There was chaos, nothing new. There was a delay in the announcement but we know that. There were differences, a usual thing with Pakistan cricket.
The Asia Cup debacle has changed everything. It shouldn’t have. Just a few days ago, Pakistan were world number one ODI team. Just two defeats cannot change the impression of this Pakistan team. But the aftermath of the disaster was sordid and avoidable. There were rumours that skipper Babar Azam used strong words during the team meeting after the Sri Lanka defeat. There were reports that senior player Shaheen Shah Afridi had developed differences with Babar — all these reports were denied.
But there was chaos at the cricket headquarters, the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore. A review meeting was convened to discuss the reasons for the poor show. The moot point was a heavy defeat against India — 228 runs defeat had shattered the confidence of the fans as well as officials. Frequent injuries to the players were also discussed, but nothing much came out.
Senses prevailed, not much chopping and changing was done.
There was a debate on a few names. The first and foremost was to find the right replacement for Naseem Shah. Naseem’s injury has been a major jolt for Pakistan team’s chances. Ironically, the best options — Ihsanullah Khan and Mohammad Hasnain — were both injured and were doing rehab. Zaman Khan and Hasan Ali were the two best options but skipper Babar was in favour of Hasan, who got the nod.
Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq admirably defended Hasan’s selection. “It was tough to find a suitable replacement for Naseem. The problem was that some of our frontline fast bowlers like Ihsan and Hasnain were injured. Zaman is inexperienced so after deliberations we chose Hasan because he is experienced and brings a lot of energy in the team. He is a complete team man,” said Inzamam.
The names of opener Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan were on the anvil. Fakhar has been a shadow of himself in the last few matches. He managed just 65 runs in four Asia Cup innings and was also not amongst runs in the series against Afghanistan. As we always say, form is temporary but class is permanent. Fakhar is just one innings away from a big score and that could come in Pakistan’s World Cup opening game against the Netherlands. He is likely to prove his class.
Fakhar is retained. The sensible thing is to keep Abdullah Shafique who is a good player. The middle order of Babar, Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Agha Salman is stable and can up the ante in the slog overs. Iftikhar should be given that task.
Shadab’s wicket taking ability is on the wane. He has just six wickets in the five Asia Cup games and four of those came against minnows Nepal. He also came a cropper with the bat, just 13 runs in three outings, including the Nepal game. To axe him or not was also discussed but finally everyone was of the opinion that his experience will also be handy.
Shadab, though, is lucky to be retained as vice captain. There were demands that Shaheen should replace Shadab as Babar’s deputy but that too was resisted. This decision irked Mohammad Hafeez who in a protest left the cricket committee on Thursday night.
Mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed’s name was also discussed as a possible replacement for Usama Mir. But it would have been injustice to the lanky spinner who was our top wicket taker in the last Pakistan Cup one-day tournament with 28 scalps.
Pakistan has an awful lot of work to do to win the World Cup. This team can do it.
As we said at the start, chopping and changes are nothing new. Let me tell you we changed Abid Ali, Faheem Ashraf and Junaid Khan just a few days ahead of the 2019 World Cup. Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz and Asif Ali replaced them.
So expect anything in Pakistan cricket. For now, we all must back this team and pray for their success.
