Pakistan's new-look middle order, Chanderpaul's lone act

Over the last year, Pakistan's batting line-up has changed considerably, both in terms of the personnel and the type of cricket they play. Usually, Pakistan's batsmen are known to be flashy strokeplayers, with one or two defensive players thrown in to redress the balance and ensure that the entire innings doesn't go on overdrive. In the five-and-a-half years between 2005 and the middle of 2010, for example, Pakistan's list of batsmen in the top seven included Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt and, for the first couple of years during that period, Inzamam-ul-Haq. Throw in Umar Akmal, who appeared on the scene briefly and brightly in 2009-10, and the names are largely those of strokeplayers (though most of them could adapt their game to the situation).

During that period, the top four run-getters for Pakistan all had strike rates of more than 55. Butt, who can also play shots all around the park, was the relative laggard, scoring at only 46.24 runs per 100 balls.

The current line-up, though, consists of the following: Taufeeq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq. Barring Hafeez, who has remodelled his Test game recently and added more aggression, the others are intrinsically defensive batsmen. Hafeez was too - between 2005 and August 2010 his strike rate was 43.67 - but over the last 15 months he has lifted it to 62.41, in the process also ensuring that there's some aggression at the top of the order for Pakistan.

The others, though, have been rooted in defence. That isn't a bad thing for Pakistan, for their batsmen have often been accused of too much flamboyance in the past. Between 2005 and August 2010, the strike rate for Pakistan's top seven batsmen was 52.63. Only three teams - India, Australia and Sri Lanka - scored at a quicker rate. (Click here for the full list of teams.)

In the last 15 months, though, Pakistan's strike rate is the lowest among all teams, and about 15% lower than the earlier period. Their stickability is also apparent in their balls-per-dismissal figure of 98.42 - only England's top-order batsmen face more deliveries per dismissal.

Those are encouraging numbers for a team whose biggest problem used to be their brittle batting, but some of these stats are also a function of the venues and conditions in which Pakistan have played these matches. Of their last ten Tests, five have been hosted in the UAE, a couple in the West Indies, and one in Zimbabwe - all of them present conditions where it's relatively easy for players to bat long periods.

Top-order (Nos.1-7) batting stats for each team since Sep 2010

Team	Tests	Average	Strike rate	100s/ 50s	Balls/ dis	Dot-ball %*
Pakistan	10	43.72	44.42	7/ 31	98.42	78.23
Sri Lanka	12	37.41	45.25	9/ 29	82.67	76.97
West Indies	11	31.51	45.67	6/ 21	68.99	76.35
New Zealand	6	33.92	46.62	5/ 18	72.76	75.66
Australia	11	37.31	49.67	11/ 25	75.12	76.16
India	16	36.53	49.98	11/ 44	73.09	75.31
England	12	59.70	56.53	21/ 27	105.61	71.76
South Africa	6	55.42	58.24	10/ 7	95.16	69.13

* Is for all batsmen in the team

Pakistan's batsmen have been difficult to dismiss, but they haven't tried to impose themselves on the opposition bowlers: their dot-ball percentage is the highest of all teams. This is despite their relatively high average and balls per dismissals, numbers which imply there would have been periods when the pressure on batsmen was relatively low.

And the table below lists batmen with the lowest strike rates (with a cut-off of 500 runs). Expectedly, the list is dominated by Pakistanis, with three of them in the top five. Then there's Asad Shafiq too, with a strike rate of 38.07 in eight Tests so far.

Azhar and Misbah, batting at numbers three and five, both have terrific batting averages but have scored their runs slowly, while Taufeeq is another who prefers to go slowly. That's also reflected in Pakistan's tendency turn down challenging run-chases, but for a side which has had a bit of a history of collapses, they won't be complaining about a top-order line-up which prefers to play safe.

Meanwhile, another batsman who's among the slow scorers has been waging a lone battle for his team in India. Standing tall amid wickets falling at the other end is nothing new for Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and at the Feroz Shah Kotla he was at it again, scoring 165 out of 484 runs that West Indies scored in the match.

Chanderpaul has been doing this for a while now: since the beginning of 2007, he averages 66.40, which is third among all batsmen who've scored more than 2000 runs during this period. The average is higher than those for Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar, among others. And Chanderpaul has flourished in most places where he has played, averaging more than 60 in six of the eight countries he has played in during this period. (Click here for his career summary since 2007.) Among West Indians, Chanderpaul has scored more than 800 more than the second-highest run-getter, and close to twice the runs of the third-highest. He has often batted with inexperienced players at the other end, and with the opposition in control of the match. But Chanderpaul has survived all this for years, and looks good to last many more years.