Whitewash
A whitewash on an away tour is nothing new for Pakistan cricket team. They have had quite a few, across all formats of the game. But one inflicted by a team with no less than nine uncapped players should be a cause for deep concern for Pakistan cricket czars. England completed the whitewash of Pakistan, winning the third ODI in Birmingham on Wednesday by three wickets. The second-string English side — hurriedly assembled after the novel coronavirus penetrated into the English cricket team camp — had won the first two ODIs fairly comfortable, the first one at Cardiff by nine wickets and the second one at Lord’s by 52 runs. This narrates the helplessness of Babar Azam men against those of the stand-in skipper Ben Stokes.
While the first two games saw Pakistani batsmen suffer with only Saud Shakeel, the new comer, crossing the 50-run mark, the last one turned out to be nightmarish for the bowlers, with all the three frontline pacers, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf, going for more than seven runs an over and failing to defend a hefty 331-run total. Babar Azam’s 158 runs in the third game, highest for a Pakistan captain in one-dayers, came in a lost cause. Even though a record-shattering one, Azam’s innings did not merit the kind of jubilation that he expressed after reaching the three-figure mark.
Pakistan’s poor performance led to the dejected Pakistani fans in Birmingham, where the final one-dayer was played, erupt in fury against head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis. The fans chanted “Go Misbah Go” and “Go Waqar Go” outside the stadium after the match was over. The team and the tour management should now get their act together in next assignment — the three T20Is — to salvage some pride. Six new players will join the team, including Mohammad Hafeez and Imad Wasim. Pakistani fans expect better results this time.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2021.
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