Pakistan didn’t fluke this series win against Sri Lanka. They decided they were going to play like this, told us about it. and went out and did it
Osman Samiuddin28-Jul-2023Admit it. You sniggered a little when Pakistan “unveiled a playing style” this May. A new kit, a new player, a new mega-bucks commercial deal, yes. But unveiling a new playing style?Perhaps you’re older and were downright sceptical. Pakistan, playing in a consistent and identifiable and consistently identifiable way? Tell them you can’t ascribe pattern to chaos or package and sell bottles of rainbow.Some of you may have appreciated the fact that Pakistan were, for once, being proactive and thinking and talking about the brand of cricket they wanted to play.This brand, the PCB explained in the middle of an 850-word press release announcing the appointment of their new coach Grant Bradburn, was . was, in the words of team director Mickey Arthur, “winning while having our own culture, our own brand of cricket and our own style. We will not be satisfied with wins without that culture in the team”.Related
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Soon after, during a press blitz, further detail was provided. This culture would stem from resilience, a national trait often ascribed to Pakistanis and the idea that Pakistan shines when pushed against a wall, that it burns brightest when it is darkest. The Cornered Tigers thesis, in other words, that Pakistan produces its most exhilarating and attacking cricket when they are up against it the most.Except now, in a crucial twist, this new coaching set-up was trying to instill into the players not to wait to be cornered but to be that tiger from the get-go.At the time, it did sound a bit like the hokum you might find in a brochure, or a self-help guide, though there were occasional glimmers of greater intent in white-ball series against the touring New Zealand side in April.But it was in beating Sri Lanka so comprehensively that a fuller expression of this – a humble request here to anoint whatever this is with a punchier, less lofty name – emerged. This was across a much broader canvas, operating with the acceptance that some days will be good, some bad, that one session might contain an entire game within it, where time and all its unfolding and uncontrollable possibilities and realities will test commitment to an intangible philosophy.And in real life, outside the confines of a press release, it was much more thrilling to watch. Pakistan scored at 4.06 runs per over through the series, the second highest by any visiting side in Sri Lanka (India scored at 4.17 across three Tests in 2017).In a crucial twist, the players don’t need to wait to be cornered before turning on their tiger mode•AFP/Getty ImagesWhen they were cornered in that first innings at Galle, at 101 for 5, still 211 runs behind, they were still going at five an over. Saud Shakeel and Agha Salman took the bolder, more aggressive route out putting on 177 at nearly five an over, but they were only maintaining the aggression. By the end of the second day, Pakistan had never scored faster across an innings as long as it was then – 4.91 runs per over across 45 overs – in their first innings of a Test.The target in the final innings was small, but precisely in that range which so traumatises Pakistan. And this was Galle, across days four and five, against a slow left-arm orthodox who had already done them over once on this ground, who has 59 wickets from just nine Tests. Pakistan wobbled, but they kept going hard at the target so that despite being 38 for 3 and 79 for 4, it never felt far away. At 4.05 runs per over, it was Pakistan’s fourth-quickest chase of a target between 130-185.On the third day of the second Test in Colombo, Pakistan scored 385 runs, the third-most they have ever made in a day. Agha became only the third Pakistani to score a hundred runs in a session. In short, it is difficult to remember this much collective intent in the batting. The only time Pakistan have scored faster through a series was against India at home in 2005-06, on legendarily flat tracks in Lahore and Faisalabad.The bowling has never needed much selling, of course. But even by Pakistan’s standards of variety, this was a proper 1980s United Colours of Benetton ad of an attack. Nearly all species of bowler was present: left-arm fast, right-arm fast, slow left-arm spin, right-arm legspin-mystery spin. All kinds of avenues and angles of attack available: tall, short, new-ball vim, old-ball reverse, get beat on the outside edge, get beat on the inside edge, hit stumps, hit pads, get caught in the slips, contain, attack and contain as attack.The fielding and catching will take time to process, though fair warning: there’s not enough time in the world to come to terms with the level Pakistan operated at.
England are playing – and winning and bossing – Tests in a way that is infectious. It is natural for others to want to replicate, not least because in a calendar in which more players are playing more white-ball cricket than ever, it is the pragmatic move
A reality check will point out this is only two Tests and that too against a non-vintage Sri Lanka side, who finished mid-table in the last World Test Championship (WTC). Even that is kind of the point though. Usually, in such contests, Pakistan rise or stoop to the level of their opponents (other than Australia and South Africa away). Only last year, with seven to eight of the same personnel in both XIs, Pakistan were thumped in one Test and had to pull off the second-highest chase in their history to win the other.Except that this was planned, from the moment Arthur arrived in Islamabad in April and with Bradburn and team management, began to spell out what they wanted. And that it did come from a genuine place of crisis.It’s easy to forget Pakistan finished seventh in the last WTC, ahead only of West Indies and Bangladesh. When they began that cycle, such was their draw that a route to the final was not a fantasy. They ended it single-handedly trying to kill Test cricket. The chairman killed the pitches, the captain and coach killed the ambition, in an unholy communion of conservatism.They needed to do something – anything – and so they did. All the messaging about the was reinforced at the pre-series camp for Sri Lanka (where white-ball cricketers and the Emerging team also attended).Two sessions a day were organised, one for skill development, the other for game scenarios. Players were encouraged to develop shots they weren’t used to playing in the skill session. In the scenarios, they played 21s, where batters have to score 21 runs off a certain, pre-decided number of deliveries (always at least at a run-a-ball). But they are dismissed automatically if they play three dot balls in a row. Pakistan’s boundary-hitting in this series hit Sri Lanka like a truck, but the cumulative toll of their running and strike rotation was far more insidious. (And a handy by-product was that bowlers bowled with more patience, not searching for the glory ball but building dot-ball pressure.)Whether they say it publicly or not, there is an imprint of Bazball on this, of course. For all the evangelising, England are playing – and winning and bossing Tests – in a way that is infectious. It is natural for others to want to replicate, not least because in a calendar in which more players are playing more white-ball cricket than ever, it is the pragmatic move.
– A commendable performance from the boys today. This is the approach and attacking mindset that should be followed. Strong performances from our youngsters @ImAbd28, @SalmanAliAgha1 with the bat and our pacers for hitting the right areas. Thumbsup to Noman Ali for getting 7… pic.twitter.com/EYpIJm6X4u
— Wasim Akram (@wasimakramlive) July 27, 2023
Maybe Pakistan were slightly more refined about it – or played to their limitations, or to an embedded conservatism – tweaking the tempo particularly when they felt they’d gotten ahead of the game. But this is detail.The point of all this is to say that Pakistan didn’t fluke this series win, and especially not the manner of it. They decided they were going to play like this. They wrote it down and told us about it. They went off and practiced it. Then they went out and did it. It’s been forever since we’ve been able to say that about a Pakistan Test side (Misbah-ul-Haq’s Pakistan, in case you were wondering, though they never wrote press releases about that style of play).In the end, though, there is a reason you might have sniggered when you first heard about this. Or were sceptical. Or were so desperate for Pakistan to have a brand. Because you know this doesn’t happen; or that if it does, it can’t be sustained or institutionalised because that’s not how Pakistan cricket rolls.Already, not a day out from it, it’s possible to foresee the ways in which the fades or fails. Pakistan don’t play another Test till December and then too in Australia where they’ve lost 14 consecutive Tests. Against that record, a rain-hit, insipid, unambitious – whatever kind – draw will count as a win. They then don’t play another Test till the following August. You can’t build brands if you have no product in the first place.Murmurs have also begun about Zaka Ashraf’s new administration wanting change. The current coaching set-up around the team is unusual for Pakistan in terms of hierarchy and the nature of roles within it. Pakistan don’t do well with unusual. Misbah is not a fan and he’s just been appointed Ashraf’s cricket advisor.To make changes to this set-up, after this kind of win, and just before the Asia Cup and World Cup would be some act of self-sabotage. That, some might point out, is also the Pakistan way.