An overview of Pakistan Cricket in 2021 and how did we get here
By: Safiullah Anwar
Tags: Sports, Pakistan, Leadership, Cricket, Psychology

As we draw curtains on the act of the Pakistan cricket team in 2021 on a good note with a dramatic, late, last gasp victory in Bangladesh in Test Cricket, looking in retrospect, the whole year has been a very bumpy ride. The season kicked off in South Africa against the Proteas, with the Green caps getting the better of them, besting them in a bilateral series, one held in February and another in April. They took a fall against England, getting whitewashed in ODIs and a 2–1 defeat in T20Is. As the World Cup drew near, New Zealand withdrew their tour to Pakistan, much to the nation’s dismay due to the proclaimed “security” reasons, and England followed suit. This ruined the national dream of witnessing International Cricket return to Pakistan and also besmirched the name of PCB in its course, which had been working for over a decade to build its credibility once again from the ground up. However, this incident lit a fire in the players and spurred Pakistan’s memorable and historic run in the T20 World Cup, providing the Pakistan cricket narrative with desperately needed hope and confidence with the world fawning over Pakistan’s heroic effort.

2021 saw Rizwan become the leading run-scorer in T20Is by a mile, scoring 1326 runs in a calendar year with an average of 73.66, breaking every record in his wake. Babar solidified his case as one of the greats in the modern era of cricket, finishing as the number one batsman on ICC Rankings in the white-ball format. With Hasan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi working their magic with the ball and being among the leading wicket-takers in 2021, and Mohammad Hurraira taking the world on notice after his triple-century, it has become evident and clear as daylight that we, as a cricketing nation, are onto something here. As the team sets its sight on more significant challenges in the near future, with the Australia tour of Pakistan just around the corner, I can’t help but wonder how did we get to this point in time? Is all of this a mere coincidence? Was all of this a part of a beautifully orchestrated plan, or has Lady luck smiled on us and taken pity on our situation? And can this somehow be traced back to its origin? What were the decisions, factors, and contributions that have overturned the condition of Pakistani cricket?

Upon scouring through a plethora of stat sheets, from the backroom staff, players’ routine, and statements of different players and figures to the dressing room environment, one man has played a prominent role than we give him credit for. We tend to overlook and undermine his cricket services so much, that we have labeled him as good riddance.

Sarfaraz Ahmed, the former Pakistan captain who had to face a ruthless sacking in October 2019, has made an immense contribution to the framework of the track on which the Pakistan team is coursing, which, so far, seems a recipe for success.

Sarfaraz made his big break in the 2015 world cup in the fifth match against South Africa, scoring a 49-ball 49, but his career started when he led Pakistan to U19 World Cup glory against India in the final in 2006 and produced brilliant knocks in their third and fourth match. He had some brief stints with the Pakistan national team as he was included in the test series against Australia in Hobart in 2010 only to be dropped again and was again called in series against Sri Lanka and Asia Cup in 2012 for T20Is.

The phrase “Sarfaraz dhoka nahi dega” was on every media channel in the nation as the fans put pressure on the selectors to replace Umar Akmal, as the situation behind the wicket was in tatters. Sarfaraz would go on to equal Adam Gilchrist’s record for the most dismissals as a wicket-keeper in a single innings in his first match. He hit a century in his second match against Ireland, cementing a place for Pakistan in the tournament’s semi-finals, silencing the critics, who questioned his ability with the bat. He was the answer to Pakistan’s long-lived Wicket-keeper headache, which had cost them a lot of matches, putting an end to the Akmal dynasty, no less than three of them. He would turn out to be a godsend, averaging 45 runs and amassing 3398 runs from the year 2014–2016, producing brilliant knocks on numerous occasions.

After seeing a horrendous T20 World Cup unfold in India in 2016, Shahid Afridi stepped down as the captain of T20, and Sarfaraz was handed reins of the T20 squad. The Sarfaraz-led team would win 30 T20Is out of 36 played, win 11 consecutive T20 series, conquer the likes of England, and go on a red-hot streak of whitewashing West Indies, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand, taking no prisoners on the field. Pakistan became the best T20I team and was atop the ICC Rankings for 27 consecutive months from 2018–2020. Sarfaraz would be the best captain Pakistan has ever seen in the T20 format having a win percentage of 83.33%.

However, he could not replicate the same success in the other formats, failing to establish Pakistan as a top-string team, but surprisingly, they always came big in big moments; for reference, see Champions Trophy 2017.

Pakistan has always had a reputation of being unpredictable, but looking back, Pakistan team performances with Sarfaraz as the captain of ODI format in big tournaments have been more of a miracle than some incalculable and unforeseen result.

His first major tournament as a captain was the ICC Champions Trophy in England. They lost their series against England, Australia, and New Zealand in 2016 and had not won against England in ODI’s since 2005/06 when they toured Pakistan. The only series they won was against West Indies prior to the Champions Trophy, which gave them the ticket to fly to England and participate on the last spot available.

Pakistan lost their first match against India in CT’17 in true Pakistani fashion and, in the same fashion, would go on an unbeaten streak and ironically beat India in the final, much identical to their first defeat of the competition, but this time, undoubtedly on the better side of things. This was the same team that was scrambling for the last spot in the top 8 to qualify for the Champions Trophy’17. To go and pull such a feat was no less than a miracle. Sarfaraz was named the captain and the wicket-keeper of the tournament.

A similar trend was seen in World Cup 2019. Pakistan would get whitewashed against England, Australia, and New Zealand on separate occasions in the period leading to the World Cup. In the tournament, Pakistan got off to a turbulent start, bowled out on 105 against West Indies and lost to Australia later but would pick up the pace in the latter part of the tournament, defeating South Africa and New Zealand in the same stretch, reminiscent of Pakistan’s run in World Cup 1992. But they missed out on the semi-finals spot to New Zealand based on run-rate superiority. This was an astonishing development from the Pakistani side. They just had an intensity about them when they got going. The confidence exuded by the team was on a whole new level. They’d become the “Giant Killers,” decimating everyone in their path. Pakistan, on their day, was the best team in the world.

In the Test format, Sarfaraz did not have much luck and failed to establish Pakistan as a solid Test side and return Pakistan to its glory days witnessed under Misbah-ul-Haq, suffering a 2–0 defeat for the first time in UAE against Sri Lanka, and later against South Africa. The only series Sarfaraz-led Pakistan won was against Australia in UAE with a narrow 1–0 margin.

In October 2019, he was sacked as the captain of all formats, with Babar Azam taking control of limited-overs Cricket and Azhar Ali taking charge of the test side.

Although Sarfaraz was the captain, he was far from an exemplary model worthy of being followed. His batting performances had deteriorated tremendously. His average as a player was a healthy 40.96, while as a captain, the numbers dropped down to a meager 25.81. With the imminent arrival of Rizwan, it was inevitable that he be dropped out of the squad and not be included in Pakistan’s future plans.

Apart from his performances, Sarfaraz’s on-field antics did not do him too well either. The infamous yawn against India, which led to a huge outcry from the fans and the racist, cheeky dig on Andile Phehlukwayo, due to which ICC suspended him for four matches, did not look good on the resume of a person whose job was to remain composed than anyone else on the field. Off the field, he had to face severe and borderline abusive criticism as a fan called him a “fat pig” in a mall while he was with his son, and some people went as far as to label him as a “brainless captain” and a “Railu Katta.” But such is the Cricket fever in Pakistan that we often fail to consider that the person on the receiving end of things is a human too.

But, as a nation, we also fail to contemplate a person’s effect beyond the scorecard and the result of the match. Questions like “What sentiments were on display when they won/lost a match?” and “What image was their body language portraying?” are some questions that require an in-depth analysis and command more attention than we give them. In Pakistan’s case, though, none of the above questions carry much meaning because they fail to fit every logic. It was inexplicable to see them muster the courage and confidence to perform against expectations on the biggest stage in International Cricket.

One of the key observations many fans and pundits made from the recent T20 World Cup was that the squad looked like a team rather than a group of players assembled to work towards a similar goal. You could catch glimpses of the camaraderie and the rapport on full display on various instances on and off the field. Be that Babar and Haris Rauf reveling a wicket fallen together, to pictures surfacing on social media of the whole team celebrating and having a good time. It does not take you long to realize flipping through the archives and watching old videos that Sarfaraz had set the tone for this change in the dressing room. The players trusted their captain, and Sarfaraz did everything he could to not break their trust, jumping to their defense many a time. This seems a bold statement on paper and requires some evidence in its defense.

Let’s take a look at the star players of today. Babar Azam, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Fakhar Zaman, Asif Ali. They either made their debuts under Sarfaraz or have been under his wing for most of their career. This fact alone says a lot about the support and backing they received as a player coming through the ranks.

Does this seem like an accident?

“There are no accidents,” in the words of Master Oogway.

It’s not a coincidence that all of the aforementioned players shot to stardom they have now, under Sarfaraz. The players had the freedom to express themselves and the trust of their leader; what else was stopping them from fulfilling their potential?

Another key takeaway from the World Cup, which is one of the main reasons which makes me excited about the future, is that throughout the World Cup and in the recent series against West Indies, every match featured a different man of the match. The squad depth and resourcefulness right now are nothing like anything we have seen before. It does not seem like a one-man show anymore. Although the cameras will always direct themselves towards individual brilliance, it is evident that most of the wins have resulted from a team effort rather than a masterclass by an individual.

Whether we admit it or live in denial, but Sarfaraz was one of the pioneers in this mythical rise of Pakistan Cricket from its ashes. Babar Azam has recorded 29 wins out of a possible 37 in 2021 in T20Is and continues his astronomical rise. It is not implied that Sarfaraz single-handedly has turned the tide, but it is pretty transparent that if it wasn’t for Sarfaraz, we might not have been able to reach this point. A leader leads his subjects into battle and is responsible for their every action on the field.

Sarfaraz is not some cricketing genius. He is not like MS Dhoni, able to make fine adjustments to optimize his side’s chances of victory and obviously not someone on whom you could always rely to help the team amass a big total like Ricky Ponting. He did not dig into his players like Imran Khan, was neither shrewd like Javed Miandad nor did he appear too intense like Misbah-ul-Haq; he is someone I would describe as a clever guy who had been dealing with circumstances for a long time, trying to break through and understands how to deal with immense pressure. What made him great were not his achievements and performances behind the wicket, but rather his influence on his players, and considering that he is partly responsible for making the player Babar is today, who has admitted the impact of Saifi Bhai on his game, I’d say he has done a great job, much better than we give him credit for. Sarfaraz has played a major part in helping us reach the brink of a revolution in Pakistani cricket alongwith Mickey Arthur and other figureheads. It’s almost as if like we are back in the sweet ‘90s.

Many great leaps remain to be made, and the job is quite far from finished, but there is good reason to be hopeful about the future. With an enthusiastic new chief in the form of Ramiz Raja, the Shaheens will start off the year 2022 with their foot on the pedal, as Pakistan will lock horns with Australia in March, in a showing that will see International Cricket come back to the nation. From the looks of it, conquering Australia might not be too far-fetched of a dream right now.

As the curtain draws on the act of the Pakistani Cricket act this year, we are all peering at the horizon, in awe of the ray of hope that has lit up the dark clouds surrounding the Pakistan Team, questioning if this is a dawn of a new era or fluttering moments from the last dance of an era gone by.

Only time will tell.