Is Umar Amin Pakistan’s Future Cricket Captain?

Pakistan Cricket Board has announced young left-handed batsman Umar Amin to lead Pakistan A team against touring South Africans at Sharjah. Earlier it was speculated by many cricket pundits that Shoaib Malik may lead Pakistan A team anticipating he can replace ageing Misbah-ul-Haq in near future. However, Pakistan Cricket Board lulled these speculations by appointing Umar Amin as the skipper of Pakistan A team. 

Umar Amin was born on 16 October 1989 at Rawalpindi. He made a patient 89 in five hours batting as opener in his debut First Class inning for his native Rawalpindi against a strong Pakistan International Airlines team in November 2007. It was followed by another half century in nearly three hours in the second inning and instantly appeared on the national radar as a bright future prospect for Pakistan. 

He batted well in his second First Class season and scored 967 runs at 46.04 in 12 matches with the help of two centuries. It helped in earning his Test cap against Australia at the neutral venue of Lord’s. He played in four Test matches within a span of only 25 days but performed miserably scoring only 99 runs at a meager average of 12.37 and was subsequently dropped from national side.

Umar Amin made a strong comeback in 2012-13 First Class season by scoring 1321 runs in 15 matches at an average of 45.55 with the help of two centuries and eight fifties. He cracked his highest First Class score of 281 in the same season playing against Habib Bank for Port Qasim Authority in Islamabad. A successful domestic season earned him a comeback in national limited overs side and is now a regular part of Pakistan’s One Day International and Twenty20 sides. Umar Amin has played in 9 ODIs and 4 Twenty20 Internationals for Pakistan so far.

Umar Amin has been among the most-talked batting prospect for Pakistan along with Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. His strength is good technique and temperament both as an opening as well as upper middle order batsman. Failure of other Pakistani opening batsman give our selectors an option to include Umar Amin as an opening batsman. Is he being groomed as a future captain of Pakistan? It seems that Pakistan Cricket Board has made up its mind to do so despite though he has not led any side in domestic First Class cricket. His sober and intellectual cricketing mind is Umar Amin’s stong point and scarcity of regular players in the national team enhances his chance of being a future captain of Pakistan cricket team

The failure of Pakistani opening batsmen in Test cricket

Pakistani cricket team’s major weakness is batting and the weakest part of its batting is opening partnership. It lacks good technique, right temperament and professional approach in all forms of cricket but it is always exposed most in Test cricket. Finding a reliable pair of opening batsmen has traditionally been a major problem for Pakistani batting lineup in its 61 years history of Test cricket. In recent years, this chronic ailment has become more severe. 

Mohammad Hafeez has opened batting for Pakistan in each of last 23 Test matches in last three years with five different batsmen – Khurram Manzoor, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Nasir Jamshed and Taufeeq Umar. The most stable of these five pairs was Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar who opened in 18 consecutive Test matches. 

In the last 50 Test matches, Pakistan has 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 are 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. 

Following is a list of Test careers as an opener of 11 batsmen who have opened batting for Pakistan in Test cricket in last 50 Test matches Pakistan has played:

Batsman                              M            I               NO         Runs      HS          Ave        100         50

Khurram Manzoor         8              14           1              370         93           28.46     0              4

Mohammad Hafeez        34           66           5              2061       196         33.78     5              8

Imran Farhat                  39           76           2              2357       128         31.85     3              14

Azhar Ali                       1              2              27           27           27           27.00     0              0

Kamran Akmal             6              9              0              322         78           35.77     0              3

Nasir Jamshed              2              4              0              51           46           12.75     0              0

Shoaib Malik                7              11           1              426         148*      42.60     1              2

Taufeeq Umar               43           81           5              2943       236         38.72     7              14

Yasir Hameed                12           21           0              546         76           26.00     0              4

Salman Butt                   31           56           0              1742       122         31.10     3              10

Fawad Alam                  2              4              0              216         168         54.00     1              0

Highest individual Twenty20 International inning

Australia’s opening batsman Aaron Finch made a world record of highest individual inning in Twenty20 Internationals when he blasted 156 against England at The Rose Bowl, Southampton on August 29. His dynamite inning included 11 fours and 14 sixes – another world record, in only 70 minutes facing just 63 balls at an amazing strike rate of 247.61 runs per 100 balls. 

Aaron Finch surpassed the record held by New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum who cracked 123 off 58 balls against Bangladesh at Pallekele nearly a year ago. Chris Gayle was the first batsman to score a hundred in the shortest version of international cricket when he slammed 117 off 57 balls against South Africa at Johannesburg in 2007. 

A total of 10 centuries have been scored in Twenty20 Internationals with New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum hitting two of those, while eight other batsmen have score one century apiece. A list of nine batsmen to score Twenty20 International hundreds include two from New Zealand (BB McCullum 123, 116* and MJ Guptill 101*) and Sri Lanka (TM Dilshan 104* and DPMD Jayawerdene 100) while one batsman each from Australia (AJ Finch 156), West Indies (CH Gayle 117), South Africa (RE Levi 117*), India (SK Raina 101) and Scotland (RD Berrington 100). 

The highest individual score for other countries in Twenty20 Internationals read as England (LJ Wright 99* and AD Hales 99), Pakistan (Ahmed Shehzad 98*), Netherlands (MR Swart 89), Bangladesh (Tamim Iqbal 88*), Canada (H Patel 88*), Zimbabwe (H Masakadza 79), Kenya (AA Obanda 79), Ireland (PR Stirling 79), Afghanistan (Mohammad Shahzad 77) and Bermuda (SD Outerbridge 37*). 

Two centuries each have been scored in New Zealand (117* and 116*), Sri Lanka (123 and 104*), South Africa (117 and 101*) and West Indies (101 and 100) while one apiece on English (156) and Dutch (100) soil. The highest individual Twenty20 inning in other countries include 98* in Zimbabwe, Australia 96, India 91, Namibia 89, Bangladesh 88*, Pakistan 87*, USA 85*, Kenya 81, UAE 79 and Canada 79.

JP Duminy and Shane Watson complete 1000 Twenty20 International runs

South Africa’s JP Duminy and Australia’s Shane Watson have joined the 1000 Twenty20 International runs club recently. JP Duminy became the first South African batsman to complete 1000 runs during his match winning knock of 51 in a low scoring game against Sri Lanka at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium on August 2. Shane Watson became the second Australian batsman to accomplish this feat against England at The Ageas Bowl, Southamption on August 29. A total of ten batsmen have completed 1000 Twenty20 International runs so far. These include DPMD Jayawerdene 1332, TM Dishan 1203 and KC Sangakkara 1178 from Sri Lanka, DA Warner 1260 and Shane Watson 1024 from Australia, BB McCullum 1882 and MJ Guptill 1168 from New Zealand, KP Pietersen 1176 from England, Mohammad Hafeez 1093 from Pakistan and JP Duminy 1084 from South Africa. SR Watson has the best strike rate (150.14) while KP Pietersen has the best batting average (37.93) in the club. BBMcCullum is the only batsman who has hit two centuries in Twenty20 Internationals. He also holds the record of highest aggregates of sixes (75) and fours (183) in Twenty20 International cricket.

Who will be Pakistan's next Test captain?

Who will be Pakistan’s next Test Captain?

Losing a Test match against Zimbabwe had always been a bad omen for Pakistan captains. Current Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq led his team in a humiliating defeat in Harare this weekend. Would he meet the same fate that Saleem Malik and Aamer Sohail -- two of his predecessors met when they lost a Test match to Zimbabwe? Both lost the job and their Test careers were over soon.

Saleem Malik was Pakistan captain when Zimbabwe achieved its first ever Test match win at Harare in 1995 by an inning and 64 runs at Harare – Zimbabwe’s biggest win so far. Though his team bounced back and won next two Tests to win the series 2-1, he was sacked and was never asked to lead Pakistan team again. Subsequently he hanged around for another four years but was never a regular part of the team. 

Aamer Sohail’s fate was even more tragic. He suffered a Test defeat at Peshawar in 1998 – Zimbabwe’s only win in an away Test match and series. He was sacked and was not selected for next two years. After a brief comeback two seasons later when he could play only two Test matches, his career was completely sealed at the age of 34. 

Two Indian captains who lost a Test match against Zimbabwe had different fates. Mohammad Azharuddin’s was similar to his Pakistani counterparts when his side was defeated in 1998 while Sourav Ganguly led India for another four years after his loss in 2001. Bangladesh is the only other team apart from Pakistan and India to taste defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe. They have lost six Test matches, three under captaincy of Naimur Rahman and one apiece under Habibul Bashar, Shakib Al Hassan and Mushfiqur Rahim. However, Bangladesh is a weaker side than Zimbabwe in Test cricket so a loss does not cause any storm there.

Pakistan has a tradition of sacking the captain in the aftermath of any shocking defeat and the history often gets itself repeated. What will be fate of Misbah-ul-Haq who is about to celebrate his 40^th birthday in May next year? Not surprisingly it is hanging in the balance and he would be extremely lucky if he gets away with it. In case Misbah-ul-Haq is sacked, who will be the next Pakistan captain?