Two warriors from Pakistan lift the spirits

On a battlefield warriors may come in various forms — they may enter the battle as a genuine underdog or battle-hardened champion who has learned to endure until they overcome all the adversities facing them. But in both cases, these warriors don’t worry about fear because if you are afraid, you can’t even think of winning the battle — strength and growth come through continuous effort and struggle.

When Imam-ul-Haq and the Pakistani skipper Babar Azam went back to the hut, the fate of the Men in Green seemed to walk through the same path — another defeat while chasing a mammoth total and history suggests, Pakistan had never won a match in the ICC Cricket World Cup while chasing more than three hundred runs. The last time Pakistan won a Cricket World Cup match while chasing a challenging total was way back in 1992 at Auckland during the eventful semi-final against New Zealand.

32 years later, the jinx has been broken and as usual, no one was expecting it.

To the dissatisfaction of the fans and many experts in Pakistan — the think tank put Abdullah Shafique at the top of the order instead of the hard-hitter Fakhar Zaman. To chase a total like 345 in 50 overs, surely, someone like Zaman was needed to give a cracking response but in the longer formats, there is something called resolve — the value of which can never be underestimated even in this era of power-hitting.

No matter how big a total you are chasing, one batsman at the end must remain steady so that wickets don’t fall at regular intervals. Shafique has already proved his worth in the five-day format and the 50-over format, he proved, how valuable his stability could be for Pakistan.

Shafique possesses a very sound technique among the Pakistani batsmen after Mohammad Rizwan, in my opinion. His stroke play may be limited, but the most important aspect of his batting is picking up the gaps and rotating the strike consistently so that the team does not melt under the pressure of a high asking run rate — boundary-based batting is highly applauded by the Pakistani fans, but how could they forget the value of strike rotation and no run chases in cricket can be successful without this.

Meanwhile, if Babar Azam is the poster boy of this team then the backbone is certainly Rizwan, who is proving his importance again and again. Rizwan is one of those cricketers who would run if can’t fly. He would crawl if he can’t walk — by all means, Rizwan would move on. He would hold things together when everyone would start thinking, and the innings would fall apart — the intent to keep the stored energy going despite the cramps indicates what a great warrior Rizwan is!

Pakistan bowled badly and deserves criticism but that may be done another day because two warriors from Pakistan have lifted the spirits and seem to have grabbed the momentum of this tournament.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar