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A career like Kamran Ghulam’s makes no logic. Not because he never played a Test at a time when Pakistan was searching for Test batsmen, but rather because he averaged 50 over ten years of first-class cricket.
Ghulam was an enigmatic cricketer for his country. He had not bowled or batted in his one ODI match for Pakistan against New Zealand. It gets crazier when you click on the scorecard link. He is completely absent from Pakistan’s starting lineup.
After being struck in the head by a 150 kph Lockie Ferguson bouncer earlier in the day, Haris Sohail persevered until his dismissal. He refused to play in the second innings, and Pakistan substituted a fielder with a concussion even though they could have just as easily called for a replacement. Ghulam received his first cap for his country, Pakistan perhaps thinking he could bowl. He didn’t.
It was a fitting metaphor, in a twisted way, for the status of Pakistan’s household system, that serving as the totality of one of the country’s most prolific young hitters.
Ghulam has been pinned into place and has had a torch burn into his retinas over the weekend after spending so much time lurking in the dark underworld of cricketers that Pakistan has neglected to the point of atrophy. Babar Azam was dropped by Pakistan, a move that was controversial and prematurely deemed by several, even the head coach of the team.
Ghulam received some of the stray anger, as though his whole career had been geared up to taking Babar’s place at number four. There is nowhere a snow leopard would have felt more out of place than a desert circus.
Ten overs into the match, Pakistan was batting on a wicket they had set up for the first Test, where they had only one quick bowler and hoped for a batting minefield. With Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood already back in the hut, Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir had already launched an attack. The ball remained low and rotated erratically. This was the perfect situation for a rookie batter, someone taking over Babar’s position, to be set up for failure.
Ben Stokes spent his time putting up the pitch, having shifted a fielder into the short leg position Masood had dutifully chipped one to. However, Ghulam was naturally patient because he had been waiting for this time for over ten years. He started out well with a grabbed single, but what came next was pure steel.
Alongside him at bat was Saim Ayub, another player under duress. Both of them realised how vulnerable their position was and that going all out on an attack would only be a falsely optimistic tactic. Ghulam continued to dig on a strip that was not nearly as good as the ones he used to butcher his bread in domestic cricket.
Ghulam played old-school subcontinental cricket since that’s what the conditions called for. Of his 224 deliveries, he either defended or moved on. This was not, however, a blockbuster; Ghulam’s focus remained unwavering as he picked length early to sweep or reverse, doing so four times in total. He knocked Bashir into the sightscreen late in the day when he tossed one up. It didn’t matter that it was the first delivery with the second new ball when Brydon Carse overpitched; Ghulam leaned into the straight drive and scored another four.
Although Ghulam looks to be strangely unconnected from the stage at which each individual innings is set, he may bat as the game requires. He reached his century by smearing Joe Root onto the onside for four balls; those were the only runs he scored during the innings off a slog sweep, and he only attempted that shot twice in 224 balls. It was just an opportunity.
And it seems like he is finally going to have his chance. Ghulam has been present in every way after being absent for ten years. It looks like Kamran Ghulam’s career is now starting to make sense, and Pakistan’s future star batter could be here.