Thirty Pakistan Under-19 players fail to beat India juniors

KARACHI: It seems strange that, just seven months ago, the Pakistan team had retained its Under-19 World Cup cricket title in a final that simply turned out to be an incident only the wildest fairytales are made of. After it had looked like — when they crashed to a pathetic score of 109 while batting first — that they had handed the match to arch-rivals India on a platter, Pakistan had their opponents dismissed for a mere 71 and went on to win by 38 runs!

On Sunday, the Pakistan Under-19 team had suffered a reversal of fortunes exactly in the opposite direction. The touring India Under-19s played six matches on their trip to Pakistan — two four-day ‘Tests’ and four limited overs games — and the home side was defeated in each and every one of these matches.

The ‘Tests’ were lost by huge margins. India won by 217 runs in the first one at Rawalpindi’s Pindi Cricket Stadium and beat Pakistan by an innings and 240 runs in the second four-dayer played at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar.

The margin of defeat in at least two of the one-day matches was overwhelming. Pakistan lost the first one at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium by 82 runs and the third encounter at Lahore’s Bagh-e-Jinnah Ground by a massive 174 runs.

The Pakistan Under-19s made a match of it in the second one-dayer at the Sheikhupura Stadium when they eventually lost by only seven runs. In the fourth and final match at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday, India emerged victorious by four wickets.

What really went wrong during the junior series that’s just ended? Whatever happened to the excellent trio of pace bowlers that the Pakistan Under-19s had put together in the Under-19 World Cup played in Sri Lanka last February? Why weren’t some of the leading players retained from the victorious squad to play in the recent matches against India?

Apparently, the national junior teams selection committee did show faith in some of the young lads from the World Cup, but only three of that outfit were given places against India. Opening batsman Mohammad Ibrahim was made captain of the Pakistan team for the two four-day games. Left-handed all-rounder Imad Wasim appeared an automatic selection in view of his growing stature in recent times.

But middle-order player and off-spinner Riaz Kail, who had emerged as Pakistan’s leading batsman at the Under-19 World Cup, couldn’t get into the eleven at Rawalpindi. He managed that at Peshawar and was then made captain of the team for the one-day series.

But nothing went right for Pakistan throughout the rubber against the India Under-19s. And the selectors’ “revolving door” policy made matters worse. In the six matches, as many as 30 players were awarded caps. Most of them failed miserably and were immediately axed. Others never got the opportunity to establish themselves and play like a well-knit team.

According to a news report, coach Mansoor Rana was furious at the attitude displayed by the national selectors. He laid the entire blame of the team’s poor performance on the panel. “To wear the national cap was a dream in the past but the selectors distributed these prestigious caps like sweets among their favourites,” said Mansoor, who was also the Pakistan coach at the Under-19 World Cup.

He thought the series against India turned into a joke due to the selectors’ non-serious attitude. He was also critical of the procedure that players from the recent Inter-District Under-19 Championship and the ongoing Inter-Region Under-19 Championship were chosen, whereas the selectors should have picked “at least four more of the World Cup representatives” as suggested by the coach.

Of the 13 boys to get into the playing elevens in Sri Lanka last February, only two — batsman Rameez Raja and wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed, who was captain of the team — have crossed the age limit of 19. Most others have still not turned even 18 years old!

The pace bowling triumvirate of Akhtar Ayub, Anwar Ali and the left-armed Jamshed Ahmed was simply magnificent in the World Cup final in Colombo. Karachi Anwar was the match-winner with figures of 5-35 from his nine overs. Akhtar bowled 2.5 overs to take 3-9 while Jamshed got 2-24 from seven overs.

Of the 52 wickets picked up by the Pakistan bowlers in the tournament, these three collected as many as 39 combined. Anwar Ali took 15 at just 12.66 runs apiece, Jamshed bagged 14 at a mere 11.78 and Akhtar’s 10 cost him 14.70 runs each.

All three pacemen could easily have played against India Under-19s in the recent series. Anwar Ali is the eldest among the trio and, on Monday, he turned only 18 years 304 days old. Left-handed opening batsman Nasir Jamshed, now one of the more prominent players on the domestic circuit, is still just 16 years 293 days of age.

Similarly, batsmen Ali Asad and Ali Khan too could easily have been accommodated in the Pakistan Under-19s line-up. Batsman Mohammad Laeeq and off-spinner Usman Malik too would have been available. Instead, the national selectors handed out caps to whoever they liked; some came into the various teams on merit, others were simply lucky to have been there in the first place.

The only two players who managed to hold on to their places in all six matches against the India juniors were Imad Wasim and pace bowler Mohammad Naved. Both, naturally, turned out to be the more successful players among their other teammates.

Imad, born in Swansea in Glamorgan (Wales) on December 18, 1988, eventually captained Pakistan Under-19s in the fourth one-dayer of Sunday. He is a stubborn left-handed batsman in the lower order and an effective slow bowler. At Sheikhupura, where Pakistan just fell seven runs short, he took 3-56 in 9.5 overs and scored an invaluable 62 off 72 deliveries.

In all six matches, he picked up 10 wickets at 33.60 runs each. Naved from Lahore captured 14 wickets at 25.71 runs each, taking 5-118 in the four-day match at Peshawar where India ran up a massive score of of 611-9. Six of his wickets came in the four one-dayers, at just under 23 each, and his economy rate was an impressive 3.51 runs per over.

The less said about the others, the better. Of the original squad for the two four-day matches, batsmen Zeeshan Jamil and Ali Waqas, pace bowler Adil Raza and leg-spinner Shahzaib Ahmed Khan were not provided any chance to play but several others turned out to be more fortunate in the sense that they at least got onto the field.

Five changes were made in the ‘Test’ team for Peshawar from the one that played in Rawalpindi. In came Shan Masood, Moin-ud-Din, Riaz Kail, Jahanzeb Abdullah and Junaid Khan in place for Saadullah Ghauri, Syed Fawad, Nayyar Abbas, Abdul Rauf and Rahatullah.

The six retained in the line-up were skipper Mohammad Ibrahim, Ahmed Shahzad, Behram Khan, Imad Wasim, Raza Rehman and Mohammad Naved. When the team for the first two one-dayers was annnounced, only seven players stayed on while nine fresh ones were included.

Ibrahim, Jamal Anwar, Fazal Subhan, Moin-ud-Din, Riaz Kail, Faizan Riaz, Kamran Hussain, Imad, Tanvir Afzal, Zaheer Abbas and Naved played in the first limited overs match. Saadullah Ghauri, Mohammad Nawar, Osama Niazi and Ahmed Iqbal replaced Ibrahim, Moin, Faizan and Kamran in the next one.

Rana Adnan and Raza Rehman came in the place of Nawar and Zaheer in the third game and there were five changes for the last match — Mohibullah, Junaid Malik, Zaheer Abbas, Usman Salahuddin and Zeeshan Mushtaq — as Saadullah, Fazal, Riaz Kail, Osama and Ahmed Iqbal were shelved.

Apart from Riaz 83 and Moin-ud-Din 53 in the Peshawar ‘Test’ and Imad’s 62 in the Sheikhupura one-dayer, no other player scored a half-century. Naved took 5-118 in Peshawar and Riaz 4-42 in Sheikhupura; throughout the two series, no other bowlers got more than three wickets.

The only four players to appear in all four one-day matches were Imad, Naved, pace bowler Tanvir Afzal and wicket-keeper Jamal Anwar. Bannu’s little known batsman Mohammad Nawar and Pishin’s left-handed all-rounder Mohibullah were two glaring examples of the dreaded “quota system” being put into operation to appease the country’s smaller cricketing districts.

It’s obvious that the selectors never even bothered to try and put Pakistan’s “best” team into the field of play. Most of those who got a chance were either not good enough or didn’t have a proper run to show their true worth. Let this be a lesson for the selectors’ panel for future series to come.

Too much chopping and changing. How can a player prove himself in one match.

Still suprises me to why only 3 of the u-19 team played against India!

Not all the players are in the 'A' team yet!

i wont read too much into this... India have often performed admirably at the under 19 level... won the world cup a couple of times and been finalists periodically. yet, few of the players who represent india at the under 19 level ever make it big. infact, of all the players in the current indian team who at an junction participated in the under 19 version of the game, only one: Mohammed Kaif is current playing for the seniors team. hence, if anyone fears that this is a suggestion of things to come. i.e. the future of pakistan is bleak and that of india bright, not quite so. i think both countries will continue to produce quality cricketers for years to come and both will remain top level teams in the future.

this under 19 cup is just an endevor to give some noobs exposure to the big times.

I saw a bit of last match. and commentators were saying (and it looked as well) that Pakistani U19 players didn't have any experience at all for that level. They were having difficulty playing spin bowling. And they are just blocking or try to hit six, nothing else. No roatation of strike or anything. Block or jsut go over the top.

The Indian u19 team was very experienced at that level, most of them had played multi-nation tournaments including the world cup. In contrast only 3 of the Pakistani team had survived from the last world cup.

To be honest this tournament smells of the bad old days when VIP's sons were given games for bribes.

What happend to the guys who took part in U-19 world cup finals ?

Read the article and you'll know

Thats one hell of a long article!

this guy is usually rubbish but makes good points in the article

Easier for you to say...cause your team is not the World Champion for the last two times!

and India champions couple of times?

I don't know who the write is but he is absolutely spot on, i was almost shocked to see the squad before this series. It wasn't only about Jamshed, Anwar Ali and Ayub, the others selected players had absolutely no experience(bad overall averages), most of them had only played 5-10 domestic matches and surprisngly some of them hadn't scored a century or even a 50 in their careers.

many of under 19 player were missing, so noting to worry about... but still indian is playing better cricket at the moment

who are the under 19 selectors?

Not so long a go Pakistan used to find exceptional talent from under 19's e.g Afridi, Razzak,Danish just to name few.But last five to six years nothing of note coming in to the senior squad or most disheartening thing is not even in Pak A team.Tried and tested failures like Misbah-ul haq ,M.Khalil etc.

The sad thing is the bowlers who looked so good (anwar ali, Akthar Ayub and Jamshed) are not only getting the chance to play U-19 cricket they are also not getting into the A side.

Two U19 world cup winning squad and nothing to show for it in senior pak squad .