Fawad Alam. AFP/File
IT is seldom that anyone has to tolerate so much bitterness and anguish that Fawad Alam had to endure when he was unceremoniously thrown out of Pakistan Test side as long ago as November 2009 in New Zealand and since his return to the fold during the England tour this year, the left-hander with the most ungainly batting stance at the crease has literally lived on a knife’s edge.
But who cares about how one approaches his batting rituals and how he stands when facing the bowlers. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was a prime example of someone having more or less the same unorthodox stance that Fawad Alam has. The left-handed Chanderpaul has the statistics to underline his true values to the West Indies during his career which spanned from 1994 to 2015 and during which the crabbiest technique ever seen in international cricket time again proved that there is life beyond the coaching guidelines.