THE Pakistan cricket team’s 5-0 whitewash of Zimbabwe in the recent ODI series has been a lopsided affair, though a record-breaking one for the visitors. The host team, which has been grappling with serious problems, including poor remunerations, player revolts and lack of international exposure, wilted all too easily against a buoyant Pakistan side, depriving the fans of a real contest. To make things worse, Zimbabwe were without their leading players Brendon Taylor, Graeme Cremer, Sean Williams, Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza. It’s not surprising then that the Pakistani batsmen, led by Fakhar Zaman, took advantage of a pedestrian bowling attack. Fakhar’s meteoric rise in the shorter form of the game has been a factor in Pakistan’s recent successes including the Champions Trophy win in England last year and the tri-series victory in Zimbabwe. He almost single-handedly destroyed the hosts by scoring over 500 runs in the series and became the fastest to reach the 1,000-run mark in ODI history. Fakhar has found an able opening partner in Imam-ul-Haq who also scored three hundreds in the series. They put together a number of century stands including a world-record 304 in the fourth ODI.

There were also other positives to draw from. With all-rounders Shadab Khan and Fahim Ashraf looking the part, the emergence of a genuine pacer like Usman Shinwari, and Hasan Ali’s coming of age, Pakistan is among the three favourites for next year’s World Cup. Leading up to the mega event, though, are sterner tests including back-to-back series against New Zealand and Australia in the UAE, followed by a tour of South Africa. Still, the future looks bright for Pakistan cricket.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2018