Elder statesman’s role in Pakistan team for Shoaib
dubai — Shoaib Malik has spent his entire career living in the shadow of Pakistani stalwarts. First it was Inzamam-ul Haq and Mohammed Yousuf who towered above him. Then came Younis Khan and Misbah-ul Haq — the former with his sheer weight of runs and latter with his leadership skills became the symbols of recent Pakistan teams.
Malik, despite his impressive career in one-day cricket, has never been in the forefront of any Pakistan teams in the past 15 years.
But now the 35-year-old player finds himself in a position from which he can really look forward to ending his career with a flourish.
He has kept himself unbelievably fit and his 61-ball 81 against Sri Lanka in the first ODI on Friday proved that the former Pakistan captain is now ready to play the role of the elder statesman in the team.
Performances like that have made him believe that he can continue to guide the young Pakistan team with his experience until the 2019 World Cup.
“I know many people found it odd when I quit Test cricket two years ago despite scoring a double century. I made almost 300 runs and took 11 wickets in that series and I retired,” Malik said after being named man-of-the-match for his 40th half-century in one-day cricket. “I took the decision because I thought I could serve the country not just by playing but also by giving chances to youngsters. Our Test team then was well settled so I thought if youngsters like Babar Azam and Harris Sohail got a chance they could play Test cricket for 10-12 years. I knew I would not be able to do that so I decided to focus on the shorter version.
“So my aim is to continue playing limited overs cricket until the 2019 World Cup. But yes, I have to keep giving consistent performances for my team if I want to reach the World Cup.”
Middle-order heroics
With Pakistan looking for some inspiration at 128/3 in 28 overs against a hard-working Lankan attack on Friday, Malik walked in and turned around their fortunes with a majestic display of strokeplay and agile running between the wickets. Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed will definitely hope for more such performances in the middle-order from Malik. “I always try to play according to the situation. It’s important to do what the team needs from you at a particular stage in a match. My partnership with Babar Azam was very crucial,” Malik said.
Another big strength of the Champions Trophy winners is their fast bowlers’ ability to take wickets with the white ball. Hasan Ali (3/36) and Rumman Raees (3/49) made sure Pakistan didn’t miss the injured Mohammed Amir on Friday. “To have a good bowling attack is very important in this format of the game because you have five fielders inside the circle till the 40th over. If you have good bowlers, you can contain any team, any good batsmen. And that’s what we are doing,” Malik said.
“In the Champions Trophy we had bowlers who kept taking wickets in the middle overs and that’s why we contained batsmen and beat world class teams.”