Can Pakistan overcome experience mismatch by exploiting conditions?

First session of the first Test match between Pakistan and South Africa belonged to Pakistan. Pakistani left-arm pace bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Junaid Khan provided his team early breakthroughs to take three wickets and put considerable pressure on the springboks. 

Playing conditions in Unied Arab Emirates do favor Pakistan, that’s for sure. The dry and scorching heat of Arabian desert, slow and low-bounce wicket which could be more helpful to spin bowlers and a supporting crowd – all are plus points for Pakistan.

But these are only few points in favor of Pakistan. When it comes to core cricketing comparison, South Africans have everything in their favor. Both teams had played 21 Tests matches prior to the current series; South Africa won 11 out of those. Pakistan had only three victories so far. Another point where both teams have a severe mismatch in comparison is relative experience among the two sides.

South Africans are a very experienced side if compared to Pakistan – manifold in almost every aspect. South African captain Graeme Smith is the most experienced captain in the history of Test cricket. He has led his team in 103 Test matches. His opponent captain Misbah-ul-Haq’s tally of Test matches as captain of Pakistan is only 23. Graeme Smith is more than four times more experienced when captaincy is compared.

The eleven players in the South African team playing in Abu Dhabi Test have played an aggregate of 617 Test matches. In comparison, Pakistani eleven’s aggregate is only 243. These figures show South African team is nearly three times more experienced than Pakistani team in this Test match.

South African batting line is flooding with experienced batsmen – an aggregate of 39,416 runs in Test cricket for the eleven players in this Test match. In complete contrast of these mammoth figures, Pakistan’s eleven players have an aggregate of only 14,310 Test runs. The discrepancy is again nearly three times. In terms of centuries scored, South Africa’s batsmen in this Test match had scored 114 Test centuries while Pakistani team had only 32.  Again, the discrepancy is of three-and-half times in favor of South Africa.

It is not only batting where South Africa dominates Pakistan in experience. In bowling department the gulf is even wider. South African bowlers playing in this Test match had already bagged 938 wickets in Test cricket. In a disappointing contrast, Pakistan is playing a bowling side that had taken only 198 wickets prior to this Test match. It clearly confirms supreme domination in experience by South African bowling – nearly five times more experienced than Pakistan. In five-fors comparison, figures are again four times in favor of South Africa, 42 for South Africa and 11 for Pakistan.

Pakistan included two uncapped players in the Abu Dhabi Test. Opening batsman Shan Masood and left-arm orthodox spinner Zulfiqar Babar are Test cricket debutants. Faf du Plessis is the only player in South African team whose number of Test matches is in single digit while rest of the team has bundles of experience. 

The current Test series between South Africa and Pakistan is being fought on contrasting strengths of the two teams – experience and class of a strong South African team versus condition’ advantages of a weak Pakistani team. If I am asked to put my money, I would definitely bet for the experience and not the conditions’ advantage.