In the summer of 2019, Misbah Ul Haq was brought in as the head-coach and Chief Selector of the national cricket team after Pakistan ended its World Cup 2019 campaign as no.5 under previous head coach Mickey Arthur.
The reason behind giving these two big responsibilities to a fresh and inexperienced person like Misbah was to make someone fully responsible for the results of the team.
Misbah Ul Haq thought Pakistan is going to play a T20 world cup in 2020, so it is better to go with the young lot in the first couple of series instead of trying the old guns. This is what his plans seemed to be.
So, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik were dropped from the side and Misbah selected and introduced Sarfraz Ahmad, Umer Akmal and Iftikhar Ahmad in the middle order against Sri Lanka in T20s.
Dropping these two players created a vacuum in the middle order of the Pakistan T20 team and the team started struggling from the very start of Misbah’s appointment as head coach and chief selector.
Umer Akmal got two golden ducks in that home series and hasn’t come-back since then. Sarfraz also failed to maintain his place in the team as well as captaincy of the national cricket team.
Next series was in Australia and in the T20s against Kangroes, Pakistan’s middle order relied on Haris Sohail, Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmad and Asif Ali. Iftikhar Ahmad was the only player in Pakistan’s middle order who looked confident against Kangroes.
Failure of all of these young players forced the then Chief Selector and head coach Misbah Ul Haq to bring veteran T20 stars, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik back in the team; both of them were almost 40 by then but are still young and active in the big competitions.
2020 was the best year for Mohammad Hafeez as a batsman but Shoaib Malik struggled to keep himself in the XI in the T20 series on Pakistan’s tour of England in the summer of 2020 and was ruled out immediately.
Shoaib Malik was not alone to be dropped, Iftikhar Ahmad also joined him after Pakistan tour of New Zealand. Other than these players, Ahsan Ali, Abdullah Shafiq and Ahmad Shehzad were tried and dropped from the top order. But the list doesn’t end here as Asif Ali is another failure, mostly played at no.6 or 7 but failed to provide impressive knocks in the back end.
Pakistan’s defeat against New Zealand ended Misbah Ul Haq’s role as the chief selector for Pakistan. Mohammad Wasim was appointed as the new chief selector of Pakistan. After all, Misbah’s tenure as Chief Selector was a period full of failed experiences for the Pakistan team. As the Chief Selector of Pakistan, Muhammad Wasim’s first assignment was to select Pakistan’s team for a home series against South Africa.
Pakistan played 3 T20s against South Africa at home but all the middle order players in Haider Ali, Hussain Talat, Iftikhar Ahmad, Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah disappointed the new Chief Selector who didn’t shy to experience more players from the circuit.
In Pakistan’s tour of South Africa, Haider Ali and Asif Ali as well as newly tried Danish Aziz have also disappointed the management and none of Pakistan’s cricket intelligentsia knows who is supposed to play at no.5 and 6 for Pakistan in the upcoming T20 matches.
Now, people are looking towards newly selected young man of Quetta Gladiators, Azam Khan, to perform and solve this grand issue of the failures of Pakistan middle order. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan at the top, Mohammad Hafeez at 4 and Fahim Ashraf at 7 are the only confirmed options in the current list, otherwise, people think Imad Wasim and Shoaib Malik can be tried at no. 5 and 6 while many are waiting for Umer Akmal to make a comeback for Pakistan to solve this issue.
In such a situation, the current Chief Selector of Pakistan has no answers for these questions except saying something like “PSL6 is going to take place in June 2021. We hope that we will find some talented players from this edition of Pakistan Super League.”
Well, the reality is that there is not a single player in Pakistan Super League who is new and excited and can solve this issue of Pakistan batting line up. In the current roster of PSL6, only Usman Khan of Quetta Gladiators and Rohail Nazir of Islamabad United are new faces who are supposed to impress the fans through their skills and talent, but the irony is that both of them don’t play below no.4.
Even lesser exciting youngsters like Zeeshan Ashraf, Agha Salman and Zeeshan Malik also don’t. So, in this situation, management should think about giving another chance to Umer Akmal while young Azam Khan as well as alrounders like Shadab, Fahim and Nawaz can be utilized at 6,7&8.
Haider Ali is not a lower order batsman, has a good record at no.3 so should play at his natural position. Danish Aziz had some extraordinary domestic cricket seasons before he was selected for an overseas outing of South Africa, therefore, he can be given a couple of more chances.
Sohaib Maqsood’s form and consistency can be observed but management must get a way to play Azam Khan in the XI. This youngster had a decent Lanka Premier League as well as two outstanding PSL editions and domestic cricket seasons.
Management will have to do so because the greatest fans of Shoaib Malik can tell us that he is no more an effective player below no.4 in T20s while Asif Ali and Iftikhar Ahmad have already availed too many chances. Management will love consistent performers in the T20 World Cup squad of 2021 but prospects are very low.
As PSL6 is going to be held in Abu Dhabi instead of the pandemic affected city of Pakistan, Karachi, players must be extra careful about handling the spin better.
PSL6 in UAE can be a good practice for Pakistan in the sense that there are possibilities of T20 World Cup 2021 being shifted to UAE as Covid-19 situation in India looks too risky to host mega event there.
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