Amid Pakan’s new ‘Bazball’-inspired approach, Saud Shakeel displays classical Test-match excellence

During Pakan’s four-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Galle, Saud Shakeel became the first Pakan batsman to score a double ton on Sri Lankan soil. In a match in which Pakan’s batting order made a conscious change to their approach, taking a leaf out of England’s ‘Bazball’ book and attacking with more intent, Shakeel displayed that he is capable of playing the situation and doing both – playing his shots and accelerating when needed, and putting a prize on his wicket while batting with the tail.
Shakeel’s first century came in 129 balls for the next hundred, he took 233 deliveries. He has his reasons because he was batting with the tail. After that exhilarating 177-run stand with Agha Salman, the diminutive southpaw added 52 runs for the seventh wicket with Noman Ali, and 94 runs for ninth wicket with Naseem Shah.
Following his double ton, former Pakan captain Rashid Latif dubbed him as the best batsman in the team after Babar Azam, and asserted the importance of first-class cricket in the development of top-quality batsmen, clamping down on the notion that franchise cricket is the only avenue to develop talent.

“He (Shakeel) should have been brought in the national team a few years early. Saud has played 59 first-class matches before he played his first Test,” Latif told The Indian Express from Karachi.
“We always say that we develop cricketers from the Pakan Super League (PSL), but Saud’s innings is an answer to all those cricket experts that ‘Boss, no, first-class cricket is important. PSL is doing it but you can’t deny the (importance) of first-class cricket.’”

Latif feels it is too early to predict the heights Shakeel would reach in his cricket but he hailed the youngster’s balance while playing the pace and spin.
“Those who are of shorter height like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Javed Miandad, their balance is always good because their centre of gravity is closer to the earth. They are good on front foot and back foot, they play both spin and pace nicely. Saud is good against both of them,” he explained.
The southpaw was also lauded former Pakan captain Inzmam-ul-Haq, who said on his YouTube channel: “Scoring in Sri Lanka is not easy. I liked his temperament. The value of this knock is so high, because we were five down. He never gave up. He played a match-winning knock. He never threw away his wicket, but he maintained his strike rate.”
Shakeel is enjoying a fine start to his Test career. The 27-year-old has scored 818 runs in 12 innings with an average of 90.88. His childhood coach, Muhammad Masroor, says he is now flourishing since the fear of failure is gone.
“The fear of being dropped from the team is not there. Against England, he just wanted to score runs and occupy crease; now he has got that confidence that he can take on the attack. It was good to see,” he told The Indian Express.