August 17, 2003

Being the weakest side doesn’t mean Bangladesh can be taken for granted. But, is Pakistan prepared to take on the minnows?

HOW often have Pakistan found themselves with a Hobson’s choice? In recent times, they faced this head scratching in early 2001 when they returned from New Zealand with paradise further lost, after England had won a series in Pakistan for the first time since 1969. They promptly installed a new breed in the ODIs against the touring Sri Lankans, lost them all and panicked to bring back the players who had made the Pakistani tourists in New Zealand look like a squad returning from the battle at Stalingrad.

Then there were the days leading up to the World Cup where spare-parts were falling all over the road as the transport chugged on to its inevitable end. Three tournaments and mixed success later, the PCB and its selection team are faced with the option of trying the young men or bringing back those who let down their country when it mattered most.

On one hand the youngsters have served them so well, some by performance others by effort. On the other there is the prospect of Murphy’s Law being applied on Pakistan where Bangladesh will lose to everyone except them. With Mohammad Sami and Younis Khan not available for the first two Tests, Saqlain and Azhar having counted themselves out and Yousuf Youhana in search of his misplaced magic touch, Aamer Sohail and Co. are bracing for the worst.

As it is things have not really gone according to plan. The batting order has not promised anything above 225 throughout the post-World Cup outings and the bowling has been more a journey of discovery and escapades, with Shoaib Akhtar oscillating between sublime brilliance and hair splitting extravagance.

Pakistan’s nervousness is compounded by the way Bangladesh have taken on the Aussies in batting. For a team that was being seen as target practice for all cricket playing countries and scheduling of three day Tests against them becoming a thought demanding serious consideration, their resilience on occasions was startling.

When Hannan Sarkar and Habibul Bashar had taken Bangladesh to 155-1 against the most fiery bowling attack on a green top, this surely would have initiated airtime static between the PCB top management and selectors. If anything, the Bangladeshi batsmen must have looked each other in the eye after quite some time. In all probability they must have also gained confidence in tons at the prospect of batting against a Pakistani attack that has recently been groomed on containment rather than incisiveness.

Pakistan may have Shoaib Akhtar back but with his eyes on his return to Durham there is the risk he may not go flat out. As it is he has been censured for chasing speed. If the Bangladeshi top order can see of McGrath, Gillespie and Lee, Rashid Latif with Razzaq, Shabbir and Umar Gul will have to hope for something special.

Javed Miandad will also be wondering about what directions to give the groundsmen. In an informal chat, he was uncommitted but he has taken note of the fact that it had been the leg spinner McGill who eventually pierced through the Bangladeshis in both Tests.

As such, expect Danish Kaneria to play all the three Tests. As it is he has been the most successful bowler against the Bangladeshis. He has played all the three Tests Pakistan has played against the incoming tourists. In what was Bangladesh’s first (and till now the only) Test against Pakistan in Pakistan, Danish was man of the match with 12-94.

His returns against Bangladesh have been of monopolistic proportions. After taking 6-42 and 6-52 at Multan, he took 9 wickets at Dacca (2-36 and 7-77) and 4-62 in the first innings at Chittagong, with not much left for him after Shoaib Akhtar and Waqar had eaten up the first eight wickets to wrap up the second innings.

Indeed Bangladesh have never seen life beyond 160. Their Tests scores against Pakistan read 134, 148, 160,152, 148 and 148. But against Australia in end July they touched 295 at Cairns.

Pakistani bowlers will especially be looking out for their one down bat, Habibul-Bashar, who has taken potential starts against Australia with scores of 16, 54, 46 and 25. Rashid Latif will also be aware that in six Test innings against Pakistan he has enjoyed a liking for our bowling and has played Danish quite intelligently. He finished with 56 not out at Multan as the second innings was dissolving rapidly for 148, contributed 53 in Bangladesh’s 160 at Dhaka and then 51 out of 148 at Chittagong.

On top of that Hannan Sarkar has come through recently with virtues of courage and tenacity. Under the watchful eye of Dave Whatmore who transformed the Sri Lankans from a team of talented entertainers to world champions in 1996, you can expect Sarkar to achieve more in Pakistan. Whatmore is a man on the lines of Bob Simpson, looking for the small areas of improvement and using them as platforms for development.

Sarkar’s two gutsy knocks of 55 and 76, in both cases teaming up with Bashar for the second wicket, are bad news for Pakistan. Should they prepare good batting tracks, these two are likely to test them to the limit. It only takes a good opening day performance to set in motion the self-belief. No one is more aware than Javed Miandad, who said that his priority will be to go at the top order.

Rashid too says that he is not looking back at history to gain confidence and feels the batting records against Bangladesh are of no comfort. Being a pragmatic man who knows that the opposition is as good as on that day, he is overlooking Pakistan’s inaugural innings against Bangladesh where Waqar Younis declared at 546-3 as four out of five batsmen got hundreds, and working on urging his batsmen to put their heads down for the first hour at the crease.

Nor will he be carried away that in the last Test Pakistan played against them, Youhana got a double hundred. He of course has Razzaq back in the side who, like Youhana, has two hundreds in three Test innings against them. However, Rashid is also aware of the listlessness that has lately engulfed this middle order all rounder.

Pakistan may look tall by their success history having won the three Tests by an innings (246, 178 and 169 the margins) and having steamrolled Bangladeshi bowlers for 546-3, 490-9 and 465-9. But of late, their top order has yet to reach equilibrium with itself, let alone against the bowlers. Youhana, Razzaq and Inzamam are out of touch. Rashid himself boasts of a 94 at Dhaka but he has not much support in the lower order these days.

Perhaps his main comfort will be that where the batsmen showed some mettle in Australia, their bowlers were given a run down on morale. They managed 11 wickets against 963 runs conceded in the two innings and on a fast paced pitch went for 556-3. But then their pace attack of Mashrafe Mortaza (3-74 in 23 overs including two in successive overs) and Manjural Islam worked up a lively pace.

And even though Alok Kapali, their newly inducted leg spinner, was expected to make the inroads, it was Sanwar Hossain who became something of a riddle for the Australians. He was both economical (less than four an over) as well as disciplined (no wides or no-balls in 30 overs) as the Australians piled on 556-4 in the second Test.

Bangladesh come to Pakistan having lost all three of their Tests against Pakistan and 10 of their 11 ODIs, all of them emphatically. Sadly, their only One-Day victory (during the 1999 World Cup) is constantly under investigation for match fixing.

Just how much the spoils have been shared by the Pakistanis is borne out of the fact that there have been only three ODI hundreds against them. Pakistan have indeed never taken these opponents seriously. In a One-Day game in Bangladesh, they once used nine bowlers with Wajahatullah Wasti taking 3-36 and Saeed Anwar 2-9. Then in the 2001/02 three match ODI rubber they twice used eight bowlers.

Bangladesh are now coming to Pakistan with a team that has three Test hundreds between them and none in ODIs. Their highest individual batting average is 33.21, Habibul Bashar achieving that with his 1362 runs, the only one with more than 700 runs in Tests. The next best average is by Sarkar with 28, based on his recent innings. The other two centurions besides Habib, Aminul Islam (last played a Test in January 2002) and Mohammad Ashraful, have otherwise done nothing with averages around 20 an innings.

Among their bowlers, Manjural Islam is the highest wicket-taker with 25 wickets, but with an average of over 56. Rafique has the best bowling average with nine wickets at 31.33 and Mortaza with an average of 37, is one of two bowlers with a bowling average below 48.

However, one gets the feeling that Bangladesh will be a different proposition. For one thing their recent displays have been in limited over games where their batsmen have been under pressure to go for their strokes. As such, whenever they have batted first, their bowlers therefore have not much to bowl at. Likewise even in instances where they have restricted the batting side to below 250 (as in their latest ODI against Australia), they have not been able to play the strokes that matter.

They are facing one of the weakest Pakistani sides in years. It is now upto the brain trust of Javed Miandad and Rashid Latif, and the experience and determination of the diverse age groups in the team to see this one through. Otherwise the rebuilding will be taking place more off the field than on it.

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