Lesson to learn from Wahab's cricket career

31-year-old picked two crucial wickets on consecutive deliveries to seal famous victory for Pakistan on Sunday

KARACHI: After an emphatic series-levelling win at The Oval on Sunday, the team wore the look of conquerors on their faces on the same land where they were humiliated six years back.

In every war, the commanders are remembered as the real victors, but it’s the soldiers in his command who make the difference in the end.

It’s often said that the feeling when one wins a Test is the reward of the consistent effort to keep at it until you get the desired result, and one man who deserves every bit of that feeling was Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz.

Before the tour started, people were raising questions about why he was picked, and whether he is holding onto his place because of his miraculous ICC World Cup 2015 quarter-final spell against Australia, which earned him the praise from greats all over the world.

PHOTO: REUTERS

However, the 31-year- old, who played his 16th, 17th and 18th Test match on this tour, managed to pick 10 wickets in three matches, with the second best average (40.73) from the Pakistan fast-bowlers after Sohail Khan (25), even though he was dropped for the third Test.

He also finished the series with the third best strike rate (53.3) after England’s Chris Woakes (34.2) and Pakistan’s Sohail (40.4) among both teams, even ahead of the likes of the more celebrated James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Muhammad Amir.

Then one must wonder why isn’t he being praised for his performances? The answer lies within his statistics.

When burst onto the scene on the same ground in 2010, Wahab picked up his first five-wicket haul in his debut bowling performance in the longest format of the game.

But since then, his best bowling performance came against England in 2015 in Dubai, where he bagged four scalps, which is a disappointing number for a bowler who bowls at nearly 90 mph.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Here the question arises as to why his Test performance isn’t great, and looking at his recent performances, why he doesn’t deliver for the Green Caps on a regular basis.

The answer is pretty simple.

Wahab debuted for Pakistan in 2008, and he was identified just as a very fast bowler, who can bowl quick and can be wayward, which led to leaking runs in his early day at the international level.

He also did not have the ability to bowl an outswinger to the left-handed batsman, which made him that much easier to face, as he primarily based on angle to the right handers, which becomes predictable at times.

Cricket experts believed that the predicament was down to his wrist position, which is improbable, if not impossible, to change. Six years down the line, he couldn’t change it completely, which makes us realise that he is not our Wasim Akram which we were looking for, and that’s why it was Amir who became the blue-eyed boy of Pakistan cricket from 2009 onwards.

However, his stay in the team became permanent in the aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal in 2010, when in an ODI series against South Africa, a short-on-option team management opted for Wahab who played two crucial innings lower down the order. Pakistan won one match, and nearly won the other one as well.

It was at that time, when people started to believe in him, even with such limited talent.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Since then, there have been numerous times when Wahab stood up for Pakistan and took them out of the hole.

People only started recognising him after the 2015 World Cup, where he bowled arguably the spell of the tournament against Australia’s Shane Watson, and received praise from West Indian great Brian Lara and others.

But there are numerous other times when he delivered in a manner for which not many people remember him, just like he did on Sunday when he picked up two precious wickets for the team on two deliveries of Chris Woakes and Jonny Bairstow to crush any hopes of England’s comeback, or the spell he bowled on the fourth day of the Lord’s Test. At the end, for sports lovers in Pakistan, he is just not Amir, neither on the field, nor off it.

One may dare to believe that Wahab would have been world class if he would have played in Australia conditions every summer, but to his misfortune, he is made to play on dead UAE pitches every year, something that the cricket crazy nation of Pakistan finds hard to comprehend.

PHOTO: REUTERS

His stay in the team resembles that of Younus Khan, who was not bound for greatness but nevertheless became one of the greatest in Pakistan’s Test history with a passion to deliver for the country.

People like Wahab and Younus makes one realise that technique is not all one needs to survive in top class cricket; it’s often passion, aggression and a warrior-like attitude that makes you a permanent mainstay in the team.

Many will remember this series for captain Misbahul Haq’s century at Lord’s, Amir’s dismissal of Alex Hales at Old Trafford, Yasir Shah’s 10-wicket haul in the first match, and Younus’ double century at The Oval. But perhaps every successful team needs combatants like Wahab, who regardless of the conditions and opposition and with so little praise for his efforts, will run in with pent-up steam and deliver for your team, with only love for his job and country.