Collapsaholics

Pakistan has a long history of playing a brand of cricket which experiences both ends of the performance spectrum. As former England captain, Nassar Hussain famously beautifully depicted Pakistan cricket as being a side that can "one minute down, next minute up". Much is the curse or even a blessing that Pakistan cricket is charmed under, it is the fact that they are a nation that thrill and excite to not only provide the element of mystery but also the essence of raw talent. Whilst words like inconsistent may be appropriate words to describe Pakistan cricket, what has been demonstrated over their tour to England and Ireland is a side which has no lack of abundance in skill and flair but also has shown tremendous amounts of rare discipline. 

The announcement of a test series against Pakistan certainly excited me as the tourists would experience their first trip without the likes of Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan. However, considering England’s disastrous tours of Australia and New Zealand, I felt that a bigger test series would ultimately identify the better side.

With Pakistan beginning their tour with a sublime win against Ireland in their inaugural test. With the new hosts proving to provide some difficulties, Pakistan’s youngsters provided some long lost sanity which seemed to have depleted after the retirements of Younis Khan and Misbah ul Haq. The lone test saw the emergence of two young allrounders in Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf asserting into the ranks of Pakistan batting which has been troubled in recent times. 

At the beginning of this series, there was no doubt that England were obvious favourites on the basis of their home form despite their horror tours overseas. With question marks on the form of Mark Stoneman, the famine in runs for Alistair Cook and the selection of Jos Buttler, it is fair to say that there was more attention on England than the tourists. It was this attention on the hosts which allowed Pakistan to ease into the series on the back of some impressive and purposeful preparation. 

It was the preparation that Pakistan had leading to the first ball of the series which proved to show England how to bat, bowl and field in England. Day one of the first test at Lords saw England shamed as they were bowled out for 184 courtesy of a Mohammad Abbas (4/23) and Hasan Ali (4/51) clinic which saw the hosts lose 6/35 in a remarkable collapse. With a sublime start,  Azhar Ali (50), Asad Shafiq (59), Babar Azam (68) and Shadab Khan (52) saw Pakistan reach an imposing first innings total of 363.  

With a poor first innings display by England, the hosts continued to tumble as Mohammad Abbas (4/41) and Amir (4/36) helped Pakistan dismiss the opposition for a bleak 242. With a small innings lead, Pakistan aimed to finish the job off with the likes of Imam ul Haq and Haris Sohail guiding the tourists to a thumping 9 wicket win within 13 overs of the first test. 

With a fairy tale start and the cricketing world at their feet, Pakistan’s confidence reached a summit as England shocked to a massive defeat against a rather young and inexperienced unit. As often is the cliche associated with Pakistan cricket, a near opposite performance saw the likes of the tourists crumble in two spectacular collapses to see England complete destructive innings and 55 run victory. 

With the side that Pakistan currently possesses there is no doubt that there will be inconsistencies due to their low level of international experience. However, there is no doubt as to the abundance of talent that oozes from Pakistan and the extreme destructive quality that their young cricketers have. With the likes of Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Abbass proving to be the stars of the tour, it did seem that Pakistan’s senior men failed to provide the maturity to the batting line up. Pakistan has been renowned for its glamorous bowling and spectacular expression of fast bowling, the question mark heavily lays on their batting. I strongly believe that the support for the youngsters to perform was important, however, what was not seen in the media and the press was the backing of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. There is no doubt that they are world class players with an abundance of experience, but they are required to fill the shoes of the legends in Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan. This is where I think the attention should have been on as they are the foundation of Pakistan’s batting and are central to their success as far as run scoring. 

One of the key things that I have noticed throughout Pakistan’s test cricket is their batting order of recent times. Too often are players with successful records being shifted and more too often are they failing to impact the game. Whilst I believe that Azhar Ali is a fantastic opening batsman and one of my favourites to watch, I believe that the lack of stability in their lineup, he needs to bat at number 3 to control the game with his patients. But what has been the most disturbing element of their lineup has been the shifting of the number of Asad Shafiq (a record holder for the most hundreds batting at number 6 which was famously held by the great Sir Garfield Sobers). Initially seeing him bat up the order was an exciting element, however, his records tell another story with an opposite narrative. A phenomenal batting average of 41.29 at number 6 is eclipsed by his lack of performance in the top 5 which has not seen Shafiq average over 40. Hence, I think with Shafiq’s experience of batting with the tail and his record at number 6 should be retained and allowing the skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed to bat higher up the order. 

Overall, I think that it has been a fantastic tour of the UK for Pakistan as they registered a 4-1 tour win including their 2-0 T20 whitewash against Scotland. As I normally do at the end of a series wrap, the final mixed XI of the series which would best represent the performances of the small test series played would be:

PAKISTAN/ENGLAND SERIES XI: Azhar Ali, Alistair Cook, Joe Root, Asad Shafiq, Johnny Bairstow, Sarfaraz Ahmed © (wk), Shadab Khan, Chris Woakes, James Anderson, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas