s exclusion for the last Test against England came as no surprise but his exclusion from this limited over squad is slightly more surprising. With Fawad Alam and Mohammed Hafeez coming back in, maybe Malik’s role would have been seen as being covered adequately enough. Hafeez’s inclusion also means that there is no place for Imran Farhat, who strangely enough, is probably more suited to the shorter form.

Most interestingly, Mohammed Yousuf has completed his come back by being named also. One would think that he’d only be used in the ODIs but I for one am certain he could do a job in the Twenty20 see-ball hit-ball form of the game. Younis Khan was overlooked because, according to captain Shahid Afridi, he has not sorted out his dispute with the PCB. In what seems a very unsympathetic and ruthless statement, Afridi said: “I asked the chairman PCB about the situation with Younis twice. But the clearance wasn’t given by the PCB. I did what I had to do”. Make of that what you will.

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