BCCI will always have N Srinivasan contesting presidential elections, and on the other side of the cricket border, Pakistan will always be in contention when it comes to a World Cup.
Usually, they are the perennial dark horses. This time though, that tag has been attached to co-hosts New Zealand, currently in sizzling form.
Ask anybody who their four semi-finalists are and three teams will figure in probably all lists – Australia, South Africa and the Kiwis. Sri Lanka or India will be the fourth choice for many.
But a few will stop to ponder, what of Pakistan?
An uncertain run-in to the World Cup is the reasoning for this. In the last six months, they have won only three of the 13 ODIs played. They lost 2-1 in Lanka in August, were blanked 3-0 by Australia in the UAE reversing the Test form, and afterwards lost 3-2 to New Zealand too. In their final build-up, they lost 2-0 to the Kiwis again, on arrival here.
This has been the summation of their ODI results since the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, almost twelve months ago. For most teams the preparatory road to the World Cup begins from one year out. Yet in Pakistan’s case, this was the start of a down-turn, a reversal of fortunes given how their record had looked previously.
Since the 2013 Champions Trophy, they won ODI series in West Indies and Zimbabwe, lost to South Africa in the UAE but reversed it to beat the Proteas on their home-turf, and also beat Lanka thereafter. With four series wins out of five, Pakistan went to Bangladesh and lost in the final, a pivotal point, as all momentum built-up fizzled out thereafter.
A lot of this uncertainty has to do with two crucial members of their bowling attack missing out. Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was banned in September last year and there is not a batsman in world cricket who wouldn’t be relieved. Never mind the debate over his action this is a spinner who averages 24.07 with the ball outside the subcontinent and the UAE. Is it a coincidence that Pakistan’s loss of form has coincided with his ban?
The bowling ban on Mohammad Hafeez – escalating to an injury that put him out of the tournament – too will hurt. He is someone who opens their attack regularly. With two new balls from each end, not to mention the rule-change in field settings, such a bowler is worth his weight in gold. Just ask Indian skipper MS Dhoni and he would turn green with envy.
In their absence then, does Pakistan have enough fire-power to make batsmen cower in their crease? In the past, this isn’t a question you would ask of this team. With Umar Gul missing out as well, Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali and Ehsan Adil are the five pace bowlers this team will be relying on in the coming two months.
Between them, they have played 97 ODIs, with Irfan and Riaz making up for all but ten matches. That is a serious lack of experience, particularly since only Riaz has played ODIs Down Under previously (in New Zealand, back in 20101-11). It is intriguing then that the Pakistan Cricket Board could only arrange for two practice matches and only another two ODIs here in the build-up to the World Cup.
There will be quite a few expectations from the seven-foot tall Irfan, but a host of injuries have already taken a toll on his pace as seen from the matches against the Black Caps. As such they are missing that awe-factor Pakistan’s fast bowlers have inspired over the years. They can be made to look ordinary and given their inexperience, they will be hoping to adjust to the conditions quickly and hit the right lengths.
Much will depend on Pakistan’s weak-link then, batting. As regards this particular World Cup however, this ‘weak-link’ phrase is certainly ill-fitted. With Younis Khan, Misbah ul Haq, Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal and Hafeez in their line-up, there is no dearth of experience. The ponderous matter is how effective they can be.
Younis comes into the tournament on the back of exceptional Test form. No one in Pakistan will have forgotten the noise he made after being left out of PCB’s ODI plans last year and to say much will be expected of him is an understatement. The ever-inconsistent Umar – the lone Akmal in this fifteen-man squad pointedly – will want to impress for once.
Hafeez’s absence will affect the top-order too, seeing as his replacement is the out-of-form Nasser Jamshed. But their lower order will be a bigger worry, with Fawad Alam ignored over Sohaib Maqsood and Haris Sohail. But these two can bowl too, and given the lack of options, there isn’t a cause to debate.
Winning a World Cup, that said, is about who the stars for any team can be throughout the six-week period, lifting them up again and again. Like in 1992 this is quite an open tournament, and Pakistan’s young bunch will look at their captain for inspiration. Can Misbah emulate Imran Khan?
If you ask him, he will probably say no. That is because Misbah does things his own way, and does them calmly. That latter bit will prove to be crucial, for an inexperienced side can descend into chaos very quickly. He is known to play the pacifying role later in the batting line-up but will hope he doesn’t have to do so very often.
The most important thing-to-do in his list will be handling Afridi. If there is one star player in this team, it has to be this never-ageing phenomenon, boasting of a rich 391 ODIs under his belt. He is everything the Pakistan team has come to be known for over the years – rich in talent yet mercurial, reckless to the extent of hurting own self but unwavering still, and unpredictable of course.
Any Pakistan side is never without a clash of two heavy-weight egos and it is the same story this time around. With his authority, if Misbah can channelize Afridi’s energy in the right direction, he will have found their talisman for the World Cup at the right moment. And on his part, if Afridi mellows down just a tad, ready to play second fiddle to man-in-command, concentrating his energies on the field alone, there is no telling what damage he might do.
Pakistan’s fortunes in this 2015 ODI World Cup depend on this finely balanced equation between the two stalwarts.
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