Series win: Glance at future or past?

Team’s selectors and management are still not willing to go all-out and utilise young players’ talents to fullest

KARACHI: Pakistan’s series win against West Indies was welcome news for cricket lovers in this country after the Men in Green suffered another setback following the spot-fixing scandal, where the team had to loose regulars such as Mohammad Irfan and Sharjeel Khan.

Following another successful Pakistan Super League (PSL) edition, the likes of Islamabad United’s Shadab Khan and Lahore Qalandar’s Fakhar Zaman made it to the Pakistan’s squad, as chief selector Inzamamul Haq tried to bring in some youth into the team.

Even though the team went on to win the series with a rather comfortable margin of 3-1, where two of those three victories were truly thumping, the team management’s philosophy has come into question ahead of the crucial ODI series.

Before the series started, Inzamam announced the inclusion of five new players who were not in the squad when Sarfraz Ahmed’s men played their last T20I series, which was also against the Caribbean giants.

Out of those five, three were picked on the basis of performance in the PSL; all-rounder Shadab Khan, batsman Fakhar Zaman and Karachi Kings’ pacer Usman Khan Shinwari.

However, come the series, the team management failed to utilise those youngsters the way they could have.

The first T20I saw the inclusion of veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, who had a relatively poor PSL, and looked completely out of sorts.

His failure with both bat and bowl forced the team management to select the young Zaman, who was one of the rising stars for Brandon McCullum’s Lahore Qalandars in Pakistan’s own T20 league.

However, the 26-year-old did not bat at the position he is usually comfortable with.

Out of the two times Fakhar batted in three matches, the left-hander came in at number five and six — he often opens the innings in the domestic circuit.

Not only that, young Shadab, who stunned the opposition with his great bowling performance, batted below Wahab Riaz and Sohail Tanvir, even though he has a first-class century and half-century to his name in the List A format.

With the ball in hand, it was again evident that the team’s mindset is yet to change, as the team continuously persisted with the likes of 31-year-old Wahab Riaz and 32-year-old Sohail Tanvir, whereas PSL star Rumman Raees got only one game, and Usman returns without a single minute on the field.

Not only that, it is fair to say that the fitness of all those in mid-30’s is pretty questionable except that of Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz, both of whom are still one of the fittest in the squad.

The next World T20 event is scheduled to take place in 2020, and by that time Kamran Akmal will be 38, Mohammad Hafeez will be 39 and Sohail Tanvir will be 35, and looking at their fitness, it is not hard to imagine that they just won’t have what it takes to make it in the team then.

Keeping this in mind, and how the team was selected in the recently concluded series, can the team management really be said to be looking to build this side for the future, or are they still stuck in the past?