MoHa and Malik will leave their mark on PCT at least for 5 years, if some how they decide to leave it this year. These two bang average bits & pieces cricketers earned 2 decades of career selling bluffs after bluffs - sometimes by the name of multi facet skills, sometimes experience, sometimes for better combination and sometimes for the excuse of lack of options. One by one players like Umar, Kamran, Maqsood, Amin, Haris have lost the battle to these two for a middle order spot which has created such a massive hollow that now PCT management is almost forced to carry them.
I read lot about MoHa's heroics in CT2017 Final - the bitter truth is that, his mighty "power play" managed to take PAK to 338/4, instead of 360. Otherwise, the start that Fakhar gave that day and IND running out of bowlers, most teams would have ended up scoring 375, from 200/2 after 33'1 (when Malik entered) or at least to 360, from 247/3 after 39'4, when MoHa entered.
For best part of a decade, they kept holding most crucial two middle order spots for performance very similar to our Mahmudullah (actually worse, but PP tends to judge individual player's contribution, based on team achievement), and that guy Mahmud is at least 6 years younger to both of them, yet already has lost his spot in BD ODI/Test team, despite the absence of two most experienced middle order batsmen.
Just to give a perspective, since 01 April 2011, this is what the stats tell for three players (Game - Run -Avg - SR -100/50)
MoHa: 146 - 4989 - 37.79/80.99 - 10/30
Malik: 95 - 2346 - 35.01/89.64 - 2/13
Mahmudullah: 123 - 2968 - 36.19/81.11 - 3/17
Now, that stats is massively misleading, because these two cunning guys, backed on their two decades long experience have cashed mighty on the hopeless SRL attack in that period in SRL or UAE + the other free bees. If I run the same stats with 8 teams - AUS, ENG, IND, SAF, WIN, NZL & BD/PAK (respectively), that same table looks like -
MoHa: 93 - 2959 - 34.01/79.62 - 3/22
Malik: 62 - 1455 - 27.98/82.01 - 1/6
Mahmudullah: 69 - 17 - 1735 - 38.55/82.38 - 3/8
*Here, I must mention that apart from the 6 other sides, MoHa/Malik's stats include games against BD, and Mahmud's stats include PAK - those who know the game, should understand the impact.
That probably is enough to expose how MoHa/Malik have kept their spot intact, keeping every potential threat at bay. This is a day-light robbery, which will cost PAK in 2023 WC, BIG TIME.
