Pakistan are top of the world

Along the way they broke several records and entertained a nation

KARACHI: Years down the line, when people invariably look back at the Misbahul Haq era — when Pakistan became the world’s best Test side for the very first time — the 2014 Abu Dhabi Test against Australia would serve as an apt microcosm of what made this team so great.

The middle-order trio of Azhar Ali, Younus Khan and Misbah all scored centuries in the first innings to take Pakistan to a mammoth total of 570-6 before dismissing the Australians for 261. Presented with a chance to inflict a humiliating innings defeat on Australia, captain Misbah decided to add to the 309-run lead that Pakistan already had.

Back home, the critics of the skipper — their numbers decreasing by the day — groaned in disgust. Many believed the move might allow Australia to sneak a draw in a match they had no business getting a result in.

Misbah, though, had other ideas and smashed the then joint-fastest Test century — taking 56 balls to reach the milestone. That day the skipper shed his derogatory ‘Tuk Tuk’ moniker.



The spinners — Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar and Mohammad Hafeez — then wreaked havoc against a deflated Australian batting side, claiming all 10 wickets between themselves.

The modus operandi was all-too-familiar by then. Throughout Misbah’s six years at the helm, the exiled men have been doing this at ‘home’. In the unforgiving desert heat, their batsmen ground bowlers to dust. On dead pitches their bowlers produced fast-bowling spells of sheer ferocity; terrific and fearsome spurts of pure energy that left batsmen shaking in their boots. And if all that failed and there still remained life in the opposition, their spinners tested the technique and application of visiting batsmen to the fullest; against them, almost all came up short.

Along the way they broke several records — biggest win margin for Pakistan, fastest Test half-century, fastest century, fastest century by a Pakistani wicketkeeper, most wickets after 10 Tests, to name just a few — and entertained a nation which not that long ago was shorn of its best bowlers, its skipper and its right to play at home.



It wasn’t always smooth sailing though; it wouldn’t be Pakistan if it had been. There was the whitewash against South Africa when both the batsmen and the bowlers were ruthlessly found out, there was the embarrassing defeat against Zimbabwe that led to a series draw, there was the lean patch when Pakistan didn’t win a single series for nearly three years from 2012 to 2014.

But the usually trigger-happy management stuck to their guns and have since been rewarded with a run of four wins and two draws, culminating in the number one spot.

The run was made all the more pleasing considering the plethora of standout performers that emerged along the way. From Younus and Shan Masood at Pallekele, to Misbah and Yasir at Lord’s; match winners one and all, fighting against the tide, against the odds, against the troubles that plague the nation.



That Pakistan take the number one spot from arch-rivals India makes the deal all the more sweet for the country’s 200 million population that virtually eats and breathes cricket. That they take it after four-and-a-half washed out days in Trinidad where India were playing the West Indies will matter not.

Nor will the very real possibility that the Men in Green, facing tough away fixtures against New Zealand and Australia before the end of the year, will relinquish the mace back to one of the chasing pack.

Because — for the very first time in their history — Pakistan look down upon the rest of the Test-playing world. For now, Pakistan are top of the world.