Looming whitewash
It looks as if only a dead strip in Karachi Test — starting December 17 — can now save Team Pakistan from a whitewash at the hands of the visiting English team. Having beaten the hosts in Rawalpindi, the Ben Stokes men won in Multan too, taking an unassailable lead in the three-Test rubber. There were some individual performances of note — Abrar Ahmed became the first Pakistan spinner to take 10 wickets in his debut Test; and Saud Shakeel hit 63 and 94 in his career’s second Test — but Team Pakistan failed to play as a unit both in Rawalpindi and Multan. Pakistan’s performance so far has proved that while seaming and turning tracks are not our batters’ cup of tea, even the batting paradise in Rawalpindi proved too much for them on the final day.
It appears as if the safety-first mindset, which ruled the cricket in the eighties, still continues to fascinate our cricket czars. PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja did express his embarrassment, calling the pitch as something “belonging in the dark ages of cricket”, but the fact is that he himself is among those responsible for the placid Pindi track that had already come in for huge criticism for a painfully boring drawn Test between Pakistan and Australia just nine months back. The pitch has been declared by ICC as “below average” for being too flat and awarded one more demerit point — with one already in the bag for the mentioned Pakistan-Australia Test — running the risk of being suspended from hosting any international cricket. It’s time for the cricket authorities to come out of the fear of losing and stop preparing batting wickets — starting from domestic games.
Coming back to the ongoing Test series against England: while a whitewash is nothing new for Team Pakistan, one at home would be hugely embarrassing. Babar Azam men are at least expected to spare the cricket-mad nation’s blushes, in Karachi.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2022.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.