Comment: How long will domestic performers be kept on fringes?

Top three batsmen and bowlers in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy are not in contention for place in Pakistan's Test side

KARACHI: Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, is set to have new winners this season as HBL and WAPDA fight it out in the final which starts on December 10 at the National Stadium of Karachi.

While the jury is out on how competitive the tournament actually was, the event brought to the fore some superb individual performances from batsmen Kamran Akmal, Asif Zakir, Usman Salahuddin and bowlers Mohammad Abbas, Tabish Khan and Atif Jabbar.

Strangely, the top three batsmen and bowlers are not in contention for a place in the Pakistan Test side which prepares to take on Australia in the first Test of the tour Down Under on December 15.

The Inzamamul Haq-led selection committee threw its weight behind the ‘demands’ of the team management and decided to stick with the same set of players who were whitewashed 2-0 in New Zealand last month.



So what’s next for these performers? We hear that the selectors are going to invite the players for a special camp at the end of the domestic season and gauge whether they have the credentials to don the national colours.

But barring the quicks, the other performers have been put through the grind for donkey’s years; what will they be asked to prove in the camp, one just doesn’t know.

Other than Abbas and Atif, the quartet of Kamran, Asif, Usman and Tabish has remained in the reckoning for a long time now.

Kamran hasn’t played a Test for more than six years despite churning out the runs both as an opener and as a middle-order wicketkeeper-batsman for many seasons. He’s the lone batsman to accumulate 1,000 runs this season — 13 innings at 83.33, five centuries, three half-centuries.



Asif has also piled on the runs in recent seasons and closely follows Kamran at the number two spot with 853 runs in only 11 innings at a staggering average of 85.30.



Salahuddin, who played two ODIs against the West Indies five years ago, finished the season as the third most proficient run-getter with 843 runs at 70.25 runs per innings.

Abbas, an upcoming pace bowling prospect, shook the best batting line-ups in the event with his impeccable direction, seam and swing to collect 70 scalps in only 10 games.

Tabish had another prolific season for Karachi Whites; his tally of 62 wickets in nine games took his career first-class haul to a scarcely believable 478 but despite another golden run the 32 year-old wasn’t considered good enough to replenish Pakistan’s pace bowling stocks in Australia.



Atif, the 26 year-old from Sheikhupura, is regarded as one of the fastest bowlers on the circuit and burst into action late in the season by collecting back-to-back 10-wicket hauls for NBP which took his season tally to 50 in 10 games.

After the Australian tour, Pakistan have a Test tour of the West Indies and the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy toppers must be clinging on the hope of sealing a spot in the long-format squad.

The selectors need to respect the domestic system and reward the genuine and consistent performers. The six listed above have earned their right to play for the country and five of them have never worn the Test cap before.

Will they be finally given a chance to stake a claim for recognition at the highest level or be given a run in the ‘A’ teams at least?

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2016.

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