Can Pakistan turn tables on England at Trent Bridge?

Today, visitors line up at same venue where they played first ODI on English soil, in hopes of avoiding third defeat

KARACHI: Forty-two years ago Pakistan played their first ever ODI on English soil at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge ground. In a 50-over match, England set the visitors a target of 245, and Pakistan hauled it down in the 43rd over, with dashing opener Majid Khan blazing away with a 93-ball innings of 109 — consisting of 16 fours and one six.

Today, as Pakistan line up at the same venue in hopes of avoiding a third consecutive defeat to the hosts in the ongoing ODI series, they are in a desperate need of a Majid Khan at the top of the innings.

Opener Sharjeel Khan, who biffed Ireland, has found the extra pace, accuracy and venom of the English quicks tough to negotiate with. And elsewhere, not many punters — regardless of their gambling instincts — are likely to place their stakes on Azhar Ali or Sami Aslam scoring a less than a run-a-ball century against this fiery attack.



Sami Aslam. PHOTO: AFP

Majid’s innings four decades ago was well ahead of its time, but in 2016 such innings have become the norm for leading ODI teams around the world. On the contrary, teams that don’t have fearsome opening partnerships — including Pakistan — are the ones languishing at the bottom of the rankings.

The first two matches of the current series were won almost at a canter by the hosts, and even though Pakistan did claw back in contention at Lord’s, they never really recovered from the body blow of losing their first three batsmen with only two runs on the board.

Captain Azhar and his batting colleagues, especially the top order, have been castigated by pundits and if Pakistan are to overturn their woeful spate of defeats against England — 10 in last 11 ODIs — they will need a monumental team effort or a spark of individual brilliance that hasn’t been seen in recent games.

Sarfraz Ahmed did provide that ‘spark’ with a well measured century at Lord’s, but as mentioned earlier Pakistan weren’t really in the hunt since the much vaunted bowling attack is also lacking the cutting edge of the past which ensured that the team remained competitive despite largely lackadaisical batting in past five years.



Sarfraz Ahmed. PHOTO: AFP

The inadequate batting and bowling returns have left the selectors and team management dazed to the extent that they chose to replace injured opener Mohammad Hafeez with fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan.

Other than sharing their first names, the two have nothing in common, unless the stakeholders feel that Irfan can contribute with the bat as ‘efficiently’ as Hafeez contributed during the tour.

Irfan, who claimed 16 wickets in 14 games at an average of 39.43 and an economy rate of 5.08 since last year’s World Cup, isn’t a long-term option by any stretch. He only arrived in England yesterday, and risking him in an ODI straightaway is not likely to be a straightforward decision either.

The 34-year-old’s call-up indicates a deeper predicament — that at present the team management is more worried about the bowling stocks and want Irfan to provide them with firepower at the start of the innings.



Pakistan need to rest Amir, who has played non-stop high intensity cricket so far. The left-armer has appeared in all seven internationals — four Tests against England, one ODI against Ireland, and first two ODIs of the current series — the team has featured in, and has developed niggles that might flare up into a bigger problem soon. Irfan, it seems, is the only short-term solution that can cover for Amir.

While it all appears gloomy heading into the game today, the age old Pakistan unpredictability is what most of the impassioned fans are holding onto.

Despite their immense strength, England have fallibilities for sure and Pakistan can aim to exploit those. Other than the seemingly infallible Joe Root and Eoin Morgan, the rest of the batsmen are stroke players who are likely to play a rash shot if shackled for an over or two.

Disciplined bowling will be the key, Pakistan desperately need Wahab and Yasir to raise their game too, regular breakthroughs is the only way of restricting competent batting line-ups.

Yasir Shah. PHOTO: AFP

Pakistan should also seriously contemplate batting second; three out of their four wins against the top eight teams since last year’s World Cup have come batting second.

The ‘fear of chasing’ is holding the team back. If this ODI side has to progress, the think-tank has to realise that they need to put the demons in their heads to rest.

On a passing note, one feels that the game today might be the make or break case for Azhar’s career as a captain, and a defeat today will most certainly put an end to his reign. The hope is that he can fight back adversity with an uncluttered mind and come out all guns blazing.