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Magazine
PAST & PRESENT
The gentle giant
RAMACHANDRA GUHA
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Inzamam has done enough to be ranked the best Pakistani batsman ever.
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Patriotic Indians were delighted when Shane Warne ranked Sachin Tendulkar at the very top of the 50 best cricketers he had played with. But some Australians were puzzled that Warne had ranked the wicket-keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist so low (at number
20, whereas the vastly inferior Ian Healy was placed at number 10), and his former captain Steve Waugh lower still (at number 26, a full 14 places behind his lesser gifted brother Mark). In the flurry of press commentary on Warne’s list, however, I cannot recall anyone noticing the astonishing omission of the Pakistani batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Haq and Warne are near-contemporaries; they both made their international debuts in the Australian summer of 1991-2. In disregarding the claims of Inzamam, the leg-spinner might have been influenced by the World Cup final of 1999, when he dismissed the Pakistani early on. But perhaps he should have scratched his head and gone a further four years back in time, to a Test in Karachi, when Inzamam took his side to an unlikely one-wicket win against Warne at his best, and batting with only the tail for company. There would have also been other times when Warne either saw, bowled against, or read about match-winning innings’ played by the burly Pakistani. In any roster of modern batsmen, Inzy would be at the very top, alongside Sachin and Lara (whom Warne ranks number 2).
Flawless performance
The last time I saw Inzamam in the flesh was in a Test match in Bangalore. It was his one hundredth Test, and he was captain of Pakistan to boot. The match got off to an electric start. Irfan Pathan winkled out the Pakistani openers, and Inzy was at the crease within 15 minutes of play. He played right through the first day and through much of the next, taking the match away from the Indians. The fast bowlers were guided past point or picked off his legs, the leg-spinner Anil Kumble cut past slip or driven through the covers. It was a near-flawless innings, a magnificent display of character as well as technique. And it took his side to a total in excess of 500, from where they went on to win.
My admiration of the Pakistani giant, however, is based principally on what I have seen of him on the box. I have watched him win other Tests for his side, often from very difficult positions, and win many one-day matches, often against the old enemy, India. No batsman is better at assessing the state of a match, at knowing when to defend for dear life, when to attack away like the blazes, and when to judiciously mix caution with aggression.
When Inzamam first burst on the scene, during the World Cup of 1992, his captain Imran Khan claimed that he was a better batsman than Tendulkar. The remark was dismissed as hyperbole; but if Inzy is not quite as good as Sachin, he is still a truly great batsman. Perhaps Tendulkar is better at dominating the bowling. However, in a tight corner, and especially when batting with the tail, Inzy has the edge. Sachin bats in three gears; the first, or the fourth, or the fifth. Inzy can use all the angles of the stick shift. He usually starts slowly, accelerating the pace of his innings notch by notch. And he can be brutal when necessary.
Different temperaments
Of course, in some areas of the game Sachin is clearly superior. Inzy can scratch around in the early stages of an innings. And he is a lousy runner between wickets. He misses many singles, often runs himself out, and more often still runs out his partner. (In contrast, Sachin is a masterly judge of the short single, and even better at converting ones into twos). But, like his Indian contemporary, he has a solid defence and a marvellous range of shots. He can drive, cut, pull, glide, and loft, off front foot and back. And like Sachin again, he has no discernible weakness — for, he can murder slow bowling, and fast bowling too.
The comparison could go further. In their long careers both Sachin and Inzamam have misbehaved only once: Sachin, when he tampered with the ball in South Africa; Inzamam, when he set off in hot pursuit of a barracking spectator in Toronto. Both are reserved on the field (Inzy is better termed “hlegmatic”, and devoted family men off it. Almost the nicest moment in that Bangalore Test occurred at its very end, when the Pakistani captain led his victorious side off the field. As he crossed the boundary line, Inzy saw a little boy come rushing towards him. With one giant scoop he had lifted the child (his son) up into his arms.
This winter Pakistan play a Test match in my home town, Bangalore. I was much looking forward to it, in good part because I would once more get to see Inzamam bat. Now comes the news that he has decided to retire from Test cricket. He has done enough, I think, to be ranked the greatest Pakistani batsman of all time. When the greatest Indian batsman of all time hangs up his cricket shoes, and a market-savvy newspaper persuades him to select a list of 50 great contemporaries, I would be very surprised if Sachin does not put Inzy in the first 10.
ramguha@vsnl.com
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