ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2016

Pakistan in 2015/16 When rain ruined the Test match between West Indies and India at Port of Spain in August 2016, India lost their briefly-held spot at the top of the ICC Test rankings. To much rejoicing in Karachi, Lahore and all points in between, it was Pakistan who took over the number one position, and so led the field for the first time ever. Given that they have not played a Test match in their own country since February 2009, this was a hugely impressive performance, and one that does great credit to those - notably the captain, Misbah-ul-Haq - who have united a national side that formerly seemed riven with factions, and whose inconsistency of performance reflected this. No longer do we wonder ‘which Pakistan will turn up’ when they play a Test match. Opponents now know they will be faced with a driven, well-managed and well-balanced side who give no quarter but who, nevertheless, play the game in a more relaxed and less outwardly aggressive manner than in the not-too-distant past. Pakistan’s move to the top of the rankings came despite only playing two Test series in 2015/16 and 2016, both against England. Their 2-0 success in the UAE in October and November 2015 took them from fourth place to second, while simultaneously relegating England from third to sixth. Pakistan had slipped back to third when they played England again in July/August 2016, in a four-match series that was always closely-fought but which showed no signs of the animosity between the sides that has coloured other recent series between them in England. The series ended 2-2, a result which all agreed was fair on the balance of play. This took Pakistan to second place in the rankings, just awaiting a stumble by India which, aided by the rain in Trinidad, duly came. The series in the UAE was initially memorable for the return to Test cricket after a five-year absence of Shoaib Malik. He made 245 in his first innings of the series, but managed only a further 47 runs in his remaining five innings, and was out first ball in the second innings of the final Test, which he had already announced would be his last. His big innings, if not quite his score, was later upstaged by the even longer-serving Younis Khan, who made a double-century of his own at the Oval, returning to form after a period of uncharacteristically inelegant batting that had brought him only 122 runs in his first six innings of the series. At 38 years and 256 days old, he became the tenth-oldest double-centurion in Test history. Other batsmen - Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali prominent among them - scored steadily through both series, and no one was more consistent than Sarfraz Ahmed who, besides looking the part with the gloves, made nine scores of between 25 and 46 in his 13 Test innings. With the ball, Shoaib Malik took an unexpected 11 wickets on the spinning pitches in the UAE, but the undoubted star was legspinner Yasir Shah, who continued the impressive form shown in his debut season by taking 15 wickets in the ‘home’ series, and ten more at Lord’s in the first Test of the away series. Match figures of 1-266 and 2-232 in the next two Tests suggested either a loss of form, or that England’s batsmen finally had his measure; but both theories were dispelled when his five-wicket haul in the second innings of the final Test led the way to Pakistan’s series-levelling ten-wicket win. Yasir ended the 2016 season with 95 wickets from his 16 Test matches; only George Lohmann reached 100 wickets in as few as 16 Tests, and Yasir will join three undoubted ‘greats’ - Charles Turner, Sydney Barnes and Clarrie Grimmett - if he manages to reach his hundred in his 17th. So Pakistan sit at the top of the ICC rankings; but for how long? All but one of the players named above is already past the age of 30, and the one exception, Sarfraz Ahmed, will reach that landmark in mid-2017. As yet there are no signs of a new younger generation coming to the fore to take on their mantle. It is tough work getting to the top of the ranking list, but as England, South Africa, Australia and India have all found in recent years, it is every bit as difficult to stay there. 257