Meet Saud Shakeel, the new rock in Pakistan's middle order

The one-sided Test series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka which concluded on Friday, July 28, may have gone somewhat under the radar, but it consolidated the stature of a certain Saud Shakeel as the new rock of Babar Azam & Co’s middle order.

The green caps outplayed a below par Sri Lanka on slow, low surfaces to finish an expected 2-0 sweep and get their campaign in the 2023-25 cycle of World Test Championship to a perfect start.

Much as expected as the win was, Pakistan rode on an allround performance from the team where the likes of opener Abdullah Shafique, Agha Salman and Shakeel showed their Test batting had more spine to it now than just Azam and Mohammed Rizwan. Shafique was patient during his career-best 201 in the final Test at Colombo, but the 27-year-old southpaw Shakeel led the charge early on in the series when he gritted his teeth for an unbeaten 208 at number five in the first Test at Galle.

The bearded, smiling visage of Shakeel – a Karachi boy who broke through in the Under-19 ranks in the 2014 Youth World Cup and then waited in the wings – is now being hailed as the next big thing in Pakistan cricket in Tests. It’s not without reason though for in the first seven Tests since his debut against England last year, he had shown character and a tremendous hunger for runs to amass 875 runs from 13 innings at an average of 87.5, which included two centuries and six fifties.

The 208 in Galle, which came under challenging circumstances as Pakistan had slumped to 67 for three, assumed historical proportions as Shakeel became the first Pakistan batter to score a double century on Sri Lanka soil. The previous best individual scores on the island were by Mohammed Hafeez (196) and Younis Khan (177). And for those statistically inclined, he also was the first from his country to score a double century in the first Test of an away series since Zaheer Abbas — the man they called the ‘Bradman of Asia,’ did it against England in 1971.

The quality of attacks that the likes of a Younis Khan may have faced in Sri Lanka has taken a dip in the current era, but Shakeel showed he had done his homework well to take on the home spinners. ‘’I have seen how Younis bhai played the likes of Rangana Herath then. Having been to Sri Lanka before, I knew what to expect and played according to the needs of the situation,’’ he said ina video twitted by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after first Test victory.

A big fan of Saeed Anwar — not surprising at all if you are a left-hander from Pakistan for the classy opener’s flair and gift of timing — Shakeel showed the cricket sense to adapt extremely well. He admitted to attacking in the initial stage of his innings in Galle to put the hosts on the backfoot (his first hundred came in 129 balls), while the second hundred took 223 deliveries when he fell back on singles and twos as the field were then spread out for the aerial shots.

‘’My strength has been to rotate the strike and I would like to build my innings that way. That’s exactly what I did in the second part of that innings. I must also thank Agha Salman for the excellent support he gave me,’’ Shakeel said.

Salman, an useful allrounder with his lower order batting and offbreaks, was adjudged Man of the Series following his innings of 132 not out, 83 and six not out and three wickets in the series.