A salute to the Pakistan cricket team
Patrick Skene | January 08, 2024
A salute to the Pakistan cricket team for providing an unexpectedly compelling series & playing in the true spirit of Test cricket. With limited preparation and missing a number of their key players, they fought tooth and nail in every Test and were a revelation on and off the field, proving that hard test cricket can be played without the aggro.
“The respect shown by the opposition throughout this series has been second-to-none,” Adam Gilchrist said on Fox Cricket.
“This series has been played in terrific spirit.” Mark Waugh added.
Captain Pat Cummins noted the sense of fraternity: "Out in the middle I think both teams play quite similarly, play hard but everyone's ready to joke with each other and have a bit of a laugh and not take it too seriously if the moment doesn't require it to be."
In each test Pakistan fought hard to get into winning positions only to fall short, but not before challenging and bringing the best out of this all conquering Australian team.
My highlights in no particular order:
- the mutual respect between the teams
- Usman Khawaja's daughter and Babar Azam sharing a christmas moment
- Pakistan presenting christmas presents to the Australians
- the great Babar Azam always playing with a smile despite a form slump
- the discovery of Aamir Jamal who made his test debut at 27, took 18 wickets for the series and scored an incredible 82 - also learning of his year playing for Hawkesbury and working as a brickie in 2016 and the great friendships that have continued
- the commentary of Waqar and Wasim giving us deeper insights into Pakistani cricket
- the dogged batting of Rizwan and Agha Salman
- Shan Masood's captaincy, setting traps for the Australian batsmen and managing his limited bowling resources. He is so well spoken and respectful and is a credit to Pakistan cricket
- the respect shown to David Warner from start to finish with a genuine guard of honour
While the series will go down in the history books as a 'whitewash' and 'ruthless clean sweep', my memory will tell a different story of a team that overachieved with their backs to the wall and played in the spirit of the game which the founders intended.
Once Australia and Pakistan had a tempestuous relationship but a new 'exchange program' has been announced in which women's, A-teams and youth teams will tour more to increase familiarity each other's playing conditions, bringing relations between the two nations to an all time high.
A tip of the baggy green to the 2023/24 Pakistan cricket team and the Australian team for showing us the power of sport to unite in a world plagued by division!
