Finally Pakistan will take the field in a test match tomorrow. It has been a long wait since their last test series against Sri Lanka in June-July last year.

For the purists, this is Pakistan's ultimate test. They are up against the number one test team in the world, and one that has hardly lost a test series in recent times. Especially at home.

Pakistan are a team that has been on the rise in test cricket for the past two years. They have lost only two of their past 10 test series and only two of their last 18 test matches. This record includes leveled test series against Australia and South Africa.

Pakistan are ranked number 4 in test cricket, a ranking that they have achieved through a consistent run that has been second to none.

No other team has the sort of win % that Pakistan has in tests over the past 2 years.

The naysayers and doubters still don't acknowledge Pakistan's strong performance and the usual criticism is that most of their victories have come in the Subcontinent / Subcontinent type pitches and that they have played against relatively weaker opposition.

But the fact is that besides India, Pakistan have played against every single test playing nation since the summer of 2010, and except for a 3-1 loss to England and a 1-0 loss to Sri Lanka, Pakistan has either won or drawn all other series.

Additionally both the series that were lost were avenged at home when England were beaten 3-0 and Sri Lanka 1-0, with home being the UAE, which is not really home you know.

Whether those wins for Pakistan were easy or not, whether they came in home conditions or not; come tomorrow, none of it matters. This series against South Africa is going to be Pakistan's toughest one in recent times.

Pakistan have never won a test series in South Africa. Even the most optimistic Pakistan cricket fans are not expecting this fact to change.

But what we are expecting is a tough fight.

Pakistan will pose a significant challenge to South Africa.

They might even win a test match.

If they manage to draw the series, it will be like a win for Pakistan.

They are up against the world's number 1 test team, but don't forget that this time last year, Pakistan was also up against the world's number 1 test team. And we all know what happened there.

I expect this to be a cracking test series and I can't wait for the action to start in Johannesburg tomorrow! It is Graeme Smith's home town, it is Graeme Smith's birthday, and it is Graeme Smith's 100th test match as captain, which is a feat achieved by no one else.

The South Africans will be celebrating Biff's day tomorrow, and the Pakistanis are going to be trying their best to spoil the party!

With all its music, fast paced action and boundaries galore there is a lot to love about Twenty20 cricket but with every major cricketing nation now deploying their own domestic league along with the Champions League and T20 world cup, it seems that a game that only appeared under 10 years ago could be over killed just as quickly. Twenty20 cricket was invented to attract a crowd that were not necessarily cricket lovers. Shortening the game provided more excitement in a short period of time and hence attracted a larger number of followers. However the influx of money and fame that T20 has brought has taken the edge of Test cricket in a number of countries.

In just over two weeks, Pakistan will take the field to take on the world's number 1 test team. The last time that happened, Pakistan finished off the series with a whitewash - a 3-0 victory over England.

One can't really expect the same against South Africa in South Africa, a country where Pakistan has never won a test series.

Moreover, the current South African test team is probably the best test team they have ever had in their history of test cricket.

Smith, Amla, Kallis, De Villiers, Du Plessis, Alviro Petersen represent the strongest test batting line up internationally. Five of them are among the Top 20 ranked batsmen in tests, while the one who is not is only 4 test matches old and already has 2 centuries and 2 fifties in his 6 test innings.

Steyn, Morkel, Philander represent the best pace attack in the world currently, and arguably one of the best ever test pace attacks to play the game.

Steyn and Philander are the Top 2 ranked bowlers in tests, while Morne Morkel is at number 8.

That's a team with every single player in great form. No surprises then that they are the world's number 1 test team.

To say that this tour to South Africa is going to be a big test for Pakistan is a gross understatement.

It will be tough. It might even be a disaster. Pakistan could be whitewashed. Watching New Zealand fold in front of the South Africans, there can't be much hope for Pakistan's batsmen.

But there should be some in my opinion.

In Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah Ul Haq, and Asad Shafiq, Pakistan have a very stable batting line up. Add the ever improving Nasir Jamshed and the emerging Haris Sohail to the mix and Pakistan have a good problem on their hands in deciding their top 6.

Pakistan's test record in the past 2.5 years, during which they have lost only 2 tests, is second to none. The rise of batsmen like Azhar, Hafeez, and Asad, coupled with the experience of Younis and Misbah, has been a key reason behind the team's success.

The biggest contributor to this success though is Saeed Ajmal, the world's best spinner across all formats. He has single handedly lead Pakistan's bowling attack over the past couple of years and destroyed all teams that have come in his way.

England's demolition last year was largely due to their inability to read Saeed Ajmal, and his partner in crime, Abdur Rehman.

While South African conditions may not offer much assistance to spinners, Ajmal and Rehman are the sort of bowlers who don't require much help from the pitches. Their variety and guile are enough to trouble the best of batsmen across all types of surfaces.

Moreover, Pakistan finally have a potent pace attack. Once again it feels like a proper Pakistan team with attacking fast bowlers who can trouble opposing batsmen. They are worth every penny that you pay for to watch them; a sure treat on the eyes. I've heard fans talking about wanting to sell iPhones to go watch them bowl.

In Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Umar Gul, and the untested Ehsan Adil, Pakistan has its most dangerous pace attack since the 2010 summer when Aamer and Asif were running through the Australian and English batting line ups.

Adil is only 19, but going by his U19 and domestic performance during the past year, he has the potential take wickets in heaps in South Africa.

Pakistan's batsmen might find it difficult facing Steyn, Morkel, and Philander in their back yard, but I can assure you that Smith & Company will not find it easy to cope with Junaid, Irfan, and Ajmal.

I truly believe that it will be a well fought series. Tough to think of a Pakistan series win, but I am quite sure that they will compete well and give South Africa a hard time.

Pakistan is currently ranked number 4 in tests. The last time they played against the world's number 3, number 2, and number 1 teams the results were 1-1, 3-0, and 0-0 respectively.

The last time Pakistan played South Africa in a test series was in 2010 in the UAE, right after the England summer when the spot fixing scandal had destroyed the team's morale.

It was Misbah's first test series in charge of the team and Pakistan managed to hold South Africa for a draw in both tests.

For some cricket players, retirement is a time of uncertainty as many have spent their entire lives playing the game they love.  However, there is indeed life after the game of cricket as many players have proven.

Wasim Akram, Javed Mianded, Misbah Ul Haq, and numerous other critics of Pakistan cricket have lambasted Umar Akmal for the way he lost his wicket against India in the 3rd ODI of the recently concluded series.

Pakistan required only 43 runs in over 10 overs when Umar Akmal charged down the pitch and got stumped by Dhoni.

Irresponsible? Surely. Rash? Ofcourse. But was he solely responsible for Pakistan's inability to chase 167? Was Umar Akmal the only culprit in that failed chase? Definitely not.

Misbah has no right to criticize anyone after playing that innings of 39 off 82 deliveries and sucking the life out of Pakistan's chase

And yet here he is, and here we are, complaining about Umar Akmal and how he fails to finish games for Pakistan.

"When will he learn?", "When will he grow up?", "When will he become more responsible?", "When will he start valuing his wicket?", "When will he learn how to build an innings?", "When will he stop throwing away his wicket?"

These are the typical questions that everyone asks about Umar Akmal.

I wonder if everyone realizes that the boy is only 22 years old. Twenty Two! Do you remember what you were like when you were 22?

You really cannot expect him to be the guiding force of the Pakistan team. He is the one who needs to be guided continuously and taught the art of building innings, chasing totals, and setting totals from the likes of Younis, Misbah, and Hafeez.

Umar Akmal should only be a supporting act in a team that has a lot more experienced batsmen in the line up. He should not be the one who takes on the responsibility that the senior batsmen shy away from.

I really wonder why our fans have these unrealistic expectations of Umar Akmal. I also wonder if it is just because across the border there is one Virat Kohli, who has amassed a massive amount of ODI runs over the past two years.

Kohli is an exceptional batsman; the last time such a great batsman arrived in international cricket was probably two decades ago. To compare Umar Akmal to him is very unfair.

Also lets not forget that Kohli bats at number 3 for India, while Umar Akmal usually bats at 6 and occasionally at 5 for Pakistan. There is a huge difference between the roles of batsmen at 3 and batsmen at 5 or 6 in ODIs.

Don't you ever wonder what it would be like to have Umar Akmal walk out to bat at number 3 in ODIs? He has done it for Pakistan U19, he has done it for Pakistan A, then why not for Pakistan?

Why keep sending him lower down the order where he is either required to save the team from a collapse or press for quick runs in the closing overs of an innings?

Why not give him the confidence and the freedom to bat at number 3 and bat for as long as he wants in the manner that he wants? Why not give him some more responsibility? Why not put more faith in him?

It only makes sense to do this considering that everyone and their mother complains about Umar Akmal not being responsible enough.

Give him the responsibility and then expect it. Don't expect it from him in near impossible situations.

Enough of all this qualitative support behind Umar Akmal. Lets put some numbers out there and then see whether he really deserves all the flak that he has been getting or not.

71 ODIs. 2,001 runs at an average of 37.75.

That is not a bad record by any standards. In fact, it is an extremely good record. How many Pakistani batsmen have you seen average in the high 30s in ODIs? I can count them on one hand.

Lets compare this to other Pakistan batsmen in ODIs since Umar Akmal's debut, i.e. 1st August 2009.


Now you didn't expect to see this, did you?

Over the past 3.5 years since making his ODI debut, Umar Akmal is the second highest run scorer for Pakistan, has the 3rd highest average for Pakistan, has the 3rd best strike rate for Pakistan, and has the highest number of 50+ scores for Pakistan.

Despite all this, he is Pakistan's most irresponsible batsman, hasn't learnt, and is not fulfilling his potential. Really!? Do Pakistan fans and "cricket experts" have even an iota of rational thought behind their criticism?

Besides Mohammad Hafeez, and more recently Nasir Jamshed, no one in the Pakistan line up comes even close to the sort of performance that Umar Akmal has given for the team.

Yet people want him out.

Did anyone wonder why Umar Akmal was not in the team for the first two ODIs of the series against India? I mean you should have considering that his 10 ODI innings prior to the 1st ODI against India yielded scores of 21, 77, 28, 39, 36*, 3, 0, 55*, 52, 0.

I really do not think that those scores warranted a sacking.

So why really do our fans love to hate Umar Akmal? Maybe its the unanimous hate for that surname.

Indiscipline has often been used as an excuse by the team management, but which Pakistan star in the past has not been indisciplined? Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aamer Sohail, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahdi Afridi - they all have a history of indiscipline.

Not that this gives Umar Akmal a license to be, but he is only 22 for God's sake. He needs proper guidance. He needs to be given confidence. He needs to be given a permanent position at a certain position in the batting line up. He needs to be given a role and than he needs to be taught how to fulfill that role.

That is how you nurture a talent and make him achieve his potential.

Enough of all this criticism. High time that someone started managing Pakistani talent properly!

A series victory typically covers up a team's weaknesses as the focus then lies on how the series was won, which players performed exceptionally, and generally how good the leadership and management was.

The year 2011 was all about Pakistan's resurgence as a cricket team as we witnessed Pakistan go undefeated in all test series, reach the semi finals of the World Cup, and end the year with the best W:L ratio in ODIs and the second best in tests.

The icing on the cake came at the start of 2012 when Pakistan whitewashed the world's number 1 test team, England, 3-0 in the test series held in the UAE.

While 2012 had started with Pakistan clean sweeping the world's test champions 3-0, 2013 has started with Pakistan defeating the world's ODI champions 2-1!

Having lost ODIs to India in 2010 (Asia Cup), 2011 (World Cup), and 2012 (Asia Cup) and no bilateral ties between the teams, an ODI win over India had been a long time coming. Since 2009, Pakistan had not beaten India in an ODI, which makes this 2-1 series victory even sweeter.

I have discussed numerous reasons for Pakistan's success on Well Pitched in the past including Misbah Ul Haq, Shahid Afridi, the influence of Waqar Younis and Mohsin Khan, the non-interference of Zaka Ashraf, and a stable batting line up, among other things.

Here are three more reasons that have added to Pakistan's success in recent times, and more so in the just concluded ODI series against India.

1. PACE ATTACK IS BACK !

India's "world-class batting line up" was completely exposed by Pakistan's newly found new ball pair of Junaid Khan and the 7-foot tall Mohammad Irfan.

Gambhir, Sehwag, Kohli, Yuvraj had no answer to the pace, bounce, and swing generated by Junaid and Irfan throughout the 3-match series and were found wanting every time they were at the crease.

29-5, 95-5, and 111-6 are not the sort of scores one expects from an Indian batting line up playing on Indian pitches. In England or Australia, one might even think that its possible, but in India? Never have the Indian batsmen looked so helpless in front of any bowling attack on their own turf.

Virat Kohli, who amassed century after century for India over the past year and a half, and mauled Pakistan in the Asia Cup and the World T20, was left looking like a school cricketer by Junaid Khan.

Kohli managed scores of 0, 6, and 7 in the 3 ODIs and each time lost his wicket to Junaid Khan. Yuvraj Singh managed 2, 9, and 23; while Gautam Gambhir managed 8, 11, and 15. Virender Sehwag, who was dropped for the 3rd ODI, scored 4 and 31.

Pakistan's new ball pair has not looked as potent as Junaid & Irfan since the days of Aamer & Asif, which was over two and a half years ago.

From Wasim-Waqar to Shoaib Akhtar to Aamer-Asif, Pakistan have finally found two genuine fast bowlers that will trouble batsmen world over. Their combination has hurt India badly and from what we have witnessed, there is a lot more to come.

The wickets column might not look that bright for Irfan, but it has been his control and the pressure that he has applied from one end, which enabled Junaid to pick up all those wickets. They both worked extremely well in tandem and didn't provide any breathing space to the batsmen.


Junaid ended the 3-match series as the joint leading wicket taker with 8 wickets at an average of 12.4 and an economy rate of 3.67. Those are absolutely magnificent figures for a pacer on Indian pitches. The fact that he took as many wickets as Saeed Ajmal goes to show how effective Junaid was during the series.

Except for one, all of Junaid's wickets were of top order batsmen: Kohli (3 times), Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Rohit Sharma, and Ishant Sharma.

At 23, Pakistan have found a potent new ball weapon; and he has a great partner in Mohammad Irfan.

Here's hoping that neither falls prey to injuries, dope, or spot fixing!

2. OUR SPINNERS ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD

Saeed Ajmal is the top ranked bowler in the world in ODIs, while Mohammad Hafeez is ranked number two. With the world's two best ODI bowlers controlling the middle overs for Pakistan, any batting side will find it difficult to maintain any sort of momentum.



Ajmal and Hafeez are the ideal bowlers to come on after Junaid and Irfan have softened up the batsmen. Pakistan's bowling attack has once again found that magical combination of 5 attacking components where each one of them is a genuine wicket taker.

If Junaid or Irfan don't get you, Gul will. And if Gul doesn't, Ajmal or Hafeez will.

Pakistan is at its most dangerous when it plays attacking cricket, and its current crop of bowlers know no other way.

The quality of Pakistan's bowlers can be judged from the fact that Wahab Riaz, Anwar Ali, Raza Hasan, Abdur Rehman, and Shahid Afridi are not even a part of Pakistan's first choice bowling attack!

3. BEST OPENING PAIR IN THE MAKING

In Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed, Pakistan have found arguably their best opening pair ever.

No batsman has dominated Pakistan's opening slot in all three versions of the game the way Mohammad Hafeez has in the past 3 years. At the same time, no Pakistan opening batsmen has looked as dominating at the crease as Nasir Jamshed since days of Saeed Anwar.

And together, they have formed an explosive pair who have notched up 4 century partnerships in the past year - more than any other set of Pakistan openers. Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail, thought of as Pakistan's best opening pair ever, managed 3 century stands in 10 years.

In only a year of opening together, Hafeez and Jamshed have put on 760 runs for the opening stand at a phenomenal average of 84.4 in 9 innings. That is the 11th highest runs tally for a Pakistan opening pair, the highest ever average, and they also boast of the second highest ever opening partnership for Pakistan - 224 against India in the Asia Cup last year.

Not only are Hafeez and Jamshed one of the best opening combinations for Pakistan, they are the leading opening pair in world cricket in ODIs over the past year.


Most runs together, highest average, highest opening partnership, most century stands - Hafeez and Jamshed stand above all other opening pairs in ODIs. Better than Watson & Warner, better than Amla & Smith, better than Cook & Pietersen, better than Dilshan & Jayawardene!

It has been a great start to the year for Pakistan, however a bigger test, the greatest test in recent times, awaits them in South Africa. I believe that we stand a good chance to compete strongly against South Africa given the potency of our bowling and the increasing stability of our batting.

Pakistan's cricketing rise over the past two years is a story for the movie makers. This story was considered complete with victory over England last year, but this victory over India has made it all the more sweeter!