Into the final eight

Pakistan's match against Australia is purely academic but a victory is still vital as we need a confidence boost.

A facile win over unfancied Zimbabwe on March 14 was enough to take the Pakistan cricket team to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, but all the questions that hang over the team are yet to be answered. A match against the minnows was never going to provide answers about our inexperienced opening batsmen, inconsistent fast bowlers and consistently awful fielders. Even wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, currently among the most disliked men in the country, was able to get through the match without any mishaps. Our next match, against Australia on March 19, is purely academic in terms of qualification but a victory is still vital as we need a confidence boost before what is sure to be a tough quarter-final.

Five matches into its World Cup campaign, Pakistan is still tinkering with its line-up. We still haven’t been able to figure out if Umar Gul should be opening the bowling (all evidence points to the fact that he can), what Abdul Razzaq’s role in the team is and whether calling Kamran Akmal a wicket-keeper is a violation of the Trade Descriptions Act. By this stage of the tournament, most of the other teams have figured out their best combinations and abandoned reckless experimentation.

The interminable group stage still has a few days to run before it mercifully ends. Most of the remaining matches will be interesting only to see who our opponents will be in the final eight. If there is one team we should be keen to avoid, it’s arch-rival India. Not only have we never defeated our neighbours in a World Cup match, the only way we will have to leave Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and play a match in the hostile environment of India is if we are drawn against the hosts. The identity of our opponents is out of our hands for now, though. And this Pakistan team need fear no one. As temperamental and inconsistent as it may be, it is capable of taking on and defeating the best on its day. Having now reached the quarters, it may finally be time to ask the question that has been on everyone’s minds: Can we do it?

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2011.