Two things became very clear after the conclusion of the 2015 Cricket World Cup — that One-day International (ODI) cricket was evolving rapidly in the Twenty20 era and that Pakistan was still playing as if it were the 1990s. The manner in which they played the game was akin to using an ordinary cell phone while everyone else around them was hooked on smart phones.

Needless to say, heads rolled along with a commitment made to bring about change. Fast forward to 2017 and we see a completely different team. They won the Champions Trophy in England and ended the year with a win/loss ratio of 2.0, their best since 2011. At the heart of these performances lies a core group of players who will hopefully serve Pakistan cricket for many years to come. They are young, fit and ideally suited to the modern game.

There is another man though, a veteran of 257 ODIs, who first wore the green cap in 1999. He often gets overlooked amidst this young exuberant squad. His name is Shoaib Malik. Not only has he remained relevant in the Pakistan squad, he is one of their biggest impact-players today.

Is the cricket changing Shoaib Malik or is Shoaib Malik changing cricket?

It wasn’t always this way. For a very long time, Shoaib Malik’s exact role in the team remained a mystery. He started out as an off-break bowler and eventually turned into a batting all-rounder. As a batsman, he batted at nearly every position but never cemented one as his own. He was also captain for almost two years. In the post-captaincy phase he was banned, dropped, picked again and dropped again numerous times until Zimbabwe’s arrival on these shores in 2015.

After the World Cup in 2015, there were calls for rebranding Pakistan’s ODI side, which now seems to be moving in the right direction. Shoaib Malik, since his comeback against Zimbabwe, has been the embodiment of this transformation. He has a role in the team now, the role of the enforcer, the man who gives impetus to the innings. His strike rate before his comeback series was 78.28. Since then he has batted at a strike rate of 100.98 (See Table 1).

This transformation is further validated by the rate at which he clears the boundary. Previously, he was hitting a six every 113 balls on average. Now he does so at least once every 33 deliveries. This is the kind of player that was missing from Pakistan’s batting lineup for quite some time. Yes, there was Afridi but by the end he was just a shadow of his former self. Ergo, Malik 2.0 was exactly what the doctor ordered.

To put his worth into context, his numbers during this period need to be compared with those of his teammates. Among Pakistani batsmen scoring 400 or more runs since May 2015, he has the second highest strike rate (See Table 2). If we only consider the batsmen scoring 1,000 plus runs, then Malik is clearly the best and by a good margin. And he has done it at an average of 55.23, second only to Babar Azam.

Another highlight since his comeback is the two Man of the Series awards which he has won, the joint most by a Pakistani player during this time. His stats are also quite impressive if compared against other international batsmen during this period (See Table 3). The list of batsmen scoring 1,000 or more runs during this time is an illustrious one, and Malik is sixth best among them in terms of his strike rate which is quite an impressive feat.

As a batsman, style is not what Malik is known for. When it comes to substance though, he has plenty of it. It doesn’t matter how he does it. What matters is that he is getting the job done. But cricket is a team game, and as a team Pakistan is still slightly behind the other top teams when it comes to their average run rate since the World Cup. This gap is closing though, and the other batsmen in the team will also need to improve their strike rates to continue the progress. In the meantime, Malik is fulfilling the responsibility of being the senior player in the side, and is setting a great example for the younger players to emulate.

However, it is not just his performances that garner appreciation. Malik seems a changed man now. Where once he was embroiled in controversies, today he appears to be a lot wiser, and is focused completely on his game. This may well be the last leg of his career, and he looks determined to make it count.

Published in Dawn, EOS, November 12th, 2017