Fawad Alam and Karachi -- a love story

Fawad Alam's first-class stats at the National Stadium portray why he succeeded in Karachi against South Africa

KARACHI:

There was no hope for Fawad after he was dumped a decade back from the Test side without any proper reason. The media and even Fawad himself had given up on a chance to ever come back into contention. The discussion of his return would surface quickly when he amassed runs in domestic cricket, but it died down as quickly as the next squad for next Test series saw him missing out on a spot. However, Fawad waited for his chance, then he waited a little more and eventually he was made to wait nearly forever, but what was important that he waited, patiently.

The story of Fawad’s return into the Pakistan Test side at the age of 35, maybe a few years later then when he was at his prime, was the exact story of his century on day two of the first Test between Pakistan and South Africa – Fawad waited and waited till he made it through.

On a day when Fawad had to rebuild Pakistan’s innings from 33-4, together with Azhar Ali, the southpaw waited for the new ball to stop teasing the outside edges.

With the Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah extracting extravagant spin from a day one Karachi pitch, Fawad had to wait and see what the South African spinners could do. He waited, he observed, and then he saw his chance and scored off them. Fawad’s 109-run innings saw him score 53 runs against the Proteas spinners Keshav Maharaj and George Linde.

Maharaj later rued that more spin was on offer on the Karachi pitch for wrist-spinners, case in point Yasir, but even when the ball turned in or away from Fawad, he waited on it, he played late and thanks to his unorthodox stance, played square to score four out of his nine boundaries and all of the two maximums off spinners.

There was another reason that Fawad conquered the Karachi pitch more easily than any other Pakistani batsmen during their first innings. Fawad had scored almost one-fifth of his first-class runs at the National Stadium of Karachi. The left-handed batsman averages nearly 70 on this ground. And in his last six first-class matches at the National Stadium, he has piled up seven centuries, including a double ton.

To put it simply, he knows all the tricks the track can pull on a batsman and he has all the shots and defences in his armoury to negate them – tried and tested multiple times all thanks to a decade of lurking in the first-class wilderness.

It won’t be wrong to say that with the return of international cricket, Pakistan should also celebrate the return of Fawad. When the fans are allowed back after the pandemic is subdued, they would surely throng the stadiums to see their favourite, Karachi-born son wield the willow at the National Stadium.

Meanwhile, Fawad’s return to the Test side has given Pakistan hope that they can rebuild a team which jumped to the top of the rankings summit under Misbahul Haq as captain. The influx of young and domestically-trained blood into the Test side has also started with the arrival of new chief selector Muhammad Wasim. The process may take some time, but it will surely bear fruit if Pakistan persist with a method and give it time.

But, for all the good to happen, Pakistan team management needs to stick with Karachi-born Fawad and a few more veterans and treat them as the core of the batting line-up during the Test renaissance. This will give them time to experiment with the youngsters and eventually select mainstays and replacement batsmen for the future.