Pakistani cricket drought will have its say!

If the Pakistan coach, Intikhab Alam, was to be believed, Pakistan’s chances in the ICC World T20 are as high as Sergei Bubka’s world record jump. The reasons, according to him, range from the participation of the players in the RBS T20 Cup in Pakistan to the warm-up games that Pakistan played back home and the conditioning camp that it underwent before embarking upon this tournament. Whether that is enough for a team to clinch the trophy may be up for debate, but with an enigmatic team like Pakistan, discounting their chances is tantamount to foolhardiness.

At last, for some cricket!
If one were to discount the series against Australia in Dubai, Pakistan cricket had plunged into the darkness brought about by the cricket-drought. Their performances in the five ODIs against Australia were patchy, and despite Younis Khan’s bold claims of wanting to win it 5-0, they had gone down 2-3 to the world champions. In the end, one could call it a decent result, especially if one considers the ensuing T20 game that was won by Pakistan too. Rather easily, one may add!

Yet, while the rustiness may not be so imminent in the normalcy of a cricket match, a pressure-cooker situation may bring it out with some vengeance. And in a tournament of this nature, where it takes as little as a blink to end up going down despite being on top for most portion of the game, this lack of match practice could act as a natural hindrance.

Potentially potent bowling
Despite the absence of Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar, not to mention Mohammad Asif, the attack looks to be safe hands. Umar Gul has taken up the role of the first, or even second change seam bowler with aplomb, while the spinning department looks like they will be difficult to displace. Shahid Afridi’s bowling form from the series against Australia is one to relish if one is a Pakistani supporter, where as Saeed Ajmal is dangerous enough, even without his ‘Doosra’ that has been negated by an ICC ruling. Wasim Akram has already tipped the new-comer in Mohammad Aamer as the one to look out for, and his raw pace could more than make up for his inexperience. In fact, he could be one of the surprises of the tournament.

Will the Pakistani batting explode?
The last series had seen the Pakistan team rely heavily on the pyrotechnics of Kamran Akmal, but the interesting point to note was that the usually out-of-form Shahid Afridi was a virtual thorn in the Aussie flesh. This is a silver lining for the Pakistani top-order, which seem to be missing a batsman who can tonk the ball out of the fence when the situation demands. While Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Shoaib Malik are classic batsmen in their own right, they do not possess the capability to instill the fear of his maker in the opposition bowler, which Afridi can, and by a distant margin! Salman Butt is one who has consistently remained at the top of the order despite the game of musical chairs – or should we say music – that some of his partners have had to face.

Overall, it could just be their batting that could decide how they fare in the tournament.

Suneer Chowdhary
Suneer is a freelance cricket writer and can be reached at suneerchowdhary (at) gmail dot com