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Shoaib Malik is getting renowned for his acting, this is not the first time he has feigned an injury, whenever the situation gets tough he pulls out a huge acting job, I have never seen a TV footage of a players fitness test, why was PCB so keen to show the nation that Malik was actually unfit, his performance was just comical, a few steps of gentle jogging and he collapsed on the ground like a pregnant woman as if he just ran a 100 m sprint.

I strongly believe PCB deliberately took him out in order to save their dummy puppy from further criticism and to save his career as a captain.

Its not that Malik has not performed with the bat infact he was the top performer for Pakistan with the bat but his selfish batting and  defensive captaincy clearly showed that he was not playing for the country he was only trying to save his own arse. This is the third or fourth time that he has abondoned his troops before a big battle.

Nasir Jamshed was brought in Malik’s place and boy he played with so much confidence and aggression I have been advocating since the last six months that we need to have two regular openers, in limited overs cricket the openers are your first line of defense and if the outer most wall of a fort is the weakest then its not hard for enemy troops to breach it. Nasir even though he scored in all the matches he played he was dropped just because PCB and the selectors wanted to maintain status quo.

The selectors and the PCB management will have to share the burden for the recent defeats as they stubbornly persisted with some out of form players, Afridi is still in the team the guy pleaded and begged to be dropped but the selectors were not listening, Pakistan although won today but their batting still looks thin, in the absence of Kamran Akmal and keeping in view the pathetic batting form of Afridi Pakistan is really playing with five batsmen.

The selectors included Saeed Ajmal in the playing eleven today and now everybody must have an idea why Malik was pleading for his inclusion the selectors never listened to Malik . Ajmal bowled perfect doosras, he bowled well against a formidable Indian batting line up. His late selection in the team is indicative of how poorly the selectors are doing their job. Pakistan was desperately in need of a good spinner and the selectors continued to ignore a bowler like Ajmal.

Younis Khan after scoring two ducks in Kitply cup is consistently scoring runs, today he completely dominated the Indian bowlers and never let the game slip away. He made two push ups after completing his century facing towards the players balcony, it was an insult  directed towards Malik, that also shows how much the seniors hate Malik, Younis made a strong statement through his innings and the demonstration of his fitness but the big question is why he didn’t batted like this under Malik consistently? We only saw him score under Malik when he was on the verge of getting dropped.

Some might argue that in the sweltering heat and humidity of Karachi its very common for players to get unfit due to dehydration and cramps.

Malik scored that century almost a week ago he again played against Srilanka and was looking fine the team had three days of rest and medically speaking the cramps don’t last that long especially when you are intaking fluids through drips.

It will be interesting to see who captains the side against Bangladesh. I would like to see Malik and Afridi both out of the team. Time to bring in youngsters.

India paid the penalty of playing with eight batsmen they should have played RP singh instead of Pathan or Kumar, Piyush Chawal did not impressed me at all he only looked dangerous when he was bowling round the wicket, I think India should try Ohja against SrilLanka.

Pakistan managed to salvage a little bit of pride by winning today they kept their record of surprising every one by playing all of a sudden at a higher level, one day they play like minnows and the next day they play like champions the inconsistency of some senior players usually gets translated into the teams inconsistency, they may not reach the finals its a long shot only if Srilanka beats India with a big margin only then they have a chance of making to the finals. 

A lot of Indian supporters and bloggers were regarding this tournament as boring and onesided I assume that some of them will change their opinion as now the tournament has opened a bit.

The new mystery bowler from Srilanka Ajanta Mendis has caused quite a few problems for the batsmen in Asia cup  with his unpredictable variety, it is said that he can bowl six different varieties, but  the key question is whether the batsmen can figure out his mystery balls or no?

I have noticed a few simple things in his action which might help demystify his bowling to some extent.

For a bowler to completely decieve a batsman must bowl his varities with the same action, Ajantha Mendis is new on the scene and most of the batsmen have not done their homework on him as of yet. With the paasage of time and with the help of all the technology I am sure he will get worked out.

The above picture clearly shows that he has three different grips and releases.

The first picture shows how he grips and releases the ball when he is bowling a Googly. Yes a Googly, he is an offspinner who can bowl a googly, the ball releases from the back of his wrist the seam is up and he uses the flick of his middle finger to spin the ball. He can bowl a flipper also with the same action but for that the seam should be straight in up right position.

The second picture shows him bowling a conventional off spin it is a normal grip for an off spinner the ball is in the front and not so difficult for a batsman to pick. The third picture which is unfortunately a bit cropped but you can watch the  video, he is bowling a doosra or a leg break the ball is again in the front and the middle finger is placed firmly behind it in a flick position like a carom strike, his pinky, ring and index finger will be raised when the ball is delivered it will be very hard for him to keep them down, he cannot bowl a lot of these deliveries as they must be quite painful for his middle finger. The three raised fingers will be a clear sign for the batsman.

If a batsman is paying attention  to his grip and release of the ball he can definitely work him out.

If Ajantha later on manages to bowl an off spin with the same action with which he bowls the doosra he will definitely be unplayable, I have seen bowlers who bowl offspin and legspin by flicking their middle finger but none with a cricket ball all of them used to bowl with a tennis ball with tape rolled over it,  the trick is in the placement of the middle finger and the seam position for doosra the middle finger is placed at the lower edge of the seam on the right side, and for off spin it will be placed on the left side.

I have made it sound easier but trust me it will not be easy for the batsmen as they have only a second to read the action.

What truly amazed me was his control, imagine a bowler controling the flight the speed and the length with only one finger and that too with a cricket ball either his finger is made of steel or he uses a lot of ice after the match.

I think the trick lies in his run up he uses a lot of momentum from his medium pacer like run up.

It will be fun to watch him bowl against the Indians.

PCB has announced the Pakistan team for Asia Cup.

Pakistan squad : Shoaib Malik (captain), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Sarfraz Ahmed, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal, and Mansoor Amjad.

Pakistan squad (likely playing 11) : Shoaib Malik (captain), Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Sarfraz Ahmed, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul,  and Wahab Riaz

It is expected that Malik will open with Salman Butt to make room for Fawad Alam or Mansoor Amjad, however if Nasir Jamshed plays then Malik will have to play the role of the fifth bowler.

The selection of Saeed Ajmal baffles my mind it is highly improbable that he will get any game, in my opinion Sohail Khan or Abdul Rauf should have been selected in his place.

Younis Khan’s century in Kitply cup ensured him another default selection, sometimes I wonder if the Pakistani selectors know the importance of consistency and do they ever take it into consideration.

The selectors kept their track record intact and remained consistent they dropped both Nauman Ullah and Bazid Khan without giving them even a single chance. All the young and upcoming players should keep one thing in mind if they want to travel abroad all they have to do is to pile up runs in domestic cricket tournaments but they have to keep in mind that they can only accompany the team and can never be in the playing 11 not even in the matches against the minnows as those matches provide excellent opportunity to the seniors to improve their averages.

Afridi is not 100% fit, he was wearing a bandage on his wrist during Kitply cup and according to some sources he is still feeling pain in his right wrist, Pakistan should not risk playing him in the first round they should rest him so that he recovers before the second round.

Team Positives:

This team has been playing together for quite some time now, they just won the Kitply cup so their morale should be high, The batting line up looks strong however with the exception of Misbah they do not have any power hitters. Kamran Akmal has been finally dropped and young Sarfraz Ahmed has been included in his place hopefully he will be able to take the difficult chances behind the stumps and will cut down the extra runs.

Team Negatives:

Pakistan lacks the extra punch in both bowling and batting, they are still the worst feilding team amongst all the test playing nations, Afridi’s Injury is a concern.

Pakistan’s success in the tournament will largely depend on the consistency and form of their batsmen, the current bowling line up is not good enough to defend low scores, the batting will have to click in every match.

 A three man inquiry team has been formed for Mohammed Asif’s case, the committee is expected to report within two weeks.  Earlier Mohammed Asif got deported from Dubai because the prosecutors could not find enough evidence against him, the biggest factor which went in favor of Asif was that all of his three urine tests came negative, he was only going to be charged for the possession of 0.24 gms opium which was termed as insignificant by the prosecutor and no case was filed against Asif.

Given the history of Asif nobody believes him, the guy is a druggie, what the Dubai authoroties failed to recognize was that Opium is only detectable in the Urine uptill 72 hours. Although it depends on the Qty taken and the consumption of water after taking the dose, so it was quite possible that Asif was taking the drug and still tested negative. The notion that his drug test came out negative does not prove him innocent.

WADA and ICC are waiting for PCB’s inquiry committee’s findings, IMO this three man circus is only going to write a report which will be used in Asif’s defence when he will be facing an inquiry from WADA.

The Pakistan Cricket team has suffered enough humiliation because of this moron, the only way PCB can restore its reputation is by slapping a five year ban on this Asif.

The following is a study showing how long differrent drugs can remain traceable in Urine and blood after consumption. 

Opium is normally detectable in the urine for up to approximately 72 hours after use and in the blood for up to 4 hours. Drug testing results however are always unique to the individual and there are certain factors about you and how you took the opium that can alter how long it stays in your system. These factors include how strong and pure the opium was; how much you used; how often you have used it; and what other drugs you might have taken. Your own tolerance, metabolism, health, sex and age can also influence these results.

How long for a clean piss?

Please use these figures as a guide only. These figures are based on averages in the population. 

It seems Shoaib Akhter’s International career has come to an end, although the appellate tribunal in an effort to show their soft heartedness reduced his ban from five years to 18 months but they also ensured that the ban effectively ends his International career.

Is shoaib indispensable for Pakistan cricket?

Nobody is indispensable, but given the fragility of Pakistan’s pace attack these days, yes Shoaib is indispensable for Pakistan cricket. If we exclude matches against the minnows in recent times the current pace attack has very often failed to bowl out the opposition on many occasions when Shoaib was not in the team.

Pakistan won 20 out of 46 test matches when Shoaib was in the team, a win-loss ratio of 1.25 . In his absence the win-loss ratio is 0.70.

In matches he has played, Pakistan have taken their wickets at an average of 33.63, conceding almost eight runs more per wicket than Shoaib. (Excluding the minnows, Shoaib averages 26.60 per wicket, which clearly indicates he hasn’t feasted on the poorer batting line-ups.)

Shoaib took a quarter of the total wickets taken by Pakistan, but bowls less than 19% of the overs bowled by the team. The above stats prove Shoaib’s worth as Pakistan’s leading strike bowler but also highlights his fitness issues.

Is the punishment too Severe?

Shoaib sure deserved the stick for his indiscipline but to hand over a career ending ban for a media outburst against the board management is unheard of the punishment is not only heavy handed but also cruel. With the exception of Inzamam almost every Ex- cricketer criticized the decision and regarded it too severe.

In the past many other players have criticized the board publicly for its policies but no one got such severe punishment. If Shoaib’s fitness was the main issue then what about the fitness of Umar Gul and Asif? Injuries are a job hazard for fast bowlers, it’s the duty of selectors to take full fitness test of a player before selecting them.

Did Shoaib shot himself in the foot?

Yes, he is his own enemy, he is too arrogant and stubborn, many fast bowlers before him cut down their run up to avoid injuries and to prolong their careers, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran used to bowl with their full run up only in the beginning of their spell many a times they used to bowl with a shorter run up to conserve energy so that they can share the work load but Shoaib despite being advised by many ex-greats refused to cut his run up short which is unusually long in the first place as a result of which we often saw him leaving the field after bowling five overs, many a times he got unfit during the match and leaving his team helpless, Shoaib bowled only 18.67% of his team’s overs in comparison to 23.58% of Wasim, 21.09% of Waqar and 21.34% of Brett lee.

Shoaib Akhter lost most of his fan support because of his consistent breakdowns during the matches, in fact his fitness problems caused frequent embarrassment for the board and the selectors and pressure grew on the board to get rid of him.

Was the board too heavy handed against him?

After the drugs scandal Shoaib’s head was always on the chopping block, he should have conducted himself properly and should have stayed away from controversies, the punishment is harsh but he had it coming.

My only contention with this decision is because of the timing of the decision and the nature of his crime, if Pakistan ever needed Shoaib the most this is the time, when Asif’s career is over due to drugs, the players on the bench might take a couple of years before they become a real threat for the opposition, Tanvir and Gul might not survive the pressure of test matches, In my opinion the board should have gradually phased him out.

The board  piled up shit against Shoaib for years and then summarily executed him for just opening his mouth, PCB should also share the burden of prolonging this fiasco, the present management has never conducted itself in a professional manner as a result of this continued mismanagement we see one scandal after another, the board has a habit of creating drama out of nothing, first they turn a blind eye toward every issue and make their players think that they can get away even with murder and then when it comes to disciplining them they publicly humiliate their players and then summarily execute them, certain things have to be done behind closed doors and sometimes actions speak louder than words.

The board and its officials are also guilty of not keeping their lips sealed, they start media trial of a player and then expect him to stay quiet. The recent leaking of the chairman’s email is one example.
The board is also guilty of compromising on discipline and creating high drama with first setting up Inquiry tribunals and then reversing their every judgement in the appellate tribunal and making the country a laughing stock all over the world.

PCB management can easily learn to conduct business by learning from other boards, but these monkeys don’t even know the basic skill of aping, its not that players from other countries are not charged for indiscipline then why we don’t get to see a media circus?

The recent Harbhajan slap- gate incident in India, BCCI took swift action, kept their lips sealed until a decision was made and announced and the issue became a thing of the past, by prolonging disciplinary proceedings and by going back and forth PCB management lost its face and overly dramatized things.

Did the board managed their most valuable player properly?

The answer is a big NO, they never created a fitness regime for players, players have been using drugs and the board pretends as if they never knew anything about it, also by playing four bowlers in test matches the work load on the strike bowler increases, they never condoned his media trials in fact they fed the press continuously against him, during the Inzamam era he was often misused, domestic pitches were deliberately kept as flat as humanly possible so that Inzamam & co could score a few runs. In Wasim & Waqar era pitches were deliberately made to assist the bowlers and not the batsmen that is why they were so successful. PCB management should learn from ACB, how they manage their fast bowlers.

I have always maintained that PCB should have banned both Asif and Shoaib for the use of drugs when they tested positive two years ago, both of these players hardly played any matches during these two years they remained out of the team because the drugs remained in their bodies for more than 15 months and they sat out feigning injuries, it would have been much better if PCB had punished them at that time.

Did the board had any other way of punishing him?

In my opinion PCB should have fined him and made him sit out for four five matches.

Upset by the dismal performance of Pakistan team Nasim Ashraf wrote a strict email to manager Talat Ali, the details of the email were leaked out in the press and were published in Daily Dawn .

Nasim Ashraf was clearly upset over the team’s performance and lack of planning against India, he strongly criticised Malik’s tactics and antics as a captain, he also criticised Kamran Akmal’s keeping  and Afridi’s batting in his email. I will not go in details you can read the context of his email by clicking on the above link.

Whatever he wrote in his email I can’t disagree with it,  Malik as a Captain and  player is spineless there is no doubt about it, Lawson as a coach has done nothing to improve the Pakistani team, he has formed an alliance with Malik and is just playing politics.

But in my opinion Nasim Ashraf is pretending that he was unaware of the  problems with the team, if there is anybody to be blamed for the state of affairs of Pakistan team its  Nasim Asraf.

There are three aspiring captains in the team playing under Malik.

Younis Khan’s performance in all the key matches have been pathetic since last one year, he is consistently underperforming and working against his own team, just in the last match he dropped two easy catches and threw away his wicket on the first ball, but surprisingly he gets automatic selection, when ever he scores either its for a lost cause or he scores those runs at such a slow pace that his team never recovers, Who is to be blamed for his continued presence in the team? he was recently interrogated by ICC’s Match fixing panel, but no action was taken against him. Even in the test matches he has only performed when he knew his team can’t come back in the match, anybody who has a doubt can go in the archives of Pakistan’s matches and look at his performances.

The other culprit is Afridi, just like Malik his place in the team is also as an All rounder, I don’t care if his fans now just consider him as a bowler now? His role in the team is as an All rounder and thats the bottom line, the guy after every series publicly oppologizes for his poor performance and promises to make a come back, he himself acknowledges his poor performance but his blind fans keep on coming with new reasons to keep him in the team. Look at his performances in the key matches, the final of T20 cup he threw away his wicket, against SA in the final ODI match there were plenty of balls left all he needed was to take singles he again threw away his wicket resulting in a series loss for Pakistan. Against India in the 4th ODI again look at his performance, his bowling this year hasn’t been great against good teams, yes last year he was superb against every team, right now he is just Andhoon mein kaana Raja. He has openly aspired to lead the team and at times vocally criticised Malik’s captaincy, while consistently failing with the bat and failing to fulfill his own role in crunch matches, Yousuf also aspired to be the captain, but except for a few matches where he scored too slow and was selfish, he consistently scored and is the only batsman in the team on which you can count on.

My question is that when you have only one batsman in the team on which you can truly count how do you expect to win against the top teams? you have rogue players in the team who are so strong no matter what their crimes are they still get automatic selection, they know they will have to face no consequences.

How can Nasim Ashraf pretend that he was oblivious of these facts, firing Saleem Altaf and may be firing Malik and Lawson at the end of the series is not going to solve the problem, Nasim Ashraf will have to admit his own follies.

You kicked out your best bowler just because he said something about the management.

You let your senior players skip domestic matches, despite making claims that it is necessary for every one to play in the domestic season in order to get selected.

You hired a dummy foreign coach,  and fired Waqar Younis who was performing well, Why because you never wanted any powerful domestic coach, you wanted a dummy coach.

You appointed Malik as the captain on the grounds that you want an aggressive young captain but then again crippled him by keeping three aspiring captains under his command. Look at the Indian team they appointed Dhoni as captain and gave him a team filled with young players, players like Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble and sometimes even Sachin do not feature in their ODI team as a result Dhoni has full command over his team. What was the point in appointing Malik as captain when the rotten seniors were still going to be in the team. You could have been better off with one of the senior players as captain under these circumstances.

Under your management PCB has squandered millions on Executives living lavishly, but the young cricketers are playing without coaches, clubs and associations who are breeding grounds for new talent do not get any funds.

Due to the lack of foresight of your management Pakistan lost 14-16 players to ICL as a result Pakistan has no bench strength, even if you want to replace Malik or Afridi who are you going to replace them with? there is no spinner and there is no allrounder sitting on your bench, you have players like Fawad Alam who are not ready for International cricket.Why couldn’t you foresee the consequences of this league and why proper measures were not taken to assure the players of  financial compensation.

Your Email was just an effort to do damage control, this mess has been created only by you and you have always been aware of these problems, your team is only good to beat Bangladesh and Zimbabwe consistently don’t fool yourself that your team can beat any good  team.Its time for you to take responsibility and resign with immediate effect.

Scorecard

Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch where the ball is gripping and not coming on to the bat, batting second on this pitch will not be easy as the ball will hold up and will turn.

India got off to a flying start in T/20 style, Gambhir and Sehwag started off from where they left in IPL, they made full use of three dropped catches and gave India their second highest opening stand in ODIS, Gambhir was dropped at 4 and 29, he went on to score 62 of 62 balls. Both the catches were dropped by Younis Khan who was included again in the team despite criticism, both catches were identical, it has become a special trait of Younis Khan to be helpful to the opposing side, he will throw away his wicket when he is needed the most by his team, he will get his well set partners run out, and now he has found a new way to help the other team by dropping easy catches.

He should have been dropped from the Odi team at least two years ago but our board and selection committee has always been spine less, they scumb to jingoistic pressures and can never tackle the player politics.

India could have been under pressure if the catches were taken, Shoaib Malik again preferred not to bowl on a pitch where the ball is gripping and spinners are getting turn and assistance, a clear indication for the selectors not to treat him as an all rounder any more, Afridi bowled well against the weak Bangladeshi team giving his fans a reason to defend him but against India he was expensive as I suggested in my previous post, lets hope that today he scores some runs which are long over due.

The match has resumed after the rain interruption India are 296/6.

Its 326/8 , the last over is being bowled by Younis Khan, the spine less Shoaib Malik can’t even ball one over what a fuckin loser he is, he lost today all my respect, an interesting situation arose in the 47th over when Wahab Riaz bowled his second delivery which was above waist the height as a result he couldn’t bowl any more he had 4 deliveries left in the over and Malik refused to bowl those 4 deliveries and gave the ball to Sohail tanvir and wasted two deliveries of his top bowler.

Its 330/8 after 50 overs its a mammoth total, poor feilding and captaincy by Malik, It was expected that Indian batsmen will come out aggressively against Pakistan bowlers and will make full use of their IPL experience, but ODI’s are a different ball game than T/20 a bowler can bowl 10 overs as opposed to 4 in T 20 boundaries are bigger, and we saw teams losing all of their wickets in 20 overs in order to score maximum runs, its not that easy to score at the same rate for 50 overs and not lose wickets, the score of 400+ is highly improbable in this format, It was poor handling of his bowlers by Malik which allowed India to post a huge total, he could have restricted India around 290.

Its high time that PCB and the selectors should take note of the performance pseudo all rounders in the team, these guys are neither good bowlers nor good batsmen, we bowled with five bowlers, just because Malik doesn’t want to bowl, we can never win against quality teams unless we have some flexibility in the bowling and batting.

Lawson predicted a 150 runs drubbing for India, the stage is all set for a 150 runs drubbing only its the other way around, Pakistan are 41/3, Salman Butt , Younis and Mohammed Yousuf are back in pavillion, all three wickets were taken by Praveen Kumar.

Salman Butt got out in his usual way trying to play an uppish cut and Sharma took a blinder, Younis Khan got his second duck in the series trying to work the ball towards third man and getting a faint edge to Dhoni, Mohammed Yousuf tried to play straight but the ball shaped in and missed the inside edge and caught him in front of wickets.

The top order is back in Pavillion, its 67/3 after 9.5 overs. Kamran Akmal is batting at 32 and Misbah is on 13. The last few overs have been good for Pakistan.

Its 82/4 Akmal just got out.

12.4 Kumar to Kamran Akmal, OUT, Done in by a full toss from round the stumps. It swung in a touch and Akmal swatted it to mid-on and he is livid with himself…. Pakistan lose their fourth wicket. Just when they were getting some momentum.

Malik is the new batsman on the crease, it seems Pakistan team will fold in 30 overs.

16.2 I Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, Ishant takes out Misbah. Probing delivery outside off that straightened off a length and Misbah stabbed it to Dhoni. He was trying to run it down to third man but …

Afridi is at the crease lets see how long he stays at the crease, I am having a cup of tea and I project by the time I finish it Afridi will be back in the pavillion.

Damn! my tea is almost finished and he is still at the crease, I forgot one thing before making the projection its a lost cause Pakistan can’t win so it will not harm to score.

I was off in my projection by three minutes.

22.5 Chawla to Shahid Afridi, OUT

26.6 Chawla to Sohail Tanvir, OUT, He’s got him this time. Another googly, better direction than the previous one, Tanvir tries to hit it against the spin, he closes the face too early and the resulting leading edge hands Chawla an easy return catch

25 runs are remaining with three wickets in hand, will Lawson’s team get a 150 run drubbing, thats the only point of interest left for me in the match.

29.4 Yuvraj Singh to Umar Gul, OUT, After two dot balls, Gul loses his patience. He tries to loft him over long-on but only manages to find Ishant Sharma in the deep. A smart catch from Ishant but he seems to have injured himself in the attempt.

12 runs required and two wickets in hand…

33.5 Chawla to Shoaib Malik, OUT

The spine less and gut less innings of Malik finally came to an end, 1 run required and 1 wicket is in hand .

Its 182/9, 150 run drubbing was not possible after all, I have no interest left in the match so I am signing off.

Unless Bangladesh defeats India, it will be a India- Pakistan final.

Hopefully PCB and the selectors will wake up from their dream run of 12 consecutive victories against the minnows and will start accepting reality, this team is not good enough to compete with the TOP teams. WE NEED CHANGE ………….

Pakistan won its first match of the Tri-series against Bangladesh by 70 runs, the match was reduced to 40 overs due to a delayed start because of rain, batting first Pakistan posted a total of 233, Salman Butt and Mohammed Yousuf scored 70 and 59 respectively a late charge by Misbah ul Haq who scored 39 off 22 balls ensured a decent total by Pakistan.

Pakistan were at 179/4 after 30.2 overs and the platform was set for a huge total, but due to the poor form of the lower middle order and a double strike by Alok Kapli  who removed both Afridi and the well set Mohammed yousuf in the 31st over pegged Pakistan back and as a result Pakistan could only manage 54 runs in the last 10 overs.

The total of 233 proved to be more than sufficient against the Bangladeshi batting line up and Pakistan won the match comfortably by 70 runs.

Although Pakistan won their first match but their line up has been exposed and they face serious match up problems against India.

Since Shoaib Malik doesn’t bowl any more, Kamran Akmal is usually sent as an opener to make room for a fifth bowler as a result Pakistan is always short of one batsman, the situation is further compounded by the of the poor batting form of Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi and the below average allround skills of Fawad Alam and with Younis Khan consistently failing at the top order the need for another regular batsman becomes essential.

If Pakistan goes with the same line up against India they will face several problems, Indians generally play spin better than other teams, Afridi who is arguablly the best ODi spinner in Pakistan has an econ rate of 6.02 against India in the last 12 months where as his career econ rate is 4.6 he only took 2 wickets in the four matches he played against India during the last year, I think Pakistan selectors made a mistake of selecting Fawad Alam a head of Mansoor Amjad who is a much better bowler than Fawad. Pakistan should drop Fawad in the match against India and Malik should  bowl as a fifth bowler otherwise there is no justification for his place in the team, he bats too low down the order and he has given up the bowling, he should bat at #3 to regain his confidence and should bowl as a fifth bowler, Nasir Jamshed Should come in place of Younis Khan and should open with Salman Butt, and Nauman ullah should play in place of Fawad Alam.

Or Nauman Ullah should play in place of Younis Khan and Sohail khan should play in place of Fawad Alam. The above changes will restore the balance of Pakistan team.

Pakistan will have to remove the weak link in their bowling and will have to strengthen their lower middle order to match up with the Indian line up.

Indian team will be more balanced as they have two genuine and inform all rounders the Pathan brothers they will have more flexibility to pick up their line up. Their whole batting line up is in form, Pakistan has slight edge in bowling and that will be lost if Fawad Alam is in the line up, I have nothing against the youngster but he needs to polish up his bowling skills.

Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has been held in Dubai on suspicion of possessing drugs. The fast bowler, who tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone, nearly two years ago, was held back by local authorities the day before yesterday though it is believed that they have not yet registered a case against him.

“Mohammad Asif has been held up since the day before yesterday in Dubai, it was believed Asif was caught with a drug, either opium or hashish. Local TV channels have been reporting it as the former. When asked whether the PCB had provided any legal help to Asif in Dubai, the official said only that the situation will be made clear at a press conference the board will hold on the situation this afternoon at 12.30pm (PST).

Asif, along with Shoaib Akhtar, tested positive in an internal dope test conducted by the Pakistan board in October 2006. He was initially banned for one year, though the ban was overturned on appeal a month later. Since then, one of the most promising fast bowlers on the world circuit has been dogged by a long-standing elbow problem. The injury had already taken the sheen away from a prodigious start to his international career and this new development is likely to do so even more.

So far all the efforts by PCB to get him released have not been successful because of strict laws in Dubai relating to the possession of drugs, PCB is sending Sohail Khan to Bangladesh in his place, both opium and Hashish are considered to be performance enhancing drugs by WADA, Asif had a court hearing today in front of a magistrate so far it has not been confirmed if he has been convicted or not but one news channel has confirmed that he admitted to the crime in front of the magistrate.

Update

Asif is still in detention, the results of his tests have arrived and they are being reviewed at the moment and will be presented in front of the magistrate on Thursday and depending upon the results it will be decided if he is going to be prosecuted or not, the test results will determine, the truthfulness of Asif’s statement that “he is not using those drugs anymore, they were given to him by a Hakeem six months ago and he forgot that one dose was still in his wallet ”. If he was not using this drug then his Urine test will come out clean and he might get released, also the test will exactly determine what kind of substance he was carrying.

Also it is yet to be seen if ICC or PCB are going to take any action against him, it will all depend upon the judgement of that Magistrate in Dubai.

More to follow

Pakistan announced its 16 member squad for the upcoming tri-series in Bangladesh.

Pakistan squad: Shoaib Malik (capt), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar, Wahab Riaz, Fawad Alam, Bazid Khan, Naumanullah

BCCI has also announced its 15 member squad for the upcoming tri-series and the Asia cup.

Indian Squad Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha.

The most important lesson learned by IPL is that limited overs cricket is all about matchups, role players, and current form of players teams composed on the basis of big names fail miserably, its something which our selectors consistently fail to recognize, time and again senior players are selected on the basis of their experience, past performances and reputation, their current form is totally disregarded and they are given an automatic selection.

The selection of Younis khan, Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Fawad Alam, Mohammed Asif and Iftikhar Anjum is mind boggling.

Rao Iftikhar was clearly out of form when he played against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh earlier this year he appeared in only 4 matches of the domestic ABN Amro cup and took only 5 wickets.

In the last series against India he took only 3 wickets in 4 matches his average was 67 and econ rate of 5.74. Against Zimbabwe in 2 matches he took 3 wickets but his econ rate was a whopping 7.42. The selectors should have given a chance to young Mohammed Aamer or Sohail khan this current series was the best opportunity to test  young players against a quality team like India. Aamer took 14 wickets in ABN AMRO cup and Sohail took 9. If the services of a veteran were required then why Yasir Arafat was overlooked, he took 22 wickets in ABN Amro cup, and took 7 wickets in the only test match he played for Pakistan in the last 12 months.

Mohammed Asif is also a surprise inclusion, his performance in IPL was dismal his econ rate was almost touching 10, he has still not recovered from that elbow injury and one thing I can’t understand why he is given automatic selection despite his frequent breakdowns and extremely poor form, when Shoaib gets injured he is maligned by the ex players and PCB and the press all over the world but this guy what ever he does goes un noticed, I think Shoaib Akhter should have been included in his place.

If you look at India’s side although  Dravid and Ganguly performed much better than the Pak seniors in IPL still as a policy matter BCCI has decided not to consider them for the ODI’s just to get a smooth transition for the youngsters, somehow PCB and the selectors always bend backwards in front of  the senior players, why can’t we rest Younis and Afridi for a series? Our board and the selectors do not have the spine to do that, Younis is the only other batsman in the team besides Yousuf who can score a long innings, but a detailed series by series analysis of his batting will reveal that he throws away his wicket on crucial junctures of the game in a despicable fashion, and when he scores runs they are usually at very low pace, and we have won very few matches because of his batting in the last two years, his reliability factor has dropped, in the ABN AMRO cup he played 8 matches and scored one 100 and one 50, a lot of players have better averages and better scores than him, I think its time that we start looking for his replacement, he will still be my top pick for the test team but not for the ODI’s or T20.

In limited International cricket those teams who have multi skilled players prove to be more successful, they have more depth more versatility and they can beat the opposition in so many different ways, but the key is that the players should be in form with both skills and not just one because the latter will cause huge problem with a teams balance and execution of roles and plans. Unfortunately in the last two years Pakistan’s biggest problem has been the bowling form of Malik and the batting form of Afridi only a fool can think that the former can bowl and the later can bat, as a result Pakistan is always short of one bowler and one batsman, the form of these players should have been strictly scruitnized in the ABN AMRO cup but Afridi played only 4 matches and Malik only 1 and still they got automatic selection, I fail to understand when the selectors will start considering the current form of players.

The opening problem was almost resolved when Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif and Nasir jamshed gave consistent performances, but we again made a mess of it by giving Kamran Akmal the role of an opener in several matches, the flaws in the technique of Salman Butt’s batting are still there, which raises the question about the usefulness of Geoff Lawson as a coach, Asif and Rao are out of form he couldn’t improve them, he is not helping the youngsters as whenever the senior team is not playing he is on vacation back home, the fitness of Shoaib Akhter and Gul is always questionable.The question is how Pakistan team is benfiting from his services? Where is the progress?

Now if we look at the match ups, India definitely has an advantage in the opening department it gets even worse when Shoaib Akhter is not in the team, their middle order consists of young, aggressive and in form talented players, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina and the two Pathan Brothers.Where as we have  Younis, Yousuf , Misbah, Malik and Afridi other than Yousuf you cannot depend on any of these players, the only advantage Pakistan still enjoys, is in the pace department, but again we are behind in the spin department.

India are the clear favorites for the upcoming Tri series as all of their players are in red hot form although its yet to be seen if their players can carry their T20 form into 50 overs format. 

None of the Pakistani batsmen is in proven form, we will again open with Kamran Akmal just to accomodate the fifth bowler as Malik is not going to bowl, with the inclusion of Afridi the batting will become more thinner, since Shoaib Akhter is not in the team bowling will all depend on Tanvir and Gul the rest of the thirty overs Indian batsmen can have a party. The youngsters Wahab Riaz, Fawad Alam, Bazid Khan, and Nauman Ullah might get a chance to play against Bangladesh, only Nasir Jamshed or Wahab Riaz has any real chance to get a match against India.