Well done Pakistan!

The highly successful tour to Sri Lanka is a magnificent turnaround from the dismal days of the debacle in Bangladesh

The highly successful tour to Sri Lanka is indeed a magnificent turnaround from the dismal days of the debacle in Bangladesh and a shot in the arm for Pakistan cricket. The visitors outplayed their feisty opponents in all three formats to cap off a remarkable resurgence. The tour is indeed ground-breaking as for the first time since their first Twenty20 game in South Africa eight years ago, Pakistan managed to beat an opponent on an away tour across the three formats. Misbahul Haq’s side stunned the hosts with a remarkable chase in the third Test, Azhar and his charges steamrolled their opponents in the One-Day Internationals before Shahid Afridi and his flamboyant bunch of Twenty20 specialists pulled off, quite possibly, the greatest ever chase in the shortest format. In the second and final Twenty20 game, Pakistan were staring at an embarrassing defeat at 40 for five, 133 runs adrift of the 173-run target. The asking rate was well past 10 runs an over. Afridi, castigated for his ordinary returns of late, walked in nonplussed. His stunning 45 set the tone for a dream finish by Anwar Ali and Imad Wasim. Pakistan quite simply had no business winning the game after the top-order disaster, but the national team rarely does the predictable.

The performance of relatively new players like Anwar, Imad, Yasir Shah, Shan Masood, Sarfraz Ahmed and Mohammad Rizwan across the three formats indicates a bright future for Pakistan cricket. Every time Pakistan needed a saviour during the course of the tour, a youngster, combined with a seasoned teammate like Younus Khan, Misbahul Haq, Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez or Shoaib Malik, produced a sensational burst of cricket. The most encouraging aspect was the ability of bouncing back from impossible situations in all formats of the game. The batsmen deserve rich accolades for their consistency and it is high time Pakistan fans acknowledged the contribution of Grant Flower, the batting coach who quietly goes about his business, but makes a telling impression when his batsmen perform when it matters.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th,  2015.

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