While the primary focus of Pakistan cricket fraternity shifts to the ICC Champions Trophy, the embarrassing crash in Multan the other day brought the Test team back to square one.
The Shan Masood-led Pakistan got themselves badly trapped in their own net. And they are now at bottom in the nine-team ICC World Test Championship table — below seventh-placed Bangladesh and West Indies, who are now eighth.
The West Indies, after the 127-run drubbing in the first Test, learned quickly and demonstrated that they have the skills on an artificially-dried track to upstage the hosts at the Multan Cricket Stadium where the hosts had won their last two Tests, one against England.
Can creating or inducing specific conditions ensure long-term success for a team in cut-throat international cricket?
While the astutely carried out task to make a pitch take prodigious turn did wonders during Pakistan’s 2-1 Test series triumph at home against mighty England three months ago, the strategic move to explicitly give spinners extra advantage did not click against the Kraigg Brathwaite-led Caribbean side for the second time as they won a Test in Pakistan after 35 years.
The 120-run loss in Multan is as precipitous as Pakistan cricket. Prior to outsmarting England, Pakistan had suffered an ultra-stunning 2-0 home series sweep at the hands of Bangladesh.
After Shan and his men faced a 2-0 whitewash in South Africa, Pakistan looked to take full advantage at their own turf but were only bewildered by a largely inexperienced but determined West Indies brigade in the end. No lessons, it seems, were learned after the humiliation in the Bangladesh series.
What is wrong with Pakistan? Is it erroneous strategy or poor execution that has blocked the hosts’ progress?
Commenting on the West Indies series, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has criticised the lack of preparation and the team’s failure to learn from their defeats.
“Winning three matches out of four [at home] is not something to boast about. Our openers aren’t scoring, our middle order isn’t performing,” the former wicket-keeper said. “Many lessons should have been learned from the Bangladesh match. We need long-term planning and must accept that we are now a bottom-ranked team.”
If Shan, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Kamran Ghulam and Salman Ali Agha flopped at home when it mattered most against a pretty green spin attack of West Indies, imagine what would have happened if they had faced experienced spinners.
While accepting the basic notion that Pakistan cricket requires a major overhaul for sustained and long-term progress at the international stage, it is a ground reality that our teams have not been able to win away Tests on fast, seaming and bouncy tracks since ages.
However, the latest — and grimmer — alarm is that now Pakistan are confronting problems even at home on pitches tailor-made for spinners, who the team management believes are their biggest strength. But the question is:
Did the management which now includes interim head coach Aaqib Javed, appropriately study its team’s batting capability before strategising to give spinners the added charge by drying the pitches? Even in the first Test against West Indies which Pakistan won, their batters struggled to post totals of 230 and 157 as the hosts just got out of jail thanks to mesmerising-cum-accurate bowling by Sajid Khan and Noman Ali.
Former Test speedster Shoaib Akhtar believes there needs to be a fine balance when it comes to preparing wickets for five-day games.
“There are two aspects. First, what is good for [the spirit of] cricket and its promotion, and second what is appropriate for us [hosts]. Both these need to be kept in view [to make sporting pitches],” Shoaib said while talking in a TV show after the second Test in Multan.
“In this regard, [host] country’s strengths have to be the top priority.
He continued, “Test match tracks which produce 1300-1400 runs are of no use. [Unfortunately] when we had world-class fast bowlers [during 1980s, 1990s and beyond], we never made pitches that suited pacers. Now we are making spinning tracks to counter the touring teams who are weak [in playing spin].”
It remains a historic fact that top-quality fast bowlers — Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib and Mohammad Amir to name a few — remained Pakistan’s main asset over the years. So, why then the team management is not ready to give the incumbent pacers the opportunity to come forward, learn, rise and maintain this rich legacy remains a big question.
Shoaib’s word suggests that instead of making impulsive and lop-sided moves, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) needs to make a proper and long-term plan to enable the national teams to win in all conditions against world’s top opponents, both home and away.
While Australia already has a naturally robust cricketing system, India and England have transformed their game of late through meticulous investment in the growth of their players. The PCB, if it is seeking Pakistan’s progress on solid footing, can surely take a leaf out of their book.
Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2025
