Pakistan women’s cricket is undoubtedly a revelation that it is continuously evolving into strong and a talented line-up. Bowling was one of its most rewarding weapon in its armory, while fielding became a solid accomplice to the former. batting has been slow but a steady work in progress. New and young players bought in the hard-hitting tactics, while the senior players held the fort high to provide the team the consistency and a spirited approach it required.
In the 50-over format, Pakistan team had many players making invaluable contribution, but Javeria Khan, Bismah Maroof, Nain Abidi and Sana Mir topped the batting charts with them walk the talk and are at the helm of cricket affairs. Three of them (Mir, Javeria and Bismah) have also handled captaincy duties with ease and utmost diligence. Be it an attacking innings or in a condition to take it deep, these players left no stone unturned by being adaptable to every challenging situation thrown up to them.
Despite all its strengths, Pakistan lack a hard hitting and team effort when it comes to batting specially against top lineups like Australia, England, New Zealand. A concrete plan that is executable while facing such quality bowlers must be at their disposal in their future matches. One of the other reasons is promiting grassroots level cricket, that is how young players can be groomed to be better players. 2020, Pakistan women has gained in terms of its boards investment into their game, be it the national wide tournament with 4-teams that could nourish a pool of new players, central contracts for the National players and mentorship from the former players.
The batting at the national level is handled by some dependable who not only showcased their skill but also handed the team its own set of famous wins. Javeria Khan, Bismah Maroof, Sana Mir and Nain Abidi have contributed significantly to the batting like no other, unique in their approach and sharp in executing their skills.
JAVERIA KHAN
Javeria Khan took over the entire batting duties on her shoulder across both the formats, she tried to guard the team at one end to give the players at the other end to play their natural game. Not only this makes her a stalwart in her team but also striking big when it mattered the most.
In the bilateral series against South Africa in 2019, Javeria scored a match-saving 71*, when Pakistan ended the match with a draw. She set the base for the chase, when Alia Riaz razed down the total with ease. Javeria presence and her frequent strike rotation made sure the Proteas pace attack limit them to a meager total. Instead Javeria’s presence displayed her significance as a solid middle order batter. She built on the innings despite the opening pair didn’t contribute much and laid a platform for other players to launch and take the match deep and close to the target.
It gave the other batters confidence to end on a high note. This right-handed player is currently the highest scorer in ODI’s with a tally of 2693 runs against her name.
She ranks second in shortest format with 1826 runs. The 32-year old has scored Two hundreds and 23 fifties in a career spanning over 12 years. Her consistency, clean striking of the ball and smashing drives over the point and cover regions have helped Pakistan to win matches as well save itself from grim situations. With many more cricketing years left at disposal from the smashing cricketer, Javeria stands tall in being the savior and an exceptional cricketer one could embrace.
BISMAH MAROOF
The upright captain and a classy batter in the Pakistan team, Bismah is currently the second highest run-getter in ODI’s by rallying 2602 – runs until now and the top T20 batter with runs tally of 2397 runs in the shortest format. She is the only cricketer in her team to cross 2000 -run mark, with 11 fifties among them.
In the bilateral series against England in Malaysia hit a fine knock of 64 by making fine shots through the slips, fine leg and long on region. This made it difficult for the opposition to place the fielders as she targeted her strong areas and relied only on placement and timing of the shot. She was the lone fighter in the team, who struck hard despite the wickets toppling around her. Thus showing her stability and calmness during crunch situations.
Players in her team can take insights from this innings to take the game deep and not topple under pressure. Bismah in this particular match steadied her own innings in quick time and then started chasing the score despite less help offered by her fellow mates. This Lahore based left handed player is a handy bowler who picked 44 – wickets with an economy rate of 3.97 R.P.O in One day cricket. The leadership and the batting grit she exhibits in every series, has added to Pakistan new revelation to evolve as a quality team and to play united as a team.
SANA MIR
Sana Mir is the highly celebrated and the face of women’s cricket in Pakistan. The all-rounder’s career spanning over 15 years, she was a lone warrior who saw the team build itself from the scratch and she was a player who had to take over the responsibilities of bowling accompanied with the batting in the lower middle-order.
In the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Dambulla, Sana Mir starred in bringing the winning runs with a useful knock of 27-runs and 4-fer in the match. Sana shined in all departments. Sana came in to bat at the loss of the sixth wicket, when she had to take over the reins and keep the lower batting order away from mounting pressure. She struck three boundaries and rotated strike with ease, the experience came into play at that point and thus sealed the series for Pakistan.
She struck three fifties in One day Internationals with 1630 runs off 120 matches and scored over 800 runs in T20I’s. She was the anchor who bore the might of the lower batting order on her shoulders over a decade and over the years Sana just mastered the skill uprightly. She bowed out of International cricket by being at the top of her game and Pakistan women’s cricket’s future success will always cherish her selfless contribution to the game of cricket since its initial years.
NAIN ABIDI
Nain Abidi, might not feature in the list of eminent cricketers, but her contributions were at par with all the stalwarts in the team.
She was the first International centurion in ODI cricket for the Pakistan women’s cricket team. The century came up in the Ireland Tri-series in Dublin in 2012 against Ireland. Pakistan posted a good score of 254 runs, where Abidi struck nine fifties in her record knock of unbeaten 101*. In a career spanning over 11 years smacked 12 international fifties by scoring 1625 runs.
Though her entire career had its equal share of ups and downs, but it dint undermine her potential to be a solid middle order batter. When Abidi batted longer, it was meant to contribute abundantly as it was another batter who shined in a way adding another talented batter to the squad. Her presence at number three and five gave the team the stability and strengthened the middle order.
Her strengths in stitching partnership and steading the innings has reaped benefits like that of the imposing win in the tri-series against Ireland and Bangladesh in Dublin.
Batting has always been a worrying branch that gives the Pakistan team its own share of burden to deal with. A consistent batting will be a product of more, regular and quality matches against the top teams, this will take the game forward and help the team to grow from strength to strength.