The cricket fever that so gripped the world with the ICC World Twenty20 has almost faded now. The slam-bang contests kept the world’s top players quite busy, providing fans with rapid entertainment and thrilling cricket.
To the surprise of tens of millions of cricket fans, the not too fancied West Indies with their exuberance, teamwork and ruthlessness outshone the big guns and took the crown in style by overpowering hosts Sri Lanka in their backyard.
The proud achievement by Darren Sammy’s side is being seen as a healthy omen for the revival of fortunes for the West Indies, which will add a lot of colour and excitement to world cricket.
However, World Twenty20 is now history. It is back to serious, traditional international cricket — the Test matches and the One-day Internationals.
The Twenty20 format is by no means a proper yardstick to evaluate a player or a team’s true calibre and class.
Therefore, purely taking it as a conventional follower of the sport, the 20-overs-a-side cricket despite its ever-increasing popularity deserves limited attention.
Yes, Mohammad Hafeez and company lost the World Twenty20 semi-final mainly due to erroneous selection and some ordinary batsmanship against a better-equipped, more compact Jayawardene brigade. Furthermore, by crashing out of the world event in the last-four stage, Pakistan also missed an ideal occasion to inspire millions of our budding cricketers who would have loved to watch their team lifting their second World Twenty20 trophy in three years time.
However, the players and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) must realise that in spite of all its glitzy appeal, the game’s shortest format is no measure to judge things and Tests and ODIs are a different ball-game altogether.
Serious business duly demands serious thought process, devising plans and strategies and their proper and timely implementation by those at the helm to achieve desired results.
Pakistan national team’s next major assignment, starting in February 2013, is a full tour of South Africa, the world’s top-ranked Test team. South Africa’s outstanding Test record since 2010 (matches 23, wins 11, losses 4, draws 8) including the magnificent 2-0 series triumph in England last summer makes the Proteas a robust force to deal with. Playing against heavyweights like Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, A.B. de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel — all top-class match-winners — indeed calls for high level, gutsy performance from Pakistan.
‘Aim high’ goes an adage, and Pakistan think-tank is better advised to keep this in their plan sheets. Without denying the huge significance of Pakistan’s forthcoming limited-overs series in India, the Test battle against Graeme Smith and his thoroughly professional army must be Pakistan’s top priority in the near future.
The tour to Africa, without a trace of doubt, will require full utilisation of their talent and class by Pakistani cricketers. Anything short of it will be doom for Misbah-ul-Haq and his charges.
With a coach of the calibre and vision of Dav Whatmore, whose acumen as a world-class trainer and talent administrator did wonders in Sri Lanka and India, Pakistan can definitely plan better for their high-profile clashes with the Proteas.
One decisive factor is likely to present a big challenge for Pakistan in South Africa — the lively wickets. First, the fast-and-bouncy tracks will make our batsmen dance to South African pace battery. And, to be honest, Pakistan’s fast bowling department doesn’t have the bite and class of Wasim-Waqar days anymore which could put the green-shirts at par with the Proteas.
Earlier this year, we ambushed England, the top-ranked Test outfit at the time, on spinning UAE tracks courtesy Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman. The same recipe may not work wonders this time and could find Misbah and Whatmore well short of the demands of the playing conditions in South Africa where Pakistan have never recorded a Test series victory.
Secondly, and most importantly, the peculiar selection anomalies must be avoided at all costs since they can hurt Pakistan’s chances big time in the South Africa series. The inconceivable axing of Abdul Razzaq for the recently concluded World Twenty20 semi-final followed by his subsequent outburst aimed at Hafeez openly indicates that things can backfire badly with just one wrong move. And if the same inexplicable approach in selection is adopted by the touring team management in South Africa, we can very well guess the fate of Misbah and his boys in the gruelling series.
Misbah must also realise the importance of having a technically sound batsman like Asad Shafiq in the side. The diminutive batsman’s class and consistency with the willow qualifies him as a must selection for the five-day battles. Misbah himself along with the resolute Asad, sturdy Azhar Ali and veteran Younis Khan can form a solid middle-order which possesses the ability and guts to stand up to Steyn & Company.
Pakistan, ever since Misbah took charge as Test captain in October 2010, have produced impressive results (Tests 18, wins 9, losses 2, draws 7) including that exceptional 3-0 whitewash of England.
But when Pakistan players enter the Wanderers in Johannesburg to play their first Test, they will perhaps face their stiffest challenge in recent years and they better be prepared for it.