What A Comeback!

After all that they have been through in the last few months, Pakistani people finally have something to cheer about. In fact, they must be delighted that their team has made it to the last four of the World T20. It is quite an achievement for a bunch of cricketers who must have felt that they were stranded on an island of turmoil, deserted by the rest of the cricketing world, for several months. They came to the tournament with rusty skills, virtually no match practice and a few players untested at the highest level. Then they got decimated by India in their last warm-up game before the world cup began. Preparation could not have been worse.

Quintessential Pakistan...

Yet, Pakistan has never been a team built on preparation. A disciplined build-up is as alien to them as the lack of it might be to South Africa. What they need is a trigger that enlivens their passion, bonds them as one and sparks momentum into their unit. Perhaps that is just what they got in the two crushing back-to-back defeats they suffered in their last warm-up against India and first game against England. Somewhere it must have stung their pride and woken them up. And now that both India and England have been bundled out, Younis Khan can afford the luxury of the proverbial last laugh.

Teams who succeed in world cups are not always the ones who are the best on paper or the ones who have prepared the best. There is no formula, in fact. What matters is which team can develop the knack to bring out their best performance when they need it the most. That is exactly what Pakistan has managed to do. If one considers pure cricketing skills, they have looked far from perfect in this world cup. Their fielding has been patchy, lethargic and below average, their batting has lacked the impetus towards the end and their middle order is yet to find form against top opposition, but when they needed to win by a big margin against the Netherlands to stay alive, they did. And when they lost against Sri Lanka in the super eight stage, they had to do it again against both New Zealand and Ireland, and they did.

A Sharp Bowling Attack

If one had to nail the aspect of their game that they have excelled in and that has kept them breathing, it would have to be their bowling. While Umar Gul almost single-handedly ripped New Zealand apart, producing reverse swing with a new ball and the greatest ever T20 figures in the process, it was their spin trio of Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Saeed Ajmal who proved too wily for Ireland and The Netherlands. Besides, in 17 year old fast bowler Mohammed Amir, they seem to have found a striking raw talent who could rise to scary heights in the future. Although he is still just a skinny, baby-faced teenager, he is blessed with the gift of genuine pace and can already touch the 90 mph barrier. God knows how quick he might be in a few years. Then they have also brought back Abdur Razzaq, who brings years of experience, and Sohail Tanvir might still find a new lease of life.

Areas To Improve On

If Pakistan is to go the distance, one can’t help but feel that they will need to pick up some facets of their game. South Africa, especially, can easily expose some of their frailties. For one, they will have to improve their fielding. Where teams get ones against South Africa where they might get twos against the others, with Pakistan it is just the opposite. They have been slow in the field and fumbled too much. Sri Lanka and England have already made them pay, and they can’t afford another punishment.

The other part of their game that they need to improve quickly, is their late order batting. Virtually every time they have batted in this tournament, they have fallen short of the target – either the one they set for themselves or the one the opposition set them to chase (the game against New Zealand excepted). And the problem has been that they have failed to find the kind of acceleration they have wanted in the last 5-6 overs. The big hitting Abdur Razzaq joining the team might help them rectify this, but they also need Shoaib Malik and/or Misbah-Ul Haq in the late middle order to find form for the last bit of this tournament.

It will not be a big surprise now if Pakistan do manage to come good in the last part of this world cup. They have done it before. If it happens, though, one gets a feeling that it won’t be as much a result of cohesive team effort, as it will be of inspired individual performances.