Injuries increase problems for faltering Pakistan

Defeat against Zimbabwe at the Oval today could be fatal, both to their chances of further progress and the careers of several of their older players. A victory of the right sort might see them reinstalled as the side most likely to upset the two favourites, South Africa and Australia.

It is possible to peak too early in a World Cup and Pakistan look suspiciously as though they have done so. After four straight victories, including the ten-run win against Australia at Headingley that virtually assured their place in the second stage, they have lost three matches in a row. They need to stop the rot today to make certain that they will play in one of the semi-finals next week.

Yesterday, according to Zafar Altaf, their manager, they were considering an approach to the tournament's technical committee to replace Yousuf Youhana, the most seriously incapacitated of their four injured batsmen, with Mohammad Wasim. One of the less familiar of Pakistan's international players, Mohammad is good enough to have scored two hundreds already in his 11 Test matches and, incidentally, versatile enough to have stumped two batsmen off Mushtaq Ahmed last winter in separate Tests, on both occasions when Moin Khan was the official wicketkeeper. Yet the books list his credentials as "right-handed batsman, right-arm leg spinner".

Only 21, he is playing league cricket in England, but after Yousuf had come through a net session at the Oval yesterday without apparent difficulty, Zafar and Wasim Akram, the captain, apparently decided to stick with the players they have. No formal approach had been made by yesterday evening to the arbitration panel of Jon Carr, Clive Hitchcock and Doug Insole.

So far no replacements have been requested by any side. Once a player is declared injured and replaced he cannot reappear, so the caution is understandable. Yousuf made 81 against Scotland, but the innings that made people blink was his 29 off 16 balls before being run out against Australia.

That Pakistan could afford to leave out Mohammad in the first place would surprise the Zimbabwe team, against whom he scored 192 in the Harare Test in March and followed up with a rapid 76 in a subsequent one-day international. Mushtaq Ahmed has lost his fizz after too much bowling and the weather and pitches have not yet produced conditions to suit him, but by their very absence both men illustrate the box of colourful talent from which the puppet-masters of Pakistan cricket seem to be able pull new performers capable of shining on the world stage.

The impression is that they come from the streets, but most, such as the young successes of this campaign - Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Azhar Mahmood and Abdur Razzaq - do come through the main domestic competition, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

Pakistan expect Inzamam-ul-Haq, Moin and Ijaz Ahmed to be in the XI today, despite the fact that each of them damaged a hand during the 47-run defeat against India on Tuesday. Inzamam sustained his cut index finger taking a brilliant slip catch and he was not his normal destructive self (either with the bat or running between wickets) in the run-chase that followed.

Pakistan need him to be at his powerful best today - he is their leading run-scorer with 218 from his seven innings - because Ijaz has managed only one fifty and Salim Malik has looked out of touch and luck. The key men once more will no doubt be the amazingly adaptable Moin (223 runs from 190 balls so far) and the incomparable Wasim, who will already have marked out Neil Johnson for a special ball. Wasim is well aware that Zimbabwe cannot be underestimated.

June 11, 1999

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