Cricket is a one-ball game. A single ball is required to get dismissed by a bowler or to dismiss a batsman.
In the match against India recently Mohammad Amir produced that ball at the very start, and a batsman of Rohit Sharma’s calibre did not have to play a second delivery in the match.
We all know that Don Bradman acknowledgedly the greatest batsman of all times played his last match with the intention of retiring with three-digit average. He needed just four runs to achieve that distinction but went for a duck!
A bowler can always come back. He may get hit for a six the first ball but can dismiss the batsman in the next ball. He has six balls in an over to dismiss a batsman, and can bowl several overs.
A batsman unfortunately does not get a second chance.
If he is dismissed the first ball, he has to walk back.
But if he is riding his luck, he can get dropped. It famously happened with Zaheer Abbas in a Test against India. I remember it was in Faisalabad.
Zaheer Abbas had been out of form for quite some time. In that test too, he had not yet opened his account when he offered a simple catch. But he was dropped.
“I heaved a sigh of relief. It got into my mind that God was on my side. I never looked back”, Zaheer said later.
That was the test in which he scored centuries in both innings, and went on to score heavily throughout the series.
Cricket indeed is a one-ball game. If Zaheer had been dismissed for a duck in that Test, he would have gone under a huge pressure.
When a batsman is under pressure to score to retain his place in the team that one-ball required to dismiss him may come in the very first over—
That is the story of our batsmen. Our selectors specialize in the art of putting even the best of our batsmen under constant pressure.
If Younis Khan can be dropped, which batsman can enjoy guarantee of surviving the whims of our selectors? Whims?
No. Grudges…..
