In the year that is about to leave us, the Pakistan cricket team remained as unpredictable as ever. Sometimes they were so good that even the most optimistic of their fans were bewildered. Sometimes their performance was so bad which even the most harsh critics would not have expected.
There was a devastating flood of runs from their bats in Sharjah against Australia. It looked as if they were unconquerable in the UAE, which has always been their second home. Everyone was scoring centuries. From Ahmed Shehzad to Sarfraz Ahmad among the youngsters and from Younis Khan to Misbahul Haq among the seniors.
They were brilliant at bowling, too. Rahat Ali, Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah were all hitting their targets. The juvenile bowling attack was too good for the team that ruled the world from 1999 to late 2000s. But what had happened earlier? They had lost all three matches of the ODI series.
They lost a Test match against Sri Lanka which they had started by posting 451 runs. They thrashed New Zealand by 248 runs in the first Test and lost to them by an innings and 80 runs in the third.
The positives were, however, bigger than the negatives if individual performances are counted. Shahid Afridi came of age, finally–having made his debut 18 years ago. He gave match winning performances while batting in the lower order. During most of his career, he batted well only in the top order. But now he has developed the art of consolidating the innings and providing the upsurge when required. His two brilliant innings in Asia Cup consistent performance in the recent series against New Zealand were very encouraging.
We lost Saeed Ajmal towards the end of the year, but found three talented spinners who can prove worthy replacements in the medium to long term: Zulfiqar Babar for two to three years and Yasir Shah and Raza Hasan for many more years. Yasir and Zulfiqar took 27 wickets each from five Tests. They made the cricket buffs of Pakistan remember the days of Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim.
We kept losing our pacers to injuries but kept getting talented ones to replace them. If fitness problems are overcome, we can hope to have a fine pace battery for the World Cup. Irfan, Junaid and Gul can combine to form a lethal army.
Seven of our batsmen averaged more than 40 in the Test matches, led by Younis Khan who averaged more than 71. Six of our batsmen averaged more than 30 in the ODIs, which was not too bad. Â
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