da wazamba： Batter belies stress of endurance as he unfurls his mastery on turning tracks

da betcris： Danyal Rasool25-Oct-2024Much of Pakistan’s perceived suitability to spin wickets has focused on, well, their spin bowlers. But if tailoring wickets to suit 38- and 31-year olds who were thought to have been moved on doesn’t suggest a long-term plan, Pakistan have a significantly more compelling argument for these kinds of surfaces: Saud Shakeel.The stop-start nature of Pakistan’s Test calendar sees his reputation wax and wane. Sometimes, they won’t play a Test match for the best part of a year, and there are enough shiny new things happening in Pakistan cricket to remember what a middle-order Test batter’s strengths might be. On other occasions, Pakistan have an away Test series in Australia. For a batter of Shakeel’s skillset raised in Karachi, it might as well be on the moon for the likelihood that he will acclimatise in conditions of that hostility, and against bowlers of that quality. Unsurprisingly, on their most recent excursion, he only managed 92 in six innings, taking a reputational hit along the way.But few appreciate home comforts like a Karachi lad, and this surface in Pindi has been as close as it gets without moving the Test to the National Stadium. 13 wickets had fallen to spin in less than a day, and a trigger-happy Umpire Sharfuddoula had given him an early scare, raising his finger despite clear twilight between bat and ball, but Shakeel in these conditions can be close to unflappable.England matched Pakistan man-for-man, spinner for spinner, and that was reflected in the overnight scores. If anything, Pakistan were perhaps a touch too far adrift, with Jamie Smith’s takedown of Pakistan’s slower bowlers – Sajid Khan in particular – giving the visitors a first-innings total they might have taken at the start. Shan Masood tried something different, but was never likely to resolve his issues against spin on this surface, and when a surprise Rehan Ahmed burst reduced Pakistan to seven-down by lunch, Smith’s onslaught was the real point of difference between the sides.Ben Stokes was unusually short of ideas as Pakistan’s innings grew•Getty ImagesPakistan don’t have a player in this side who can do what Smith does, least of all Shakeel. There was a dalliance with belligerence in Sri Lanka from him, but despite its success at the time, the approach was understood to be unsustainable, and soon shelved. At the time, Pakistan’s team management were imposing specific targets for the percentage of defensive shots their batters were allowed to block in a bid to speed up runscoring. Only Babar Azam was exempt from those targets because, it was reasoned, you were as good as him, you didn’t need to be told. Times do change.But in the right conditions, Shakeel comfortably clears that high barrier, too. What he doesn’t know about tackling spin in red-ball cricket may not be worth knowing; since he made his debut, no one who’s played more than 15 innings can match his average against spin, which after today’s innings of 134 off 223 is now up beyond 93. Smith had responded to finding himself running out of partners by counter-attacking his way through it, smashing six sixes in the middle session. Shakeel faced nearly twice as many deliveries, and didn’t even manage as many fours.But it is the recognition that all spin wickets are not the same, and that not all long, gritty innings follow the same template, that marks Shakeel out as elite. In one of his first innings of note in Karachi, a marathon 492-minute effort in which he assembled an unbeaten 125 against New Zealand, Shakeel hit 17 boundaries. On that day, though, he was striking at under 37, letting 84 balls through to the keeper; against England’s attack, he only let four go.The sweep shot, one that has served him so well through his career, was relegated to virtual last resort. He would only use it three times in 223 deliveries, resorting to the reverse-sweep – a shot he barely ever uses – more often. Most of the time, though, he just pushed, flicked, and drove straight; the dangers of this surface’s variable bounce meant it was the safest strategy.And safe, when playing against spin, is good, as far as Shakeel is concerned. It’s not always enjoyable when playing on a spin pitch, he admitted at the press conference after the day. “You’re always tense. I have a good record against spin but I don’t particularly like facing them.”Related

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But he made sure the spinners weren’t particularly enjoying bowling to him, either. Whereas Smith had spent the middle session on Thursday looking for a quick hill against his opposition, Shakeel spent this one sapping their will to live. The spinners were milked down the ground with remarkable ease for a pitch supposedly tailor-made for them, and Shakeel set a similar example for Noman, whose discipline guaranteed England didn’t have a soft end they could open up.”When you play on such a pitch, you can get any ball that does something out of character,” he said. “You just have to have a clear mind and plan. For example, I didn’t play too many sweep shots, even though I rely on them a lot. If you find something working on the day, you just try and stick to it. Noman and I were setting small targets, and we just kept chipping away without doing too much different.”When he got to his hundred – with a flick off Rehan through midwicket, naturally – it was Noman whose celebrations were more pronounced. A triumphal arm raised in the air from the left-arm spinner was the only sign from either batter that a milestone had been reached; Shakeel’s head was still down when he grounded his bat before Noman pulled him into an embrace. There was simply more work to be done, and lapses in concentration were unacceptable.Shakeel hadn’t struck a single boundary between the half-century and three figures; he would only hit one more all innings. But as he recognises only too well, there are many different ways of handling spin. It’s unlikely a coincidence at this point that he finds the right one on the day. Shakeel may find playing against spin on turning tracks stressful, but for every Pakistan supporter, watching him do just that is an increasingly calming experience.