It is good to see that our cricket team has left behind the disturbing memories of the humiliating whitewash in the recently- concluded Test series against England at home grounds and has taken a different course for the ongoing home series against Kiwis, who are in Pakistan after so many years.

The fighting spirit of the Pak cricketers in the ongoing Test match at National Stadium Karachi is something to cheer about.  Not only Babar Azam scored a magnificent and fighting century on the opening day but the recalled Sarfaraz Ahmed also scored a half-century to take the team to a reasonable score of 317-5 on the opening day of the first Test against Kiwis at NSK on Monday last.

The duo were instrumental in team’s recovery from 110-4 during a 196-run fifth wicket stand, as the Green Shirts  have lifted a bit from the recent 3-0  whitewash, which was the first at home ground, at the hands of England team.

With this century Babar Azam now has reached another milestone of magnificent 1,170 runs in only nine Test encounters during the current year which is  the highest run maker in Tests this year so far.

Babar has also surpassed Mohammad Yousuf’s aggregate of 2,435 in 2006 in all formats of the game.

It was a beauty to watch the Pakistan skipper for lifting the Michael Bracewell for a grand six to complete his ninth Test century in style.

As for the Kiwis are concerned, the tourists are featuring in their first Test series in our country since 2002 and there is lot of cricket is in the pipeline on home grounds.

Meanwhile, both the cricket boards have changed the venues for the Second Test match scheduled for next month.  As the second match has been moved from Multan to NSK due to bad weather forecast in Multan, Karachiites are happy to host the second match.

On the other hand, NSK is also set to host the two World Test Championship encounters and the three ODI matches of the Cricket World Cup Super League as well.

Besides, the venue change, the second Test and the three ODIs have been forward by a day. As such, 3nd Test  will now be played from  2 January instead of 3 January as planned earlier.

As a matter of fact, it is very necessary to win the ongoing Kiwis home series for Pakistan as they faced a humiliating whitewash at home ground which was also their first in the history on home ground recently.

To be very specific, the recently-concluded  three-Test series with England is an eye opener for the Pakistan cricket circles as during the entire series they miserably failed to fight back and were totally whitewashed by the tourists.

England comprehensively defeated the hosts Pakistan in the first Test match in Rawalpindi, followed by 2nd Test in Multan and then at NSK in Karachi, and achieved a historic whitewash, which was the first of its kind for the home team in the 70-year history of Pakistan.

It was really humiliating for the home team to see defeat in as many as three Test matches within a span of one month.

Overall it was Green Shirts consecutive fourth Test defeat on home ground during the country year as they also lost Test match to Kangaroos in Test match during the Test series played in Pakistan earlier this year.

So the memories of this pathetic performance by Pakistan team in Test matches during the current year can only be erased only when the Green shirts becomes triumphant in the ongoing series against New Zealand.

This is the only way to pacify the feelings and remove anger of the fans, who were really disappointed by the Pakistan performance against England in Test series that ended recently.

As for the series against Kiwis, the two teams have featured against one another in as many as 60 Test matches, in which New Zealand was victorious  in 14 Tests while Pakistan has won 25 matches. Moreover, the remaining 21 Test matches ended in a draw.

During the same period of time, as many as 104 ODIs  were also played between New Zealand and Pakistan, in which the latter won 55 matches while New Zealand could win 48 ODIs.

So the statistics are in favour of Pakistan.

But since Pakistan are fresh from England defeat, so they will have to  make real hard work to fight back and play well against Kiwis to be back to winning ways.

It is not that our team is not capable to defeat Kiwis, but the fact is that they are unpredictable and a little bit inconsistent.

In fact, what they need is to put real hard work in their current game so that the team is back with a fighting spirit.

The four consecutive defeats in Test matches have landed our team to number 7 ranking in the ICC Test Championship with an average of mere 38.39 which needs to be improved.

Anyway, though not in good frame of mind after the whitewash at the hands of England, our team is quite capable to strike back and not only give tough times to the tourists Kiwis but also snatch victory through sheer performance in style.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 28 2022

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.