CRICKET
Big gap: The contrasting
fortunes of Pakistan's
Test and ODI teams
I
t’s plain as day: Pakistan cricket is currently undergoing a pretty unique phase. In Test match cricket, the
team is only second best to South Africa. In ODIs, they
are freefalling. Misbah-ul-Haq-led Test side’s coveted
Test ranking is in complete contrast to the team captained by Azhar Ali. Having qualified for the 2017 Champions Trophy by a whisker, they sit at a feeble eighth
spot. Stats sometimes do not present the actual picture,
but they do denote stark differences. Take a look: 2015
has been a phenomenal year for Pakistan’s Test outfit;
eight games, five wins and just one loss. In the same
period, the ODI team competed 27 times, succeeding
in only 12 of those while losing 14. The 14 capitulations
also include Pakistan’s mission at the World Cup, where
they crumbled in the quarter-final plus a forgettable 0-3
whitewash in Bangladesh, now the seventh-ranked ODI
team. So, the disparity between the results produced
by both teams is obvious. Though head coach Waqar
Younis remains optimistic about Pakistan’s ODI future
even after the series loss to England in the UAE -- calling the 1-3 drubbing a “learning curve for a young team”
-- looking into the nitty-gritty of the present ODI scenario,
some grave anomalies come to light. The Test unit is
either free from these irregularities, or has very few and
minor areas of concern. And nobody dares to deny that
Pakistan’s ODI team selection has lacked objectivity
as well as merit. Add to it the baffling chop-and-change
methodology in picking playing XIs. Bilal Asif is the latest
example in this regard; with mere 11 first-class matches
and 33 non-first-class games to his credit, the 30-yearold was selected for ODI duty against England in the
UAE earlier this month. The selection came largely because of his 5-25 against a frail-looking Zimbabwe last
month. The off-spinning all-rounder was then picked by
the team management for the first ODI in Abu Dhabi,
which turned out to be a nightmare for him. His domestic bowling stats are no doubt much more striking than
his batting record. Somehow the management deemed
him fit to open the innings. His subsequent failure was
not surprising. Young Babar Azam, an established opener, who has made the senior team through a series of
well-earned efforts at U-19 level and holds an impressive average of 46-plus in domestic one-day games,
was slotted at No.6 in that very game. Yes, Babar made
a match-winning 62 not out in the match but here one
needs to see the bigger picture in judging the net utility
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