After 22 innings, Pakistan’s opening pair posted a hundred
partnership in first cricket Test match against South Africans at Abu Dhabi
last week. This was a brand new pair consisting of Khurram Manzoor and Shan
Masood. Khurram was playing tenth match of his career while Shan was making his
Test debut. The pair added 135 runs for the first wicket. It was a rare sight
to see Pakistan’s for-none for 44 overs. Pakistan’s last century opening wicket
stand in Tests was between Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar against England at
Dubai nearly two years ago.
One of the reasons for a century opening stand in the first
innings, apart from conducive conditions in atmosphere and on the ground was
some good piece of luck. Debutant Shan Masood was dropped at score of 9. Had he
gone at that juncture, it would have been continuation of sad tale of Pakistani
openers we are watching since ages.
In the second innings, Pakistan was set a target of only 40
runs to win the Test match and the start was exactly what we are used to see
for Pakistan. 7 for 3 with both openers and one-down batsman Azhar Ali were
back in the dressing room, all three edging deliveries outside the off-stump.
Has Pakistan found a stable pair of openers because we have
seen a century opening stand in the last Test match? Okay, I admit it is a bit
premature to give a verdict, but my observation about Pakistani batting for
many decades has an answer. This opening pair would be a failure as Pakistan
has tried dozens of opening pairs in the past.
Shan Masood’s batting average is only 34.88 in 57
First-class matches he has played so far. In limited-overs cricket, his career batting
averages are 33.73 in 26 List A and a paltry 12.18 in 11 Twenty20 matches. These
averages are not good enough to prove someone’s talent at international level. A
talented batsman does not have mediocre averages like Shan Masood’s; he performs
and remains consistent.
Khurram Manzoor’s averages are better than Shan Masood’s. He
averages 40.17 in 108 First-class and 45.06 in 86 List A matches while batting
average in 49 Twenty20 matches is 26.40. These averages are certainly not all
that great but somehow better than many other contenders for the job.
To see the trend in recent years, I have collected data of
last 50 Test matches played by Pakistan prior to Abu Dhabi Test match. It was
important to know what Pakistani opening batsmen had performed in the recent
past.
In the last 50 Test matches, Pakistan had tried 11 opening
batsmen trying different combinations but was unable to find a successful
opening pair. The basic reason for failure of opening batsmen is none of these
players were good enough to provide good start at international level.
There were only 7 instances in 97 innings of last 50 Test
matches when Pakistani openers provided a century partnership and 12 other
innings of fifty plus opening partnership. It makes a total of only 19 innings
when Pakistani openers provided a start of 50 or more (19.58%). Whereas in 28
innings, Pakistan’s opening partnership was broken at a score of 10 or less.
These single digit opening partnerships account for 28.86% of 97 innings in
last 50 Test matches.
Statistics prove that Pakistan, a nation of nearly 200
million people, is completely devoid of talent as far as opening batsmen in
international cricket is concerned. In this sad scenario, there is no other
option but to find an out-of-box solution. I can assure none of opening batsmen
around has the ability and technique to score consistently.
Pakistan had few famous pairs of opening batsmen in the
past. Hanif Mohammad with Nazar Mohammad and Imtiaz Ahmed in 1950s and some
part of 1960s, Majid Khan and Sadiq Mohammad in 1970s, Mudassar Nazar and
Mohsin Khan in 1980s and finally Saeed Anwar with Rameez Raja and Aamir Sohail
in the 1990s, but none after them. What a drought!
Except Mohammad brothers Hanif and Sadiq; and father and son
Nazar Mohammad and Mudassar Nazar who were born as opening batsmen, all the
other famous openers in Pakistan’s history were promoted as make-shift openers
from their original position in the middle-order batting.
Imtiaz Ahmed was promoted to opening slot when Nazar
Mohammad and then Alimuddin got retired. Majid Khan played Test cricket for
nearly 10 years when he was made opener and became famous as opening batsman
afterwards. Mohsin Khan was one-down batsman but given chance as an opener when
Sadiq Mohammad retired. Ramiz Raja played Test cricket for nearly four years
when Mohsin Khan retired and he was considered as a possible replacement for
the outgoing opening batsman.
Saeed Anwar was playing as middle-order batsman, mostly at
number five or six, for four years in First-class cricket and had played nearly
50 matches before his Test debut as an opener. He started with a pair but
gradually established as opening batsman for Pakistan. Aamer Sohail too started
First-class career as middle-order batsman before converting himself many years
later into an opening batsman.
Pakistan’s Test cricket history tells that only two families
produced ‘born’ opening batsmen. As make-shift openers in the past had done
well, any effort to find genuine opening batsman is a futile exercise. Pakistan
has not produced any stable opening partnership for last 15 years and
persisting with this futility will not bring any good result.
The top priority must be given to have quality batsmen in
the team. Competition in the middle-order has always been fierce in Pakistan
cricket’s history and there is a long list of middle-order batsmen who faded
away because they did not many chances. Today, middle-order batsmen like Haris
Sohail, Sohaib Maqsood and Umar Amin are far better than opening batsmen who
are being included in the team only because they are opening batsmen.
Pakistani cricket think tanks need out-of-box solution to
overcome top-order batting problem. The best solution is to promote two of good
middle-order batsmen to open the innings as it had been successfully done in
the past decades, especially in 1970s and 1980s when Pakistan had one of the
best batting line-ups in contemporary Test cricket.
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