Pakistan is recovering in the test arena

After the dismal loss to Sri Lanka at home, Pakistan is recovering in the test arena. West Indies snatched a controversial victory in the last hour in the 3rd test to claim the series and Pakistan thrashed Muralitharan and co 2-0 in Sri Lanka. The latter result stands out more so when you compare this to Sri Lanka handing South Africa their first innings defeat since entering test status.

It is a frustrating task following a team like Pakistan. Despite captaincy problems, management issues, injuries and above all the betting scandal they are still hanging onto the unofficial 3rd best team slot. Barring the West Indies and Australia, Pakistan has never lost a test series away from home since 1982. This is quite an achievement considering their dismal home record where the last time they won a series was their 3-0 romp against the Windies in 1997.

Miandad and Moin are proving to be a good alliance for Pakistani cricket. Their only glitch being the recent dismal Singer tournament defeat. Personally I have never compared ODI results with Test matches, as they are not a good guide of judging a team's true form. There will be 14 (or a possible 17) ODI's until November which maybe used to test out the young players.

In the last season the team has been in a transitional period as old batsmen were phased out. Amir Sohail, Salim Malik and Ijaz Ahmed will not probably feature again as youngsters are being given lots of chances. Imran Nazir and Younis Khan are part of the squad now with Saeed Anwer, Inzamam and Youhana forming the batting nucleus. Inzi was given a kick when he was dropped for the home ODI's against Sri Lanka at home this year. He was not looked back since and features in the top 3 slots for runs scored in both forms of the game. Likewise Youhana also has impressed in both forms and has established himself as a key player within relatively little time.

A big question mark is the status of Shahid Afridi. He has tagged along the team as a slogger cum leg spinner for the last 4 years in ODI's and has not progressed since. Pakistan is probably the only team in the world who would have stuck by this batsman for such a long time. To his credit Afridi has always delivered when thrown into a test match but then pulled out when it suits the selectors. Quite clearly Afridi has still got a temperament problem when it comes to batting and his shot selection is like playing Russian roulette. My suggestion would be to quit toying with him and get Mr Miandad to iron out his deficiencies.

After Imran, Wasim has had to fulfil the role of the team's all rounder. Barring the odd brilliant innings, strictly speaking Wasim has always performed as a frontline paceman for the team. Recently his batting has improved in test matches since the captaincy was taken off him. Now, Pakistan does not have one but two very promising allrounders in the team. A lot of credit goes to the selectors for playing both Abdur Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood from a young age. Razzaq was a revelation in the last world cup where, Wasim took advantage of his good orthodox batting technique and used him as a one down batsman to see off the new ball. Azhar is an excellent stroke player who will improve with time given the right responsibilities. Both players are bowlers who make good use of the seam and would feature in most of today's teams.

Apart from Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood, Wasim should carry on playing in test matches for a few years subject to his diabetes problem. Waqar the old warhorse relies on his rhythm for bowling and not his old frightening pace. So far he has been a brilliant backup when others have been injured in the last few seasons and he has to contend with judgements that he's passed it. It is very hard to ignore such an experienced player but will find it tough to compete with the younger generation of fast bowlers.

Whatever happened to Mohammed Zahid is a mystery. He had an excellent debut as he took 11 wickets in his first test match against the Kiwis at home. During the Benson and Hedges series 96-97, he was judged to be the fastest bowler at the time and he secured a contract with Nottinghamshire to play in the county set-up. A back injury ruled him out of what could have been a dream start for him and since then he has been unable to recover. Shoaib Akhter has also been having some problems, which he seems to have overcome as he was getting attention by doctors in the UK and he is now available for the Sahara Cup. I believe he will be injury prone as long as he persists with his outrageous run up. Shabbir Ahmed has been cleared after ICC deemed his action illegal. He is a promising youngster in the mould of `Big Bird' Joel Garner. Given the right attention and experience he might possibly be a great future prospect.

The spin department seems to have coped without Saqlain's services in the last series as Arshad Khan despite all raised eye browses, performed very well. Mushtaq is a shadow of his old sense and seems to have lost his zest and zip. Despite several chances to regain old form, he is probably in danger of being discarded and the only factor of his selection is that Pakistan for the first time in several years does not have a quality leggie.

The next test series is at home against England in October. Last time round the Shakoor-Gatting incident overshadowed a 1-0 win by a Javed Miandad led team. The only remaining player from that team is Wasim Akram. It will be an interesting series with Pakistan being the favourites, despite their abysmal current home record. England on the other hand are still in the process of rebuilding confidence and trying to get into a winning routine.