Shafique's continued brilliance should stop Pakistan's opener pursuit

Since the beginning of 2013, Pakistan have tried as many as 15 openers in the longest format. While some had terrific starts, the others showed great sign of hope but none really demanded a place. Pakistan’s search for Test openers has been a long-standing battle, one that has seen several twists and turns. 

Abdullah Shafique, who turned 22 just a few months ago, has made a telling statement for his place with a measured 81 off 228 balls. While some openers are flamboyant and quite aggressive, most of the Test openers have sworn by the template of playing it safe. Pakistan needed the latter.

Abid Ali, Sami Aslam, Imran Farhat or even Ahmed Shehzad showed promise, but none of them managed to successfully defend the openers’ throne. While Aslam, Ali and Masood still have a chance of making a comeback, Shafique’s journey might very well be what the doctor ordered. 

Pakistan as a cricketing country have been predominantly known for their pacers, and in the recent past, for the likes of Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam. However, an opener well talked about, hasn’t quite happened in the last era.

The likes of Salman Butt, Taufeeq Umar and Mohammed Hafeez, have all been a strong presence in the telling case of Pakistan’s rich-opening legacy. Pakistan's selectors were saddled with the tough task of finding an opener made from the cut adorned by the previous era. 

Shafique enters the conversation

That is exactly where Shafique entered the Test conversation at the age of 21. Even though it was Bangladesh, and in Chattogram, he showed the selectors that he is for the long game. Battling 233 minutes of heat, sweat and raw pace, Shafique scored 52. It might not have been as rich as his opening partner Abid Ali’s 133, but it was exactly what was missing -- the determination to bat long. 

Since 2018, only three openers have scored more runs than Shafique – Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq and Shan Masood. However, none of them average as high as the 22-year-old, who tops the list at 84.33. Having said all of that, putting him on the same page with Masood, Abid and Imam is an achievement in itself.

Prior to the ongoing Test in Lahore, Shafique has played four Tests, two of which came against Bangladesh, in which across three innings, his scores were 52, 73 and 25. In all three occasions, he was dismissed via a simple plan of attacking the stumps. Someone who has been found out by Bangladesh, might not have been in the plans to face Australia, right? 

That’s exactly where Shafique has been a class act. He has shown batting technique, temperament and more importantly, the ability to switch gears when the going has been tough. In Rawalpindi, his dismissal against Lyon was well criticised, especially on a pitch that had not much on offer for the bowlers.

His shot-selection was under the spotlight, especially considering his dismissal came on the verge of lunch, where Pakistan almost went to the dressing room without a wicket lost. There was criticism, there was disappointment all over his face and it was evident. He walked off shaking his head, distraught, raging on his choice of shot. 

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What followed next was Shafique, Pakistan’s Test future

In Rawalpindi, he scored an unbeaten 136, albeit it being in the second innings where the Test had already been done and dusted and the rest of the innings was just a batting practice. He could do it on the flattest track in Pakistan, yeah, so could others, how does it make him different?

Pakistan’s famous draw in Karachi is always going to be attributed to the efforts of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, for their centuries but Shafique’s 465-minute of perseverance, toil of 96 would never be forgotten. Perhaps, that is the most important knock played by the 22-year-old till date and that coming in his seventh-ever Test innings, makes him special.

Here in Lahore, on the third day of the Test, where batting was tough, it required patience and grit, Shafique stood tall. He might be well under 6 feet, but against a tough attack like Australia’s, he was well beyond the 8 feet mark in a monumental display. 

In pursuit of Australia’s 391 on a surface that was tricky, batting 228 balls in itself is a big task but Shafique did not just do that, he scored 81, tonking 11 boundaries, toiling in the heat against a red-hot Australian attack. You wonder how tricky the surface was? On day one of this Test, in just the third over of the game, the ball from Shaheen Afridi kept low to send back Warner.

It was that sort of a batting surface in Lahore, there was runs on offer but it required the batters to show exquisite technique. Pakistan lost seven wickets for just 20 runs later in the day, it only goes on to point at how critical the 22-year-old’s knock was, his partnership with Azhar, one that contributed to more than 50% of the team’s total. 

Shafique is only 22, but he has already shown that he belongs at the highest level. And finally, for once, Pakistan have a youngster who could finally put their opening woes to an absolute end.