The first six days of the two-Test series between Pakistan and Australia have been a study in contrasts. The loss in the One-Day International series and the way Pakistan handled captaincy in that could have been the beginning of the end of Misbah-ul-Haq. He was supposedly only in charge due to a lack of alternatives. What’s followed has probably been the best six consecutive days of cricket Pakistan have played under him.
Even during the historic win against England in 2012, there were enough moments for England to stay in the series. Pakistan’s response to winning the Tests then was to score 257 and 99 in the first innings of the following matches. This, though, has been the sort of domination that Pakistan couldn’t even have hoped for. After several days of Waqar Younis and Misbah talking about how Pakistan needed to stay focused, and not fall back into their natural habit of complacency, for once they’ve followed up on those words with 304 for 2 on the first day of the second Test on Thursday (October 30). And it’s the contrasts that stand out.
The most obvious disparity has been between the two captains. Even now, it would be difficult to argue that Michael Clarke has the worse bowling attack, even for these conditions. Yet, while Misbah may have been more proactive and aggressive than his caricature may suggest, Clarke has almost become a parody of himself. At one point during the Younis Khan-Azhar Ali partnership on Thursday, Clarke had two short midwickets, a silly mid-on, a silly mid-off, a short cover and Mitchell Johnson standing behind the umpire. This was, quite possibly, the “funkiest” field modern cricket has seen. And yet for all that, no chances came from it.
The three closest instances Australia came to dislodging either of the centurions were two half- chances at short-leg, and a drop at slip by David Warner – in those rare cases when Clarke did veer towards a more conventional field. One could almost argue that the Pakistani batsmen seemed to concentrate more when Clarke set those funky fields – precisely what the fielding captain doesn’t want in such conditions. Azhar later talked about how Mushtaq Ahmed, the spin bowling coach of the England team as recently as the Ashes earlier this year, had warned the Pakistani batsmen of Clarke’s unorthodox fields and how they needed to not be distracted by such manoeuvres.
As one ex-Pakistan cricketer suggested, sometimes in these conditions you need to be willing to just bowl to one side of the pitch and wait for the wicket rather than trying to be proactive for the sake of being proactive. That, you would think, is not an accusation Misbah is ever likely to face. In trying to compare captains from across the world, we often forget they are children of their conditions as much as the talent their teams possess. Perhaps few things better encapsulate the difference between the two captains than what they said prior to the second Test in Abu Dhabi. Clarke, in his pre-match press conference, said “I ‘ve always seen sport as someone wins and someone loses.” Misbah, when asked about Pakistan’s approach in the second Test, was a bit less dogmatic. “Every time we play our mindset is basically is to win, but it’s Test cricket and sometimes there is a possibility to carve out another way, which is a draw.”
The other contrast is between the least productive and most productive of Pakistan’s top-order batsmen. Mohammad Hafeez returned to the Test side last year based on a historically good performance in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. Prior to that, he had scored just 102 runs in his last 10 Test innings in 2013; since then he has scored one fifty in six innings. On the other hand, his current purple patch is likely to get Younis inducted back into the ODI team. Younis has averaged 25.6 in ODIs since the start of 2009. Perhaps sometimes, teams just need to forget the old cricket idioms about form and realise that the different formats of the game might as well be different sports. It’s not worth holding one’s breath over though.
The third contrast, though, seems to be one that Pakistan appear to bridging. Prior to this series, and during the first Test, the senior Pakistani batsmen talked about the need for the younger batsmen to stand up and be counted. Misbah’s lack of conversion has become a running joke in Pakistani cricket, but he doesn’t preach what he practices. Instead he, and Younis, talk about needing to emulate Younis. From scoring a hundred against Sri Lanka in October 2004 till this hundred, of the 41 times Younis has crossed the 50-run mark, he has scored 22 hundreds. And he only seems to be getting better with age.
Over the past three years, he has eight hundreds to go with just three fifties. In his book Wounded Tiger, Peter Oburne recounts AH Kardar dropping a batsman from the side for throwing away a start. Six decades on, Pakistan have the man most adept at fulfilling Kardar’s demands. Of the five Pakistani batsmen to have scored at least 15 Test centuries, Younis is, by some distance, the best at converting fifties into hundreds.
And the final contrast is the one that Australia have to bridge. So far in this series, Pakistani spinners have taken 15 wickets at 23; their Australian counterparts have taken 8 wickets at over 70. Obviously, Australia don’t have anyone in the team as capable at playing spin as Younis, but as Clarke has repeatedly suggested, Younis should be example for his batsmen to emulate. Even a bad Younis Khan impression might be good enough to bring Australia back into the game, but if they end up batting like they did in the first Test, Misbah will have to reconsider his greatest achievement as Test captain.
A study in contrasts, all the way
