The World Test Championship is well under way now. And Pakistan has precisely 0 points.
The world has changed somewhat. Three years ago after losing the First Test in New Zealand, Pakistan was cruising at Tea on the Final Day in Hamilton at 158-1, with a theoretical target of 369 to win. They had a go, and lost.
In the era of the World Test Championship, this loss would have earned them 0 points while New Zealand took 60 points. But a draw would have brought both teams 20 points. The lesson to draw in the World Test Championship era is that you can't afford to be blanked nowadays. Which is important - on the last tour of Australia, in the Second Test Pakistan declared their First Innings (really!!!) and was 6-1 at Lunch on the Final Day, and again could have ended up with 20 points by drawing under the new regulations.
If there is a lesson it is that teams need to rediscover how to avoid defeat overseas.
And I would add a second one - now that almost every series counts towards the World Test Championship, every team needs a core of players aged 20-30 who are not just at their peak now, they are going to be around to use their experience in the 2021-23 and 2023-25 cycles.
So let's get the language right.
If you are already in your thirties, you are an overage player, because chances are that you won't contribute much to later World Test Championship cycles.
And if you are still in your teens you are an underage player - you may lack the toughened body to perform now (Naseem Shah) or the core skills (Musa Khan).
That issue of optimal age is desperately important - by the time of the third World Test Championship Final, for example, Zafar Gohar will be 28 years and 5 months old, while his of major competitors Mohammad Asghar will be 26 years 6 months old, Nauman Ali will be 38 years and 9 months old and Kashif Bhatti will be 39 years and 11 months old.
So realistically, of these 4 currently uncapped bowlers:
Zafar Gohar is a prospect for 4 World Test Championship cycles.
Mohammad Asghar is a prospect for 5 cycles.
Nauman Ali is a prospect for this cycle only.
Kashif Bhatti is a prospect for this cycle only.
But look at what has happened instead.
By the start of this year, in the last Test that Pakistan played before Misbah’s appointment, and in the most similar conditions in the world (South Africa as opposed to Australia), Inzamam and Mickey Arthur had in place a team in which there were:
7 players in the starting eleven aged 20-29,
3 overage players in their thirties (Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, as Yasir Shah had been dropped in favour of Shadab Khan who scored a fifty and took 4-80)
1 underage player in his teens (Shaheen Shah Afridi).
What was the problem outside Asia?
Pakistan lost in South Africa because all the players aged over 30 failed repeatedly and because Fakhar Zaman was wrongly tried in the Test format.
What was the problem in Asia?
I freely admit that they lost in the UAE because Mickey Arthur did not pick enough spinners. He had been seduced into this by the success of his South Africans with a four man pace attack in Pakistan a decade earlier, and he failed to realise that UAE pitches were even slower and flatter.
But that could easily be fixed by calling up Zafar Gohar (aged 24) and Sajid Khan (aged 26). It didn't require an entire squad of players in their twenties to be sacked.
What changes did Misbah make?
Misbah has basically dismantled the Inzamam/Arthur team.
Where previously there were 7 starters aged 20-29, in the very next Test at Brisbane there were just 3.
A glut of overage players were recalled, but they were ones with terrible current domestic numbers (Imran Khan and Yasir Shah averaging 40 with the ball, Iftikhar having scored a grand total of 35 domestic runs.)
And even though he already had one teenager in the starting eleven, Misbah as Chief Selector chose 3 teenagers in his 5 fast bowlers for a tour of Australia, while the other two quicks were veterans who can't get their average pace above 125K!
Five quicks for a tour of Australia left virtually no provision for loss of form or injuries. But to make things worse:
3 of the 5 quicks were teenagers.
2 of the 5 quicks were in their thirties (Abbas is still supposedly 3 months away, but does anybody believe that?)
1 of the 5 quicks was above the generally recognised minimum height to be successful in Australia.
0 of the 5 quicks was a competent batsman.
Were there alternative quicks whom Misbah could have selected?
Ehsan Adil and Sameen Gul were both doing better in domestic cricket than Imran, Abbas, Musa or even Shaheen. And they are both 6’4 in height, are both significantly quicker than Imran and Abbas and are both aged in their twenties.
And you now have to question the exclusion of Faheem Ashraf. In the previous Test he had taken 6-99 in similar conditions, and then his white ball contract in England was upgraded to a red ball one.
Misbah dropped a guy who took 6-99 in the previous Test, and who is 27 years old.
Sure, nobody can doubt the selection of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is 6’6 tall and bowls 135-143K. His figures in Australia were:
64 overs
12 maidens
184 runs
5 wickets at an average of 36.80 and an economy rate of 2.88
But the other 4 quicks – 2 veterans and 2 kids in the form of Imran, Abbas, Musa and Naseem - had combined figures of:
73 overs
12 maidens (7 bowled by Abbas when he cut back his length and gave up trying to take wickets)
345 runs
2 wickets at an average of 172.50 and an economy rate of 4.73
What kind of solution is this?
The World Test Championship is a rolling tournament which never stops. The days of experimenting with kids or of fielding a veteran team in which key players will later retire simultaneously are over.
So why do people think that it is as reasonable to select Kashif Bhatti (aged 33) as an uncapped slow left-arm spinner ahead of Zafar Gohar who is 8 years younger?
At the other extreme, why is it okay to pick 3 teenagers in a group of 5 fast bowlers in Australia?
Surely the arrival of the World Test Championship requires a less scattergun approach to selection.
Surely the Chief Selector needs to base his team around players aged 20 to 30, with 1 or 2 older players selected only if they are in spectacular recent form, and 1 or 2 younger players only if their bodies can manage the workload of a man, and if they have learned the skills (accuracy for a bowler, sound defence for a batsman) to make them a dependable member of the team.
The Test squad to Australia was as follows:
Azhar – overage player – Failed
Abbas – overage player – Failed
Iftikhar – overage player – Failed
Abid Ali – overage player – Unused
Shaheen – underage player – Passed
Babar Azam – player in his twenties – Succeeded
Kashif Bhatti – overage player – Unused
Imran Khan – overage player – Failed
Shan Masood – borderline for age – Passed
Muhammad Musa – underage player – Failed
Mohammad Rizwan – player in his twenties – Succeeded
Asad Shafiq – overage player – Failed
Naseem Shah – underage player – Failed
Yasir Shah – overage player – Failed
Haris Sohail – borderline for age – Failed
Imam-ul-Haq – player in his twenties – Failed
Only 3 players in their twenties were selected – and 2 of them succeeded.
6 clearly overage players were selected, and none of them succeded.
This World Test Championship runs into the next one, and so on. Surely what is required now is the selection of a sustainable squad of players, at least 80% of whom are aged in their twenties and therefore are experienced and effective enough to contribute fully today, while being young enough to use this experience in later cycles of the World Test Championship.
The world has changed somewhat. Three years ago after losing the First Test in New Zealand, Pakistan was cruising at Tea on the Final Day in Hamilton at 158-1, with a theoretical target of 369 to win. They had a go, and lost.
In the era of the World Test Championship, this loss would have earned them 0 points while New Zealand took 60 points. But a draw would have brought both teams 20 points. The lesson to draw in the World Test Championship era is that you can't afford to be blanked nowadays. Which is important - on the last tour of Australia, in the Second Test Pakistan declared their First Innings (really!!!) and was 6-1 at Lunch on the Final Day, and again could have ended up with 20 points by drawing under the new regulations.
If there is a lesson it is that teams need to rediscover how to avoid defeat overseas.
And I would add a second one - now that almost every series counts towards the World Test Championship, every team needs a core of players aged 20-30 who are not just at their peak now, they are going to be around to use their experience in the 2021-23 and 2023-25 cycles.
So let's get the language right.
If you are already in your thirties, you are an overage player, because chances are that you won't contribute much to later World Test Championship cycles.
And if you are still in your teens you are an underage player - you may lack the toughened body to perform now (Naseem Shah) or the core skills (Musa Khan).
That issue of optimal age is desperately important - by the time of the third World Test Championship Final, for example, Zafar Gohar will be 28 years and 5 months old, while his of major competitors Mohammad Asghar will be 26 years 6 months old, Nauman Ali will be 38 years and 9 months old and Kashif Bhatti will be 39 years and 11 months old.
So realistically, of these 4 currently uncapped bowlers:
Zafar Gohar is a prospect for 4 World Test Championship cycles.
Mohammad Asghar is a prospect for 5 cycles.
Nauman Ali is a prospect for this cycle only.
Kashif Bhatti is a prospect for this cycle only.
But look at what has happened instead.
By the start of this year, in the last Test that Pakistan played before Misbah’s appointment, and in the most similar conditions in the world (South Africa as opposed to Australia), Inzamam and Mickey Arthur had in place a team in which there were:
7 players in the starting eleven aged 20-29,
3 overage players in their thirties (Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, as Yasir Shah had been dropped in favour of Shadab Khan who scored a fifty and took 4-80)
1 underage player in his teens (Shaheen Shah Afridi).
What was the problem outside Asia?
Pakistan lost in South Africa because all the players aged over 30 failed repeatedly and because Fakhar Zaman was wrongly tried in the Test format.
What was the problem in Asia?
I freely admit that they lost in the UAE because Mickey Arthur did not pick enough spinners. He had been seduced into this by the success of his South Africans with a four man pace attack in Pakistan a decade earlier, and he failed to realise that UAE pitches were even slower and flatter.
But that could easily be fixed by calling up Zafar Gohar (aged 24) and Sajid Khan (aged 26). It didn't require an entire squad of players in their twenties to be sacked.
What changes did Misbah make?
Misbah has basically dismantled the Inzamam/Arthur team.
Where previously there were 7 starters aged 20-29, in the very next Test at Brisbane there were just 3.
A glut of overage players were recalled, but they were ones with terrible current domestic numbers (Imran Khan and Yasir Shah averaging 40 with the ball, Iftikhar having scored a grand total of 35 domestic runs.)
And even though he already had one teenager in the starting eleven, Misbah as Chief Selector chose 3 teenagers in his 5 fast bowlers for a tour of Australia, while the other two quicks were veterans who can't get their average pace above 125K!
Five quicks for a tour of Australia left virtually no provision for loss of form or injuries. But to make things worse:
3 of the 5 quicks were teenagers.
2 of the 5 quicks were in their thirties (Abbas is still supposedly 3 months away, but does anybody believe that?)
1 of the 5 quicks was above the generally recognised minimum height to be successful in Australia.
0 of the 5 quicks was a competent batsman.
Were there alternative quicks whom Misbah could have selected?
Ehsan Adil and Sameen Gul were both doing better in domestic cricket than Imran, Abbas, Musa or even Shaheen. And they are both 6’4 in height, are both significantly quicker than Imran and Abbas and are both aged in their twenties.
And you now have to question the exclusion of Faheem Ashraf. In the previous Test he had taken 6-99 in similar conditions, and then his white ball contract in England was upgraded to a red ball one.
Misbah dropped a guy who took 6-99 in the previous Test, and who is 27 years old.
Sure, nobody can doubt the selection of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is 6’6 tall and bowls 135-143K. His figures in Australia were:
64 overs
12 maidens
184 runs
5 wickets at an average of 36.80 and an economy rate of 2.88
But the other 4 quicks – 2 veterans and 2 kids in the form of Imran, Abbas, Musa and Naseem - had combined figures of:
73 overs
12 maidens (7 bowled by Abbas when he cut back his length and gave up trying to take wickets)
345 runs
2 wickets at an average of 172.50 and an economy rate of 4.73
What kind of solution is this?
The World Test Championship is a rolling tournament which never stops. The days of experimenting with kids or of fielding a veteran team in which key players will later retire simultaneously are over.
So why do people think that it is as reasonable to select Kashif Bhatti (aged 33) as an uncapped slow left-arm spinner ahead of Zafar Gohar who is 8 years younger?
At the other extreme, why is it okay to pick 3 teenagers in a group of 5 fast bowlers in Australia?
Surely the arrival of the World Test Championship requires a less scattergun approach to selection.
Surely the Chief Selector needs to base his team around players aged 20 to 30, with 1 or 2 older players selected only if they are in spectacular recent form, and 1 or 2 younger players only if their bodies can manage the workload of a man, and if they have learned the skills (accuracy for a bowler, sound defence for a batsman) to make them a dependable member of the team.
The Test squad to Australia was as follows:
Azhar – overage player – Failed
Abbas – overage player – Failed
Iftikhar – overage player – Failed
Abid Ali – overage player – Unused
Shaheen – underage player – Passed
Babar Azam – player in his twenties – Succeeded
Kashif Bhatti – overage player – Unused
Imran Khan – overage player – Failed
Shan Masood – borderline for age – Passed
Muhammad Musa – underage player – Failed
Mohammad Rizwan – player in his twenties – Succeeded
Asad Shafiq – overage player – Failed
Naseem Shah – underage player – Failed
Yasir Shah – overage player – Failed
Haris Sohail – borderline for age – Failed
Imam-ul-Haq – player in his twenties – Failed
Only 3 players in their twenties were selected – and 2 of them succeeded.
6 clearly overage players were selected, and none of them succeded.
This World Test Championship runs into the next one, and so on. Surely what is required now is the selection of a sustainable squad of players, at least 80% of whom are aged in their twenties and therefore are experienced and effective enough to contribute fully today, while being young enough to use this experience in later cycles of the World Test Championship.
Last edited:
