Perhaps it really was Pakistan cricket’s foresight to ensure Abdullah Shafique would be in the Caribbean this time of year. That Shan Masood would break a finger, or Abdullah Fazal end up suffering a back injury on the eve of the first Test. For on the day that a rearing Jayden Seales delivery dislocated Masood’s finger, Shafique was also in the region playing cricket, about a 90-minute flight from the Test match in Tarouba.
That cricket, though, came in the form of a Global Super League match, where Guyana Amazon Warriors took on Shafique’s Lahore Qalandars. He looked good, driving the ball crisply and lofting it cleanly during his innings, but he was out soon. He scored 20. His side were run through for 111, losing by 53 runs.
But maybe for the team that just dropped Mohammad Abbas four days on from him taking eight wickets in that same Test match, it might be easier to accept no 4D chess was actually being played. Shafique hadn’t played Test cricket for Pakistan since last October, missing their tour of Bangladesh, and going unnamed in squads for the ongoing series, as well as the upcoming three Tests in England. There was no expectation he’d be involved, which is, after all, why he was given an NOC to be able to play the GSL.
Instead, as Pakistan find themselves, improbably, in a position of control in the second Test, they may be thankful to a rare luxury they possess in an environment where it can often feel cricket is just being stripped for parts. While Pakistan run out of pace bowlers or struggle to find a Test spinner born this side of the century, in Shafique they do possess a batter the height of whose ceiling they need not worry about. He may have fallen down the pecking order because that ceiling has not been realised for some years now; there was a time when he found himself on track to become the fastest Pakistani to 1000 Test runs, only to average 28.7 in in his previous 32 innings.
But Shafique’s natural suitability to this format meant he could cover for the non-ideal preparation to this second Test. When he walked out to face Shamar Joseph, the series’ quickest bowler, and got on top of a short delivery to neuter its threat, it was the first competitive red-ball he had negotiated in eight months, having played no first-class cricket of any kind since December. When the second ball took the inside edge, it was an exceptionally rare error, one of just 15 deliveries across the 185 he faced he wasn’t in full control of.
Opinion on Pakistan cricket has splintered and broken down on many occasions, but one relatively unifying thread is the notion that Shafique, of all batters, cannot thrive in the system; that system may – to use a term currently in vogue in the country – have collapsed. The last two sessions in Port of Spain demonstrated why so much store is set in a batter viewed as the most elegant ball-striker and natural batting talent in the country apart from the man he was forging that behemoth third-wicket partnership with.
While Azan Awais lashed at pace, Shafique absorbed that pressure, and then began to work over Jomel Warrican, ensuring he would not be allowed to feel as comfortable as Pakistan’s spinners did when they bogged West Indies down. He flicked the first ball of his over away when the bowler went too straight, and from there never let go of the control of that contest. He began Warrican’s following over with an expansive sweep to square leg to push him off that line. Consequently, Warrican went wider, which allowed Shafique one of his signature shots to spin; he used his feet and went inside out, lofting him over the off side for sixes in each of the two overs that followed.
As Babar Azam took over from him at the start of their partnership and West Indies tailored their plans around the Pakistan captain, Shafique was allowed to build his own innings in the background, absorbing pressure from Joseph and picking his targets. Kemar Roach’s return offered one such release point; a pair of majestic drives – one through midwicket, the other down the ground – brought up his half-century, just his third in his last 18 innings.
Of course, Pakistan’s penchant for collapses as a Test wears on is received wisdom by now, and so much of the hard work lay ahead of them, but for Shafique, the bigger hurdle had been crossed. In these wilderness years that have seen him massively underachieve on his promise and talent, it is getting started that has tripped him up. In his last 35 Test innings before this one, he failed to reach 20 on 25 occasions. Once he gets past 45, he has converted it into three figures on half of those occasions.
The only time that landmark appeared in any doubt came late in the day on 99, when Warrican tried to work him over by squeezing him down the leg side. But by now, patience was not a problem. He waited till he dragged one short, and it came off the final ball of the over. It was pulled through midwicket, the ball barely connecting, and Shafique let out a roar as full of relief as it was triumph.
So as Shafique and Babar, one of his most vocal backers in this setup, began to knock off the West Indies’ lead, Shafique no longer looked the vulnerable nearly-man that has been his reputation ever since that bright start fizzled out. But it required a serendipitous combination of availability and geography that allowed Shafique to make his way back into a setup that had nearly cast aside what should have been a certain long-term investment. Players of his ilk have frequently slipped through Pakistan cricket’s profligate cracks before, and as Shafique’s slightly wild celebration demonstrated, it could just as easily have happened to him.
