'Confidence, backing is needed for any player' - Haris repays Hesson's faith

Mohammad Haris is forever going to be compared to his predecessor, even if their styles may be polar opposite. If he comes off, it's seen as a vindication in selection. If he doesn't, there's invariably going to be murmurs about why Mohammad Rizwan's experience ought to be used better.

Rizwan is more of an accumulator, while Haris is synonymous with intent, which brings with it the inherent risk of being hit-or-miss. But when he comes good, he can deliver the thrill. The problem for Pakistan has been that Haris hasn't been able to come good lately.

Since his century against Bangladesh in Lahore in June, Haris had a highest score of 15 in 11 T20I innings until Friday. He had crossed double figures only twice. All through this run, the pitches he largely played on - from Mirpur to Lauderhill to Sharjah - weren't exactly conducive to strokeplay.

Then there was also the issue of Pakistan struggling to use him effectively. During this string of low scores, he batted everywhere from Nos. 3-8, a yo-yo existence that further added to the scrutiny. His record against spin in this period was also beginning to look suspect - five dismissals in nine innings that fed into the narrative that more accomplished spinners like Kuldeep Yadav or Rashid Khan can work him out.

Yet, through this uncertain phase, one man had complete faith in Haris. Mike Hesson has only been in charge since June, but the shades of dominance he'd seen sporadically, both at training and during the occasional big knock like that century in Mirpur, gave him the belief here was a talent worth persisting with.

And against the ticking clock, on Friday, Haris delivered - a 32-ball half-century that promised much more, but ended on 66. It was, nonetheless, a knock on a slower-than-usual Dubai surface, which would have given him oodles of confidence.

The start wasn't pretty. He crawled to 16 off 18 as Pakistan were slightly hesitant in the first over. But Haris didn't panic, and he didn't throw it away. When left-arm spinner Aamir Kaleem, nearly 20 years his senior, came on, he launched him over deep midwicket with a slog sweep.

Then, he produced the shot of the innings - an inside-out drive over extra cover for four. Sixteen runs came off that over, the last of the powerplay, and with it, the mood shifted. From there, Haris found a gear that had been missing for weeks.

His next 25 balls brought him 50 runs, including a six that raised his half-century off just 32 balls. There was variety and audacity in equal measure. The short-arm jab off seamer Mohammad Nadeem showed he was adept at tackling bounce. With the off-side ring fortified, it was Haris' way of outsmarting the bowler, as he picked his spot slightly belatedly, but made a sweet connection.

Then the sweep off Samay Shrivastava's legspin second ball exhibited his power and game sense of targeting the shorter boundary. It was as much muscle as it was about game sense. After the game, Haris spoke of how much the innings meant to him.

"The confidence and backing is needed for any player," he said of the 11-match slump since his previous century. "The way the captain and coach, and senior players, backed me, I'm thankful to them. It's tough when performances don't come - there's a lot of criticism to deal with, but I took it positively."

Haris underlined the need to be flexible, but even by those standards, he cheekily took it to an extreme when he said he was ready to bat even at No. 10 if the team asked him to, impressing upon the need to be versatile. "I've been working hard with the batting coach, working on my calmness, and how to tackle spin," he said. "The seniors have been helping, giving advice. I wanted to use all that and deliver for the team."

For now, he has done just that. More than the runs, it was the manner of scoring, the intent, the composure, the sense of belonging that will encourage Pakistan. For a team bold enough to move on from the superstars under a coach keen on giving them a sense of freedom, Haris' knock was an inkling that the next-gen may be ready to lead the charge and deliver if persisted with.