IF anything the year gone by can be portrayed as a mixed bag of everything for Pakistan cricket. While their lack of wins on the Test fields of South Africa and Australia yet again endured painful memories, the huge disappointment was failure to make the knockout phase of the ICC 50-over World Cup in the summer. But as 2019 neared its conclusion, the landmark achievement from Pakistan’s perspective was the return of Test cricket back on home soil after a yawning gap of 10 years and nine months.

In between the action on the field of play, there were a couple of grief-stricken moments for Pakistan cricket with the sudden deaths of legendary spinner Abdul Qadir and ex-ICC elite panel umpire Riazuddin.

It is suffice to mention here the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) embarking on the new road by first implementing a new constitution, and then acting on it, the domestic restructure was revamped in rather contentious circumstances since the previous stakeholders — most notably the departments who were actively involved in national competitions but were sent packing on the stroke of a pen.

The obvious highpoint of 2019 was Pakistan at long last staging their home Tests in front of their own crowds, with the team that was victims of the terror attacks on March 3, 2009 ending that elongated drought. The Pakistanis have no words to appreciate the tremendous gesture of the Sri Lankans in the revival of the highest form of cricket here.

Therefore, Dec 11, 2019 now assumes as the date of significance magnitude in the annals of Pakistan sports when the first ball was bowled in a Test on our own turf when Pakistan and Sri Lanka competed in the first fixture of the two-match series at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi. And although rain and bad light badly disrupted the action, the enthusiasm of the fans in the garrison town was a salient feature, as accentuated by cricketing diehards thronging the stadium despite knowing a conclusion result had already gone.

The second Test at the National Stadium in Karachi provided a contrasting spectacle before Pakistan wrapped up a crushing 263-run victory to clinch the series 1-0. It was a game where Pakistan batsmen were in record-breaking mood and no one stood taller than the diminutive figure of Abid Ali. The 32-year-old opener came into the Karachi Test on the back of a unique world record, having scored an unbeaten 109 on debut in Rawalpindi to follow 112 in his maiden One-day International against Australia in Dubai nine months earlier.

Abid scored 174 in the second innings at Karachi to join a select group of players making hundreds in their first two Tests and along with fellow opener Shan Masood (135), captain Azhar Ali (118) and Babar Azam (100 not out) became only the second group of top four batsmen scoring centuries in the same Test innings.

Moreover, teenaged sensation Nasim Shah became youngest pace bowler at 16 years and 307 days to grab a five-for when rattled Sri Lankan batsmen in the second innings, while becoming the second youngest ever in the Test history after Pakistan spinner Nasim-ul-Ghani (16 years and 303 days versus West Indies at Georgetown in March 1958) to take five wickets in an innings.

Pakistan started the year disastrously when South Africa first hammered them by nine wickets in Cape Town to wrap up the series which began in Centurion during the last week of 2018 and then sealed to a 107-run win in Johannesburg to complete a 3-0 sweep. By the next series was played — 10 months later in November — Azhar had been appointed Test captain after Sarfraz Ahmed was shown the door, and ultimately dumped altogether from the team.

According to the PCB hierarchy, Sarfraz’s removal as T20 and Test skipper was because of the wicket-keeper/batsman’s indifferent batting form, although the real issue was Pakistan’s shameful 3-0 drubbing against Sri Lanka in early October. He was succeeded as the leader in the shortest format by T20 top-ranked batsman Babar Azam, who was also named to lead Pakistan until the ICC T20 World Cup, which takes place in Australia during the last quarter of 2020 (October and November).

And although Sarfraz has not officially been sacked as yet as the ODI captain by the PCB, it would be an irony of sorts because if it does happen, he would be probably be the first one to get the ultimatum after having led his country to six successive victories in the 50-over format. Four of those triumphs were at the backend of the World Cup — which were not enough to push Pakistan into the semi-finals for the first time since 2011 despite them and eventual finalists New Zealand finishing on equal points in the 10-team standings. The main cause of this calamity for Pakistan was their humiliating loss to West Indies in the opening game that served to ruin their overall net run-rate.

The World Cup rundown was a bitter pill to swallow from all angles because Pakistan had the capacity in the single league-formatted competition — where each side played against all other teams — to challenge the best. The penalty that Sarfraz paid was second the major talking point since the PCB had already made up its mind not to renew head coach Mickey Arthur’s tenure, at least until the 2020 Twenty20 World Cup. The South African was seen accompanying Sri Lanka during the recent Test series but that is another story.

Misbah-ul-Haq — country’s most successful Test captain — once again came on the big screen in the unusual — and almost unheard of — dual role of head coach and chief selector. Misbah’s journey has been rather bumpy. Starting with 2-0 series win over Sri Lanka and the T20 debacle — Pakistan’s first sweep on home soil — Misbah oversaw 2-0 loss in the Australia T20 rubber before Pakistan succumbed to massive defeats by innings in Brisbane and Adelaide.

Performance-wise, it was really a dismal tale for Pakistan, the Test win over Sri Lanka came on the backheel of four losses away to South Africa and Australia. On the ODI front, Pakistan were beaten as many as 15 times in 25 matches with the winning column showing just nine, while the world Cup fixture against Sri Lanka was washed out.

Pakistan were runaway leaders in the T20 International team rankings for a while but that has changed dramatically after they finished the year with only one win and eight defeats while the game against Australia in Sydney fell prey to rain.

On the batting front, Babar topped the aggregates in all three formats — scoring 616 runs in six Tests at 68.44 with three centuries, 1092 runs — one of six batsmen to cross 1,000 in 2019 — in 20 ODIs at 60.66 with three tons and six half-centuries and 374 in 10 T20 matches at 41.55 with four 50-plus scores. Shaheen Shah Afridi excelled as the standout bowler picking up 17 wickets (ave 29.00) in five Tests and 27 (ave 22.88) from 13 One-day Internationals with fellow left-armer Mohammad Amir claiming 23 in 15 one-dayers at 25.65.

In revamped domestic events, Central Punjab annexed the coveted First XI Quaid-e-Azam Trophy crown by defeating Northern, who completed a rare double by clinching both the First and Second XIs National T20 Cup trophies. While Southern Punjab were crowned winners of the Second XI Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Sindh also sealed a double in the under-19 tournaments (One-day and three-day).

Pakistan women’s team still has a long away to go on the international stage but they were heartened by PCB enhancing their pay and the central contracts. Their overall performance was just about satisfactory by their general standards when they reached the fourth spot in the 50-over ICC Women’s Championship after stunning West Indies with a series win and then sharing the rubber away to South Africa.

But the girls face a tough challenge soon after the dawn of 2020 when they travel to compete in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Down Under.

Pakistan cricket suffered two major and irreparable losses away from the field. On Sept 6, the nation was mourning the passing away of Abdul Qadir at the age of 63. One of the greatest exponents of leg-spin bowling, Qadir bagged 236 wickets in 67 Tests and another 132 from 102 One-day Internationals at a time during an era when such types of bowlers were considered ‘great risk’ for limited-overs cricket.

Qadir’s demise was preceded by that of Riazuddin on June 11 at the age of 60 years. One of the most respected of umpires in the international arena, Riazuddin supervised in 12 Tests and as many One-day Internationals between November 1990 and February 2002.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2020