Cricinfo: Pakistan's Makeshift Team Finds Resilience in Multan

Cricinfo Reports: Empowering Journeys in Cricket

In the heady days of early 2021, Pakistan had a strut in their step. Test cricket had returned to Pakistan. Shaheen Shah Afridi was hitting his stride, and a young Naseem Shah had taken Test cricket by storm. Even Hasan Ali, derailed for years with form and fitness concerns, had marked his Test return by finishing as the top wicket-taker in a hard-fought home series against South Africa. A series which - on two cracking surfaces in Karachi and Rawalpindi - Pakistan had won 2-0.

The Shift in Momentum

But that strut also betrayed an air of moral superiority. Pakistan, it was felt, were now different to the rest of South Asia, a land where the ball seamed and swung, where fast bowlers took nine of the 10 wickets in the fourth innings on the fifth day. Their Asian neighbours may have produced dustbowls, turning tracks, and quick-finishing Test matches, but was that really fun?

Veteran spinner Yasir Shah - perhaps Pakistan's most important player during the second half of their UAE exile - was gently making way to these young quicks, with Azhar Ali speaking of his journey.