Four years after making the summer of 2009 memorable by winning the World Twenty20 title at Lord’s in an emphatic manner, the Pakistanis are back in England. This time their target is to win the ICC Champions Trophy, a title that has remained elusive for them since the tournament’s inception in 1998. In fact, together with hosts England Pakistan are the only top-flight teams never to win the Champions Trophy.
This is their last chance.
Following the smashing success of the World Twenty20 championship since its launch edition in South Africa in 2007, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to discontinue the Champions Trophy after the 2013 edition.
Pakistan have never progressed beyond the semi-final stage of this elite eight-nation event and judging by their showing in two brief, back-to-back ODI series against cricketing minnows Scotland and Ireland, it could once again be a bumpy ride for them in the tournament that would run from June 6-23.
Pakistan were far from convincing in cold Edinburgh where they won a game on the back of a captain’s knock by Misbah-ul-Haq while the second one was washed out. In Dublin, Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien gave Pakistan a scare before pulling off a thrilling tie for Ireland.
The Irish challengers almost floored Pakistan in the second and last match before Kamran Akmal and tail-ender Wahab Riaz saved the tourists from what would have been an embarrassing defeat.
Pakistan’s below-par showing in Scotland and Ireland have raised concerns among the fans but ask Mohsin Khan, the former Pakistan coach, and he will tell you that the results in Edinburgh and Dublin won’t have much impact on Pakistan’s Champions Trophy campaign.
“Pakistan didn’t play to their potential against Ireland but I’m confident things would be different in their Champions Trophy games,” Mohsin told Pique.
Mohsin rates Pakistan’s squad as a good one but is of the view that it could have been much better. “Personally, I believe our team would have been better off with four players who are not with it in England,” he said.
“We should have taken Ahmed Shahzad, Shahid Afridi, Hammad Azam and Aizaz Cheema to England. Our balance would have been much better with them,” added the former Test opener, who has also served as Pakistan’s chief selector.
Mohsin has his reasons for backing the quartet.
“Omitting Afridi from the touring party was unnecessary. He is an impact player with loads of experience. He also has all-round utility which is why his axing was a big surprise to me.
“Cheema, I believe, is a perfect bowler for English conditions. With Umar Gul out because of injury, Pakistan should have opted for Cheema’s experience over rookie pacer Ehsan Adil.
“I rate Hammad Azam as a quality all-rounder. You need somebody like him in the line-up.
“Ahmed Shahzad is among the most impressive of our younger batsman and qualifies to be on the team as one of its openers.”
Mohsin stresses that even with a relatively lesser balanced team, Pakistan can go all the way in the Champions Trophy. His recipe for success has three ingredients: “Determination, motivation and third most important thing is game plan.
Pakistan are bracketed in Group B along with arch-rivals India, the West Indies and South Africa. Defending champions Australia, England, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are in Group A.
“All three teams in the group are good and Pakistan will need to give off their best against them. We will have to focus on our fielding because that’s one key area where we can win or lose a game,” says Mohsin, who sees England and South Africa as the top two title contenders.
“England will be the team to beat because they have the twin advantage of momentum and home conditions. South Africa, too, would be in contention.”
Many of the leading players, especially from India and West Indies would be coming to England after going through a grueling Indian Premier League (IPL) season. But Mohsin thinks that they will not be fatigued. “I don’t think IPL fatigue would play much role. There is a good 10, 12 days gap between the two events.”
Former captain Zaheer Abbas is of the view that Pakistan’s title hopes are pinned solely on their batters.
“Batting has been Pakistan’s Achilles heel for quite some time and once again I think that it is the one area where Pakistan can make or break their title chances,” says Zaheer.
“We can only hope of winning the event if our batting clicks otherwise it would be difficult even to reach the semi-finals.”
Zaheer doesn’t see many batsmen in the current squad with the sort of technique needed to shine in English conditions, especially in June which is usually a cold and wet month there.
“If you know the ball is going to seam and swing, you have to play late. It’s the key to be successful on English wickets. To be honest, I cannot name a single batsman in our current team with that kind of ability.”
Zaheer wants Pakistani batters to value their wicket.
“Our batsmen should learn the importance of staying at the wicket. They should know how to come out of difficult situations. They should know how to rotate the strike and wait for the loose ones to hit boundaries.”
Former captain Rashid Latif agrees with Zaheer.
“Our below-par showing in Scotland and Ireland is proof that our batting needs to improve by leaps and bounds,” he says. “Some of our batsmen were good in patches, but overall, they lack consistency which should be a big cause for concern for the team management,” the former wicket-keeper said.
But batting is apparently not the only area that could dog Pakistan during the Champions Trophy.
Sarfraz Nawaz, the former Test pacer, fears that in the absence of the seasoned Umar Gul, Pakistan’s largely inexperienced pace attack might misfire in England.
“We saw how comfortably Ireland scored against Pakistan and almost won the first One-day International,” says Sarfraz. “It shows that our bowling needs to improve because teams like West Indies, South Africa and India would be much more difficult compared to Ireland or Scotland.”
All said and done, experts are still not ready to rule out Pakistan’s chances.
“How can you do that,” says Mohsin. “Pakistan have done well against all odds in the past and can do that again in England. Our boys need to show self-belief.”
The writer is a senior sports journalist based in Karachi.
