If Pakistan are to get anywhere in this short Test series, their openers will have to provide them not just with runs, but time.
After his 50 for Pakistan A against South Africa in Sharjah, it looks likely that Ahmed Shahzad will partner Khurram Manzoor at the top of the order in Abu Dhabi for the first Test.
Runs will be a bonus, but eating up time and taking the shine off the new ball in these conditions will be the real target.
If they can do that, they will make life inestimably easier for those who follow and give Pakistan some sliver of hope.
Can they, though? It will be Shahzad’s debut if he plays and Manzoor will only be playing his tenth Test.
Against the world’s best pace attack, that does not right now feel like the cleverest move Pakistan could have made.
Whatever combination walks out on Monday will be Pakistan’s sixth different opening combination in seven Tests. Apart from brief periods of stability, it has been that way for as long as anyone can care to remember.
The decision to choose a second opener only after watching a couple of contenders in the Pakistan A game is symptomatic of the fickleness with which Pakistan have attempted to resolve the issue. “A bit confused,” is what Aaqib Javed politely called that planning. “There are three or four days to a Test match and they haven’t decided who the openers are,” the former Pakistan pace bowler and now UAE coach said. “That is one weak message they have given to the South Africans. From one innings, how can you select somebody?
“When you leave home, you should give a message to the players that ‘Look, you are the opener and we are going with you for the entire series’. That is the kind of confidence you need as a batsman.”
Many among those who have come have not been given that confidence, Taufeeq Umar lead among them.
His only real fault seems to have been to get injured at the wrong time (just before the South Africa tour earlier this year) and not being enough of a strokemaker.
Nasir Jamshed was given just two Tests, both in South Africa, before he, too, was dumped.
It is said he was told to rein in his more attacking instincts, a move which has reportedly shaken his confidence.
Mohammad Hafeez’s form was so poor, and his record against Dale Steyn so worrisome, that his exclusion makes a kind of sense. But his absence will now affect the balance of the XI and the bowling attack.
That might be the lesser concern if Shahzad and Manzoor do not work out.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
