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.
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