After getting whitewashed in the Twenty 20 and One Day International series against Australia in UAE, Pakistan’s team made a historic comeback in the classic format of cricket, the Test Series. The management changed the squad, selected youngsters in the playing eleven and how great a response they showed. The very inexperienced Pakistani bowling attack surprised the world and the Aussies when they came on the pitch to bowl. Zulfiqar Babar did the job Saeed Ajmal used to do before he was banned by the ICC for his illegal bowling action. Yasir Shah, who was a debutant in the first test, reminded everyone of Abdul Qadir and his googlies. Younis Khan; star of the series, scored two consecutive centuries and one double century and hence was awarded the ‘man of the series’ award.
A number of records were broken and equalled in these two test matches. Where the Aussies had a very harsh tour which was something of a nightmare for them, Pakistanis enjoyed Heaven’s blessing throughout. Pakistan ‘s record of never losing a home test series in UAE was maintained. They had played six series here—drawing three, winning three and losing none—before this one. In this very series, the Pakistan Cricket Team saw nine centuries being scored by its batsmen in four consecutive test innings, which include Azhar Ali’s and Misbah-ul-haq’s two centuries, Ahmed Shehzad’s one and Younis Khan’s two consecutive tons and double century.
Pakistani batting, which one considers as a wall of sand; totally unpredictable and the weakest department in the ground, had a good time when the upper order batsmen’s bats started firing runs all over the ground. Younis Khan proved his worth to the world by scoring two centuries in both innings of first tests; he scored 106 when he was sent back to pavilion by Mitchell Johnson in the first innings and scored 103 in the second innings and remained not out. Later, in the second test, Younis scored 213 and was bowled out by Peter Siddle. With these historic performances, Younis became highest centurion in Test cricket for Pakistan with 27 centuries, beating Inzimam-ul-Haq’s record of 25 centuries for the national side (he got his twenty-sixth in the first test). Besides these centuries, Younis reached the milestone of 8000 runs in test cricket, becoming the only third Pakistani batsmen to do so, following the legends Jawed Miandad and Inzimam-ul-Haq. Younis Khan also became the fifteenth Pakistani to score 1000+ runs against the mighty Australia.
While Younis Khan got back-to-back test hundreds, the Captain Cool, Misbah-ul-haq, threw out his calmness for a while, as he thrashed the Aussie bowlers by scoring the fastest century in the history of test cricket in only 56 deliveries with the help of eleven fours and five sixes, equalling the 28-years-old record of Sir Vivian Richards, who is considered one of the greatest batsman of all time. In the over of Steve Smith, it looked like Misbah wanted the revenge of the big hitting by Michael Hussey in Saeed Ajmal’s last over in the second semi final of the ICC World Twenty20, back in 2010, which took the match away from Pakistan, taking Australia into the final. That over by Ajmal and this over by Steve Smith were very similar, both gave runs in the sequence: 1, 6, 6, 4, 6, in the first five balls with the last ball being a dot in the second test match.
Misbah-ul-Haq is now the oldest player from the Subcontinent/Asia to score a Test hundred at 40 years and 156 days. He also got the record of scoring fastest half-century in test cricket in just 21 balls, breaking the record of the South African, Jacques Kallis, who managed it in 24 balls.The 40-year-old captain has been always known for his slow and calm temperament but this performance did made people realize that a very big BOOM BOOM lives somewhere inside this man who is fit enough to captain the team during the 2015 World Cup and is still capable of showering runs from his bat, even at the age when the majority of cricketers decide to retire. With 77 sixes in international cricket as a captain, Misbah has also broken the record of Imran Khan of most sixes as a Pakistani captain; Khan had hit 76 maximums in his glorious cricket career as captain.
After losing almost everything to Australia in the limited-over series and having a bad time against Sri Lanka earlier in August, the morale of this Pakistani side was certainly very down. They had faced very harsh criticism, heard people chant against them and even a few players used harsh words for the captain, team and management. Despite all that, the hard-work, effort and determination of this young and inexperienced Pakistani side is, without doubt, remarkable. Azhar Ali and Ahmad Shehzad scored centuries, with Azhar doing so twice in second test, showing that the future of Pakistani batting is secure. These young players, including Asad Shafiq and Sarfaraz Ahmed, have the potential as well as the talent to stay at the crease for longer, to score runs and to help stabilize a very unpredictable, in fact weak, batting lineup after Misbah and Younis retire.
These unlucky young players, who have not yet been able to perform in front of their home-crowd in their home cities due to the terrorism act that prevailed in the country due to bad governance and wrong policies, have very big hearts. The Pakistan Cricket Team has been facing this exile from 2009 when a group of terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan Cricket Team in Lahore, when they were going to the stadium for a match. There have been no international matches in any of the cities of Pakistan since then. United Arab Emirates, aka UAE, which is considered a second home for Pakistanis, have given the team a shelter to deem their land home and play all home series there. In spite of the fact that UAE has provided Pakistan some world class grounds with all the facilities including DRS and high-definition cameras, perfect cricketing pitches and lush green grass in the centre of the desert, nothing can replace the pleasure of playing at home. The home, Pakistan, where people breathe and live cricket.
The momentum this Pakistani side has gained in this series needs to be maintained. If Misbah and company keep performing consistently, there is no force in the world that can stop them reaching the final of the upcoming World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
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