Carlton and United Series 1996/1997

 

Pakistan won the Carlton and United Series trophy held in Australia featuring Australia, West Indies and Pakistan in 1997. Pakistan defeated West Indies in the best of three finals by a margin of 2-0. Shahid Afridi was declared man of the finals as he gave a superb all round performance in the finals against West Indies.

Pakistan defeated Australia thrice in the series defeating them in Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart. They were defeated thrice by West Indies in the tournament winning just once before the finals which was played between Pakistan and West Indies.

It was one of the rare series in triangular World Series in Australia in which Australia failed to reach the best of three finals played in Sydney and Melbourne. Pakistan ended with 4 wins out of 8 matches, West Indies 5 wins out of 8 matches and Australia 3 wins out of 8 matches.

In the end what I would like to say is that this was Pakistan's only win in World Series Cups played in Australia in so many attempts and years.

    

Pakistan's first ever test win against South Africa

 

Pakistan defeated South Africa for the first time ever in a test match in Durban in 1998. In that match Saeed Anwar scored a brilliant century in the second innings and Azhar Mahmood scored a superb hundred in the first innings. Azhar Mahmood had a brilliant series scoring a century in the first test at Johannesburg which was drawn.

Shoaib Akhtar for the very first time in Pakistan colours although he made his debut in 1997 against West Indies was effective bowling with plenty of venom, pace and reverse swing to take five wickets in the first innings in Durban test allowing Pakistan to take the lead against South Africa.

Then Mushtaq Ahmed bowled with plenty of guile and wizardly to bowl Pakistan to victory over South Africa in the second innings by narrow margin.

In the end what I would like to say is that Pakistan in those days were ranked amongst the top test playing nations in the world.

Shaheen Shah Afridi's captaincy.

 

Shaheen Shah Afridi is doing a pretty good job as captain winning three series out of four like winning against strong teams such as Sri Lanka 3-0, South Africa 2-1 and now against World Champions Australia 2-1 which was Pakistan's third consecutive win in ODI series against Australia winning in 2022, 2024 and now in 2026. 

His only defeat so far has come against Bangladesh in Bangladesh 2-1 which is not surprising as Bangladesh are almost invincible at home and have beaten not only Pakistan but West Indies, New Zealand and world champions Australia at their home.

Shaheen Afridi's real test of captaincy will come when Pakistan plays an abroad ODI series as all his wins in ODI series have come at home in Pakistan.

In the end what I would like to say is that if Shaheen Shah Afridi somehow fails to deliver as captain of the ODI team then Fakhar Zaman shall replace him as ODI captain in the future.

Saeed Ajmal - A magician off spinner

 

Saeed Ajmal was almost as good as Saqlain Mushtaq the inventor of doosra. He was a key member of Pakistan's World Cup Twenty20 2009 team which Pakistan won defeating Sri Lanka in the final at Lords. He had a lot of variety as a off spinner and along with his stock ball of off break he had a pretty useful doosra that bamboozled the opposing batsmen.

In the 2011 World Cup in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka he played a useful role in giving Pakistan a convincing win by bamboozling the West Indies batsmen in the Quarter Final played in Dhaka.

In the 2012 Test Series and 2015 test series played against England in UAE under Misbah ul Haq's captaincy he played a significant role in Pakistan winning the test series by margins of 3-0 whitewash in 2012 test series and 2-0 test series win against England in 2015 test series.

Saeed Ajmal was always ranked amongst the top most bowlers in a period from 2011 to 2014.

In the end what I would like to say is that had Saeed Ajmal's action not declared illegal for throwing by ICC he would have had a long lasting career.

Wahab Riaz - a lethal fast bowler

 

Wahab Riaz was a fast bowler of great skills, reputation, pace, bounce and reverse swing. He made his debut in the kitply series in 2008 against India in a match in which he proved expensive in that ODI. Then in 2010 series against England which proved to be a spot fixing test series involving three tainted Pakistani players Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Amir and Salman Butt he took 5 wicket haul in Pakistan's win at Lords test.

Wahab Riaz was known to be a replacement for Shoaib Akhtar prompting Shoaib Akhtar to retire from international cricket in the 2011 World Cup where Pakistan were defeated by India in the semi final.  Wahab Riaz infact performed well in that Semi final taking crucial wickets and fully justified his inclusion in semi final in place of Shoaib Akhtar.

His instant shot to fame was his over to Shane Watson in the 2015 World Cup Quarter Final against Australia. That over of Wahab Riaz's bowling is considered as the highlight of the 2015 World Cup which was held in Australia and New Zealand.

In the end what I would like to say is that Wahab Riaz could have achieved a lot more with his talent which lead to his premature retirement from the game.

Imad Wasim - An allrounder of great repute

 

Imad Wasim was an all rounder who was quite effective coming at No.8 in the batting order and a pretty useful orthodox spinner. He made quite a useful contributions coming down the batting order. He would often win matches for Pakistan with the bat coming in at No. 8 from tight situations. He was really a match winner as an all rounder performing well with both bat and ball.

He made his debut in 2015 in the away series match which was the second twenty20 international against Sri Lanka when he scored a six of the last ball showing Miandad like heroics to win the match against Sri Lanka for Pakistan. From then onwards he performed consistently well for Pakistan for a number of years.

He made useful contributions with both bat and ball in the Champions Trophy win in 2017. He was instrumental in Pakistan's success in the tournament.

In the end what I would like to say is that Imad Wasim had a tragic end to his career when Pakistan bowed out from the 2024 Twenty20 World Cup held in West Indies and USA in the first round.

Fakhar Zaman - a swashbuckling opener

 

         Fakhar Zaman is an opener with tremendous talent and he has the unique ability to strike the ball hard and score his runs quickly. He is a more team man than an individual player and he always plays for the team keeping in mind the team's interests.

He has the record of scoring the highest individual score of 210 runs for Pakistan breaking Saeed Anwar's Pakistan record of 194 runs that he scored against India in Chennai in 1997. Although Fakhar Zaman has this record against a weak team such as Zimbabwe we must give him credit for it.

Fakhar Zaman is a match winner and has an ability to score huge hundreds. In the Champions Trophy Final in 2017 against arch rivals India he scored a match winning hundred.

In the end what I would like to say is that Fakhar Zaman in the future should be made captain of Pakistan white ball teams if Shaheen Shah Afridi fails to deliver as captain.