Pakistan must know what they want from Test cricket

There was some extremely exciting red-ball cricket played by a number of Pakistanis on the third day of the match Newlands test. It's an unusual thing to say for a day that featured some of Pakistan's worst selections, and a day that saw them collapse for 194, giving South Africa a 421-run lead and effectively extinguishing all hope which would break Pakistan's endless streak. losing run in South Africa.

But that aforementioned exciting cricket wasn't played at Newlands; it happened in karachi on the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (QeA) Final.where Sialkot defeated Peshawar by one wicket in a thrilling chase.

This year's QeA is a fitting example of Pakistan's relationship with Test cricket over the past year. In a year when Pakistan had its busiest home Test season this century, there was little information on when QeA would begin, or what format it would adopt. When it finally did start, it started on October 26, almost as late as any time in the last fifteen years. The format was also somewhat awkward, an extensive tournament with 18 teams played on a pool and triangular stage.

By then, five of Pakistan's seven home Test matches had already been played; the home season was almost over. September, the only window Pakistan had that wasn't packed with some international series, could have been spent preparing for the red-ball winter; instead, Pakistan, with much fanfare, organized a domestic ODI tournament, much to the bewilderment and frustration of then Red Ball coach Jason Gillespie. None of it, apart from the final, was broadcast live, although the PCB was diligent in providing regular updates. The QeA final, which clashed with the Newlands Test, did not exactly capture the public imagination.

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This World Test Championship (WTC) cycle is over. Yes, Pakistan have two Tests to play against the West Indies later this month, but none of that really matters. This series was supposed to take place around this time last year, but due to an overcrowded schedule this was not possible. Pakistan is eighth at the WTC, West Indies are ninth. This is a basement fight. The feast of the past six months will be followed by a prolonged famine; Pakistan won't play another Test until October, and only two in the next 14 months.

It's something their captain is Shan Masoodappointed in the early stages of this cycle, has called for change, but despite his short tenure, he is already Pakistan's great survivor of the past year. Pakistan's approach to Test cricket has been so wildly inconsistent that even an abundance of Tests – as we have seen this season – is unlikely to lead to better results. They started the 18 months of this cycle with one demolition of Sri Lanka away from home under coach Grant Bradburn and director of cricket MickeyArthur. The PCB called it “the Pakistan Way”, ostensibly a long-term roadmap for how they wanted to play Test cricket.

By the time the next series came about, Bradburn, Aruthur, the PCB chairman and captain Babar Azam had all been replaced and references to the Pakistan Way became increasingly difficult to find. Every encouragement she received despite a money laundering in Australia was wasted when they were the same Wiped out at home by Bangladesh. By now, of course, both the chairman and the coach had changed again, and Pakistan planned to prepare a pitch so juicy that they played an all-pace attack in the first Test.

Just two Test matches away from both Gillespie and Masood, indicating that pace at home was a strategy they wanted to adopt, both had their selection power taken away, and Pakistan played all-spin attacks at home against England on raging surfaces. Another month and another coaching change later, Pakistan were eliminated Shaheen Afridi – or made him sit out the Test series in South Africa to play in the Bangladesh Premier League – and played four medium-fast bowlers at Newlands, sitting Naseem Shah also for the record. (The official version that he had a stiff back is somewhat undermined by the fact that on the second day at tea on the practice pitches, a few strips away from the playing surface, he was bowling remarkably faster than all four Pakistanis who actually played ). Masood directly compared South Africa's pace to Pakistan's lack of pace after the series loss, not so much as a criticism but rather as a statement of fact.

In Pakistan, there is an existential crisis that runs through most adversities, a leitmotif that must be framed in terms of who is to blame, who can be fired, or who can be the savior. But a series loss in South Africa is hardly a sign of anything in itself, because Pakistan has lost almost every series in South Africa in every decade.

They couldn't have played against three fast and quality seamers like South Africa because they simply don't have them. Maybe they played Naseem, even though he wasn't exactly at the level of Kagiso Rabada or Marco Jansen in Centurion, and maybe they also played Noman Alialthough they don't have enough all-rounders to do this without weakening a vulnerable batting line-up. The result of the series was more of an endpoint than a precursor to the rather boring fact that better Test teams are more likely to win Test matches than worse ones.

Perhaps none of this really matters, as all indications from the PCB are that there are matters of greater importance to deal with. In recent months, the company has been working out the finer details of how it will organize the Champions Trophy. All three stadiums that will host matches are undergoing major renovations, with chairman Mohsin Naqvi repeatedly stating that construction work will need to take place “day and night” to ensure the venues will be ready on time. The PSL has entered a new window clashing with the IPL; virtually every day of the South Africa Tests, a new player signed up for the draft was enthusiastically announced via PCB media channels.

But Pakistan is not like some other cricketing nations, where people only care if it happens in a certain season, at a certain time or in a certain year, in a certain format or against a certain opposition. It is de facto a sporting country, where the official rule is that every match matters. While they look rather enviously at South Africa making plans to go to Lord's to play the WTC final, they know they are a long way from finding themselves in a situation where they too can realistically harbor such ambitions. For that, they will need to know what they want from Test cricket when the time comes again so that they don't waste it as wastefully as they have in this cycle.