The Testing ODIs Coming Up

Pakistan has lately been playing host to international cricket teams inside a frenzied political atmosphere. Australia were here when the No Confidence Motion was being fought in parliament and to some extent on the streets. That led the ODI series to be shifted to Lahore from Rawalpindi.

Now the West Indies team comes here with the Long March and its aftermath set in motion by the ousted PM Imran Khan so the ODIs just might be shifted again from Rawalpindi to Multan this time.

If they are then the timing of the matches gets adjusted for the scorching heat that prevails in south Punjab at this time of the year. Matches are proposed to be started around 5 pm in that case though having been to the Sufi town in such conditions during my marketing days, let me tell you there’s no respite from the heat even in evenings.

That is because, unlike Karachi where the late afternoon breeze comes in from the sea cooling the air, south and central Punjab remains roasting even in the evenings and sometimes late nights also.

This is because the sun waves that bear down during the day keep rising after sunset from the scorched earth, especially where it’s hard or cemented/cobbled.

There is no let-up let me tell you. And for those fielders positioned on the hard, grassless square, it will be a testing time. And for all the batters.

Yes, West Indies players come from a hot land also but almost in all cases the stadiums there are near the sea and as in Karachi, the cooler winds blow in later in the day with rain on occasions.

In Punjab, monsoons begin in July so rain in June is unlikely though with the global climatic conditions having been turned on their heads over the last couple of years, one never knows.

If the games happen in Rawalpindi then yes, rain features at any time of the year and temperatures may be more bearable even without it.

The ideal would have been to play the matches in Karachi but there have been reports that the pitches are being dug up to be re-laid, a result of Ramiz’s gripe about them being too flat.

Sri Lankan Women touring the city are therefore playing against the Pakistan Women at the Southend Club in the south of the city in DHA. Not a new venue if you’re wondering.

Back in December 1993, Pakistan played a Test match here! And yes, the National Stadium was available at the time. But someone in PCB wanted to try out a new venue so that Test match against Zimbabwe was played there.

I remember Waqar Younis who also captained the side due to Wasim Akram’s injury took 13 wickets in that game and became Pakistan’s youngest Test captain by this freakish appointment.

The other thing I remember about that match was that hardly any of the 20 wickets of Zimbabwe fell to catches (three I think) and not a single chance went to the wicketkeeper.

And there were no hundreds scored by either side. Pakistan still won on the last afternoon by a handsome margin.

So back to the coming series. With Kieron Pollard having called it a day from international cricket during his outing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the team is being captained by Nicholas Pooran, who has also captained the team when they were here at the end of last year and when the ODIs had to be postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak in the visiting team’s camp (which is why they’re happening now). Pollard had not come on that tour also because of some injury and Pooran had to lead the side.

He had done reasonably well with quite a B side. Having lost the second game by only 9 runs after limiting Pakistan to under 175, West Indies almost won the last one but for some cataclysmic power hitting by Rizwan.

Pooran led from the front than with over a hundred runs in the three matches at a strike rate of almost 150, including some six sixes in that last match.

It’s a young team again with the captain himself only 27. Not very experienced either with three newcomers which are pace bowlers Jayden Seales and Shermon Lewis as well as specialist batter Keacy Carty.

The two pacers have appeared in Tests for West Indies while Carty has been selected for the West Indies national team for the first time in any format. He can be dangerous if played, having got scores of 57 and 49 against the English tourists in a side game a few weeks back.

The chief selector, Desmond Haynes, former West Indies captain who also once led a Test team to Pakistan some thirty years ago, explained his selection by saying: “We were impressed with Carty and the way he goes about his innings. We saw several glimpses of his ability and the way he played against England earlier this year for the CWI President’s XI. We hope that by giving him this opportunity he will recognize the importance of representing the West Indies. We think he is a young batsman with great promise, and this is the kind of tour he can show he fits in.”

Missing will be Jason Holder — the one man experienced enough in all conditions and who recently made a mark against the England Test side.

He is rested to manage his workload (a modern phenomenon to which Pakistani selectors are alien to) whilst the hard-hitting Shimron Hetmyer is also not coming for family reasons.

Evin Lewis was not considered for selection after failing to meet CWI’s fitness criteria which can be good for Pakistan. He opens the innings and the last year, he smashed 11 sixes in a Caribbean Premier League (CPL) game.

And if you think that was franchise cricket, he hit 4 sixes in 4 balls against Australia last summer in an innings of 79 off just 34 balls, thus becoming the fastest man to 100 sixes in T20 Internationals. So a good miss for Pakistan there.

It’s quite strange what the West Indian selectors have done here by dropping him and resting their best all-rounder Jason Holder considering this is part of a World Cup qualifying series. It’s not that Lewis was unfit; just that he probably didn’t pass the yo-yo test or something.

Commenting on the overall team, Haynes felt they have what it takes to get the better of a strong home team.

“We also have a very good group of young fast bowlers who have demonstrated their ability and we want to use these two tours to give them opportunities in the 50-over format. We have a week in The Netherlands and another week in Pakistan and this should provide them with quality opposition to bowl against as we build towards the Cricket World Cup in 2023. Phillip has been around for some time, and we know what he can offer, Seales has been very good in Test cricket and Shermon Lewis is making a return to the West Indies set-up following some good performances.”

The Pakistani selectors are of course taking no chances. They’ve selected the top players possibly believing they can rest as much as they want after the short series spread across six days.

With the bubble requirement gone, it was expected that they would announce a shorter squad, though I’ve never really understood why selectors announce 15-16 for the home series.

It blows away the home advantage. Those players who could otherwise be occupied elsewhere can be told whether they’re in contention or not.

But players who are in Pakistan, well they can be called up anytime and each remains hopeful and motivated.

Yes there is no domestic cricket going on and the matches will be over in a week, so maybe here that angle doesn’t apply.

But this has been happening at the height of domestic cricket and where the series has been spread out across three to four weeks.

Just takes out the motivation for the players who know they have no chance in the entire series even before it starts. And those players who are in the squad but don’t play miss out on the domestic matches.

Nevertheless, it seems that is unlikely to change and therefore, the PCB announced squads for complete home series.

A smaller squad also means that a couple of players previously selected for honorary reasons, like the ageing Asif Afridi in the last ODI series against Australia, don’t make it this time as there is no room for guests in a selection of 16.

Good to see though that Mohammad Nawaz is back. It was unfortunate for him that he had broken a bone and couldn’t feature against Australia, even though he finds it tough to get into the side in Shadab Khan’s presence.

And now with Khushdil Shah having astounded everyone with his penetrating left-arm spin even against top batters, Babar Azam has the luxury of playing an extra batter or a bowler.

As such, even in the absence of Shadab if he’s injured again, Saqlain and Babar just might opt for Zahid Mehmood to keep the leg-spin channel open.

The two players who were expected to get in but haven’t are top-order batters Haider Ali and Shan Masood, the former having played and made runs in the T20I series in December against the same opposition.

Having said that only two of those bowlers, Akeal Hosein and Romario Shepherd, are in the ODI squad also.

Haider possibly is not in the minds of the selectors for the longer white-ball format. Although he has curbed to a great extent that tendency for the slog immediately upon arriving, his temperament to stay in the middle and build an innings – in the 50-over format this still has value – remains under the microscope.

Masood has set the county fields on fire and before that in PSL, he had blasted his way at the top in most games. But once Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shahfique sealed their places with those tall scores in that first Test in Rawalpindi against the Kangaroos, it was always going to be tough for the Multan Sultans opener to cement a spot in the 15-member squad.

Not only that but Imam continued his brilliant form against Australia with two back-to-back hundreds in the 50-over format, and later with another match-winning knock of 89 not out in the third fixture, it was just a case of two birds in the hand against that one in the bush.

The selectors could have minted Shan’s form for a lackadaisical Fakhar Zaman who got just one half-century in the ODIs against Australia and otherwise fell for 18 and 17.

But Babar seems to have Fakhar’s back for now. And Abdullah is further up in his plans as a backup. Shan’s wait to come back continues.