Celebration time

While it’s a moment to congratulate Pakistan, it is also time to thank Sri Lanka for aiding our effots

Time to rejoice. Pakistan has not just successfully hosted the historic Test series — one that marks the revival of the five-day cricket in the country after a gap of one full decade — but has also won it quite convincingly. The Azhar Ali men defeated Sri Lanka in the second Test at the National Stadium Karachi by a huge margin of 263 runs while the first one played at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium had ended in a draw. Thus a 1-0 victory for Pakistan in the two-game revival rubber. Takeaways for Pakistan from the Test series are too many — the biggest one, of course, being the stamping that the country is a safe place for sports. The successful hosting of the series has sent a strong message the world over that the security situation in Pakistan is as good as any other cricketing nation and that it’s unfair, illogical and discriminatory for international teams and players to avoid visiting a country that loves cricket and that is brimming with cricket talent.

Opener Abid Ali and young pacer Naseem Shah are the discoveries of the series. The former has hit back-to-back centuries in both Tests of the revival series and is now in a position to match the yet-unmatched feat by former Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin of hitting three centuries in his first three Test matches. Abid has already held the record of being the only cricketer to have scored a century on both Test and one-day debut. Naseem Shah, on the other hand, has become the second youngest bowler in the world — and the youngest pace bowler ever — to clinch five-for in an innings of a Test match. And during the Karachi Test, Pakistan became only the second team in the history of cricket to have all of their top four batsmen score a century in an innings of a Test match.

While it’s a moment to congratulate the whole Pakistani nation, it is also time to thank Sri Lanka for aiding our efforts to bring big cricket back to our sports venues.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2019.

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