Zainab Jeewanjee

Once upon a time there was a girl named Zainab, who stumbled upon her parents watching test cricket, frowned and said “this is too slow”. Later she walked in on her brothers watching T20 cricket and said “this is too frantic”. Then she settled into her favorite spot on the couch, turned on the TV to Pakistan in a One Day International cricket match, smiled and felt, “mmm, this is just right”.

And I haven’t looked back since. Watching Pakistan in an ODI match is my ultimate favorite pastime. My favorite ODI players have been Shahid Afridi, Abdur Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Saeed Anwar, Wasim Akram to name a few. What they all had in common was that they were match winners; always unflinching, gritty, fiercely competitive, and led from the front down to the last bowl no matter the outcome.

And while on paper the 2023 Pakistan team is one of the best we’ve ever had, boasting the worlds best batsman and as always, some of the worlds greatest bowlers, they’re still criticized for not winning big matches and lacking that competitive edge Pakistan cricket fans have historically expected. But they proved naysayers wrong today by comfortably blowing through ODI World Cup records and chasing down the highest total in history by scoring 345 against Sri Lanka – with 6 wickets in hand no less.

And this win highlights what I love about today’s Pakistan team; their quiet ingenuity and steadfast hopefulness.

Having been banned from partaking in the Indian Premier League, the worlds most popular and profitable T20 platform, Pakistan quietly focused on alternative avenues of play, building their own T20 league and remaining steadfast to developing ODI and Test format ready teams. So, when we see test cricketer Abdullah Shafique debut in ODI today by smashing a century like it’s no big deal, it’s testimony to years of Pakistan adapting, innovating and exceling despite the odds. Few if any teams would send a test cricketer out in a world cup ODI match against an A rated side and that too for his debut. But Pakistan did, and it worked, just as they knew it would. Just like when Saqlain Mushtaq invented the doosra sending world renowned batsman and the International Cricket Council into a tizzy because they couldn’t fathom let alone play such an innovative ball. Or when Shahid Afridi made his ODI debut smashing the ball around in the 1990’s like no one had ever seen, well before T20 was even a thing (Noteworthy opinion; MS Dhoni was India’s answer to Shahid Afridi). But I digress. See, when Pakistan was banned from the IPL, it ensured their cricketing would never be complacent, it would continue to innovate and rise above a deck stacked against them.

Pakistan has always risen to challenges in cricket and we saw that in spades today with Mohammad Rizwan, coming in at number 4, playing through injury refusing to retire and leading his team to victory.

So let history be a guide; stop banning team Pakistan from cricket — it’s depriving other nations of innovations that are going to upend them in future matches. Or, nations can continue to ban them and behold innovation after innovation from team Pakistan proving that necessity is indeed, the mother of all invention.