The months of June and July 2016 have seen Test match cricket take the centre stage as opposed to the T20 cricket season that had prevailed before that, with the Asia Cup T20, the World T20 2016 and the Indian Premier League being organised one after the other, the last of which, the IPL, concluded on May 30.
While the shortest format of the game has become more about hitting skills than cricketing skills of late, and any batsman, be it a top order batsman or a tailender, has developed the capability to clear the ropes, it is certainly not so in Test cricket. In the longest format of the game, a player’s discipline, temperament, and patience are tested, for five continuous days.
However, while in T20 cricket, the contribution of every player, howsoever small or large, becomes crucial to the outcome of the game, in Test cricket, it cannot be clearly demarcated.
Although some players, with their centuries or five-wicket-hauls, take the limelight with them and prove out as potential match-winners in the longest and the most arduous format of the game, there are other cricketers as well, who despite their gritty temperament and the ability to spend hours at the crease and score vital runs for the team, remain under the shadows of the ones that are naturally gifted. Here, in this piece, we enlist 5 cricketers currently active in Test match cricket who have been severely underrated.
#1 Dean Elgar (South Africa)
Ever since the departure of Graeme Smith, South Africa have struggled to find a half-decent opener for Test matches. A year later, Alviro Petersen, Smith’s long-time opening partner also called it a day and that added more woes to the South African batting lineup that was already weakened by the departure of one of their all-time greats, Jacques Kallis.
The South African top order, in the absence of these three gentlemen, was rendered fragile, as a consequence of which, the one-time world beaters, over years have deteriorated in terms of the quality of cricket that they have produced. In such tumultuous times, one figure of solidity at the top of the batting order in Tests has been the 29-year-old Dean Elgar.
Although Elgar had made his Test debut in 2012 against Australia at Perth, he became a regular member of the Test squad only after Smith called it quits, in 2014, and has, since then, established himself as one of the solid top-order batsmen for South Africa.
An average of 36.73 from 25 Tests, having accumulated 1249 runs from them with 4 centuries speaks of a modest career, but Elgar’s contributions cannot be judged just from the stats that he has. The left-handed batsman has made his name as someone who has the ability to soak in the pressure and grind in sessions in order to tire out the opposition bowlers and churn out runs in the process.
During the away tour of Sri Lanka in 2014, Elgar, opening the batting, scored his second Test hundred (103), at Galle, that helped South Africa win the first Test. The knock’s relevance was hidden under Dale Steyn’s 10-wicket-haul, that earned the speedster the man of the match. However, in the next Test, when South Africa escaped defeat only by a whisker, finishing 159/8 in their 2nd innings while chasing 369, the importance of Elgar’s knock was realised.
Elgar’s knocks of 118* and 40 against England in the first Test of the 2015-16 tour, in Durban, although couldn’t prevent his team’s defeat, but gave a strong display of his temperament when faced with adversity. Notwithstanding the 2-1 series defeat that the Proteas faced at the hands of the English, Elgar’s scores of 118*, 40, 44, 46, 15, 20 and 1 indicated that the gritty left-hander had more resolve to him than what meets the eye and certainly deserves to be named, if one looks beyond the famed trio of Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis.
#2 Asad Shafiq (Pakistan)
Buried somewhere underneath the heaps of runs accumulated by Younus Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq over the past six years on the dusty surfaces of the UAE, lies a 30-year-old cricketer, who has stepped up the ladder and taken up the responsibility just when the team needed, and in a manner it needed the most.
The unceremonious ouster of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir, back in 2010, related to spot-fixing scandal left some gaping holes in the Pakistani lineup, and it was then, that the likes of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq grabbed the opportunities they were presented with and played a crucial role in Pakistan’s dominant run in their adopted home.
Since the retirement of Abdul Razzaq, Pakistan were searching for a batsman who could bat at No. 6 – a batting position best suited for batsmen ready to face adversities as well as who are willing to play freely – and Shafiq not only fulfilled these roles but also mastered them with some superlative display of batting.
With 2762 runs from 47 Tests at an average of 43.15, Shafiq has provided an apt solution to Pakistan’s middle order woes, as their batting has been largely dependent upon the experienced duo of Misbah and Younus over the past six years.
The glimpses of the batsman’s resolve were shown in his debut Test itself, as he rescued the Pakistan side that had slipped to 156/4 in reply to South Africa’s 1st innings total of 584/9 in the first Test of South Africa’s 2010 tour to the UAE, held in Abu Dhabi. Shafiq scored 61 runs in his debut innings and combined with Abdur Rehman for a 107-run partnership for the fifth wicket, against an attack comprising of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Johan Botha.
That knock was only the beginning of a series that saw Shafiq play many a memorable knock for Pakistan, the most noticeable ones of which have been his 75 & 100 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in 2012, 111 vs South Africa in Newlands in 2013, 131 vs Sri Lanka in Galle in 2015 amidst the overseas performances, and his 130 vs South Africa in Dubai in 2013, and 137 vs New Zealand in Sharjah in 2014.
However, amongst the controversy-seeking Pakistani cricketers Shafiq’s clean slate gets lost often, and all eyes are generally pointed towards the Amirs, the Misbahs and the Younus’ who have been amongst the news for more reasons than one. The latest example of Shafiq and his contributions being not noticed with the intensity that they should have been, came at the Lord's Cricket Ground in 2016, during Pakistan's recent historic victory. The talks about Misbah's hundred at 42, Amir's return at 24 and Yasir's 10-wicket-haul comfortably subdued the innings of 73 and 49 that the right-handed No. 6 batsman scored.
#3 BJ Watling (New Zealand)
The fact that BJ Watling is an underrated cricketer is an irony in itself, because the man he replaced in the team, at least behind the stumps, Brendon McCullum, has on most occasions taken the attention away from his junior successor. Now that McCullum has retired, New Zealand have already found a new prodigy in Kane Williamson, and the team is now known for possessing one of the modern-day greats.
However, Watling has soldiered on for seven years now, having made his debut in 2009. A gritty batsman, who bats at No. 7, has been the saviour for his team on more than one occasion.The best of them all, ironically, came in the game that's now remembered as the game in which McCullum was akin to a superhuman on the field.
Trailing by 246 runs in their second innings, in the second Test against India in Wellington in 2014, McCullum and Watling got together at 94/5 and stitched together a 342-run partnership and not only bail their side out of trouble but also put them in a comfortable position so as to put the visitors under pressure. While the then NZ captain stood out with his herculean knock of 302, thereby becoming the first Kiwi batsman to score a Test triple hundred, Watling’s knock of 124 was easily shoved to the hindsight.
It was that innings, probably, that gave Watling the confidence to bat prodigiously well in precarious situations, as he followed his 124 with a 142 vs Sri Lanka in 2015, once again in Wellington, also in the second innings when NZ were trailing by 135 runs in the 2nd Test. But once again, Watling was overshadowed by the new New Zealand captain, Williamson, who scored a magnificent 242* and helped his side pose a formidable total of 524/5 dec. in their second innings. New Zealand won both the games.
In June the same year, after England and New Zealand were tied after their first innings scores of 350 each, Watling rose to the occasion and smashed 120 runs off just 163 balls to help NZ post 454/8 in the second innings, and subsequently beat England by 199 runs in the 2nd Test at Headingley.
#4 Mominul Haque (Bangladesh)
While it should take some time for Bangladesh’s recent limited-overs success to translate into Test cricket victories, one batsman who has certainly made all the good news since his debut has been Mominul Haque. Having made his debut against Sri Lanka in 2013, Haque impressed immediately as he hit two fifties in his first three Test innings – 55 and 64 against Sri Lanka at Galle and Colombo.
It didn’t take much time for him to convert these fifties into triple digits as only in his 6th Test innings, the left-handed batsman hit a magnificent 181 against New Zealand at Chittagong, and followed it with 126* in the second Test during the home series in October 2013.
When Sri Lanka came to visit Bangladesh early next year, Haque gave them a taste of his superfluous batting as well, as he scored his third Test hundred, scoring 100* off 167 balls at Chittagong. The fourth and the last century that Haque has scored till date came against Zimbabwe, also at home.
While all of his Test tons have been scored on Bangladeshi soil, the promise that this 24-year-old has shown, and two half centuries each in Sri Lanka and the West Indies – two of the three away venues he has played at – show that the youngster has the potential to adjust to different conditions and play accordingly. Haque almost broke AB de Villiers’ record for the most number of half-centuries in consecutive Tests (12) when he made at least a 50+ score in 11 consecutive Tests that he played from October 2013 to June 2015.
However, this young prodigy has gone unnoticed amidst the cricketing galleries, behind the pomp and show surrounding some of their more established players such as Tamim Iqbal, Shakib-Al-Hasan and the newest cricketing sensation, Mustafizur Rahman. Also, the fact that Haque hasn’t featured in any of Bangladesh’s limited-overs teams on a regular basis has perhaps prevented his recognition. However, in Haque, Bangladesh have a serious talent who needs to be looked after and nurtured properly.
#5 Kraigg Brathwaite (West Indies)
Having played Test match cricket for 5 years, and having 29 Tests to his name, Kraigg Brathwaite’s batting average of 33.69 speaks of mediocrity. However, Brathwaite has more to him than what his stats depict. The travails of West Indies cricket over the past several years have been well chronicled, and one of the pertinent problems that the team has encountered over the past four years or so has been the lack of a solid Test match opening batsman.
Brathwaite may not have the runs to prove his credentials at the top of the order, but the patience with which he has batted over the years, and the knack for spending hours and hours at the crease makes him a capable Test batsman.Perhaps it is for that reason that the 23-year-old doesn’t represent the West Indies in any other format.
The knocks of 129 vs New Zealand at Port of Spain, 106 vs South Africa at Port Elizabeth, 116 vs England at St. George’s and 94 & 85 vs Australia at Melbourne and Sydney last year, prove that the right-handed batsman has the credentials to score runs all over the world, and his patience at the crease only adds to his capabilities with the bat. In the ongoing series against India, Brathwaite’s 74 in the first Test in Antigua came off 218 balls and he spent 291 minutes at the crease after India had scored 566/8 in the first innings.
However, Brathwaite’s presence in the side is rarely felt, as he is, more often than not, overshadowed by the more alluring members of the Test side, and even those who do not play Tests, and the West Indies have now made a name for themselves as a more than capable T20 team – given they are the two-time World T20 champions. The likes of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell and of late, Carlos Brathwaite, have made their names synonymous with West Indies cricket and thereby take the attention away from emerging Test cricketers.
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