THE key to survival for any batsman against pace or spin attack is discipline according to a given situation and unless a batsman is able to prepare himself both physically and mentally to learn this prime art of batting, his road to success is not only difficult but is likely to push him towards failure.

This most important quality of discipline allowed the greats of the game like Sir Don Bradman, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Len Hutton, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Viv Richards and men like Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and the likes of Brian Lara to achieve excellence in the art of batting.

The pity is that in the modern times there are not many who could be compared with stalwarts of the past. With revolutionary changes in the game and its format over the years, various shade of styles have crept into the system.

The influx of ODIs and now T20s has not helped in grooming the batsmen for the longer version of the game which is Test cricket. A glance at the the entire line-up of present day batting of any country, I do not find many players who can measure up as greats or prolific as Tests batsmen. In fact, i can count on my fingers men like Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Alistair Cook who could discipline their play to stand the pressures and survive the day.

Playing reverse sweep and scoop shots in Test cricket does not get the batsmen anywhere really. What I am trying to convey here is the fact that the present day batsmen have lost that skill to concentrate for a longer period to build an innings or the art of making sure to control their impetuosity and score a big hundred.

This is what is lacking in this Pakistan batting line-up too. The lack of discipline is the main reason of their failure to survive in the middle, whether they are batting first or in second to save themselves and their team from a defeat.

A great majority of dismissals in this Test series has occurred mainly because our batsmen have been tentative in approach, fishing outside the off stump or unable to negotiate the movement off the pitch or the deliveries rising at them.

The dismissals of Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali and Fakhar Zaman have all come as a result of their lack of discipline in their approach to handle those balls which a sensible batsman would have handled quite well and maturely.

Having watched Pakistan batsmen in UAE against Australia and New Zealand and now here, I notice that they commit the same mistakes all the time.

I am sure the coaches must have been at it to rectify their shortcomings but I somehow donot see much change in their style of play. Not that we do not have talent, it is in fact the mindset in which the players get trapped and keep on making the same mistakes again and again.

It was encouraging to see both Shan Masood and Asad Shafiq settle down after initial struggle in the middle and survive to make respectable scores. If only others had applied themselves better, Pakistan would have had some chance of making a match of it here.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2019