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.
Yesterday I watched Afridi get out mindlessly in the very first ball and am aghast. This guy is not an 18 year old anymore… how brainless can he be and how long can he be like this… ridiculous with all that experience.
Malik is gone,beaten by mendis, it can be a good omen for Pakistan as Malik was batting too slow.
New man in Afridi! Gone first ball, and waqar younis says this is not professional not even good for club cricket, well said Waqar but he will continue to play like this for the next few years and might become the captain in the next series.
Its hard to say which one was worst 79 ball 50 by Malik or 1st ball duck by Afridi, for me both were disgusting.
I have been saying for quite sometime both Malik and Afridi and Shoaib are disrupting the balance of the team as they are not good enough to fulfill their roles they both need to be fired.
Pakistan needs to score 10 runs/over in the next 9 overs if they have to swin this match.
Almost 9 runs required per over, Malik is playing a test match, Pakistan team had no plan while chasing the most selfish and defensive strategy one can see, players are just trying to save their own skins by not taking any risk.
Pakistan can only come back in this match if Misbah scores a hurricane 50.
Mohd Yousaf got out lbw on a simple straight delivery by Mendis. Pakistan are in a hole now. New man in is Misbah,only a miracle can save Pakistan now.
As expected SL spinners are turning the ball and Shoaib Malik had gone further back in his shell can somebody tell him its a 50 over game.
The run rate has crept up to 8.
Younis Khan is gone trying to improve the RR, Mahela stifled Pakistani batsmen with a packed off side field and curtailed the singles, Younis trying to hit a boundary and break the shackles mistimed a slower shortpitched ball and got caught.
Malik needs to learn this tactic.
SL scored 302,the ball is keeping low but still YK and Malik are batting too slow the required run rate is creeping up and will go further up when the spinners will come and the field restrictions will be lifted.
This administration has reduced Pakistan’s bowling strength to nothing due to their mismanagement of players,with the exception of Tanvir everbody else looked ordinary, Malik seems to wait for the batsman to make a mistake and get out he never has any Ideas to stifle the batsman, when Sangakara was batting Malik did nothing to stop the singles and kept the defensive feild,on wickets where the ball is not coming on the bat you should tempt the batsman to play his strokes thats where he will make the mistake and lose his wicket, you can only do that if you block the singles.
Mansoor Amjad looked good but he is also not a great turner of the ball but his bowling looked better than Fawad,Malik needs to recover his bowling form, Pakistan can’t afford to play two legspinners against a side packed with lefties.
I think the combination of Hafeez and Afridi bowling in tandem was the best spinning combination Pakistan had in recent times.
16 overs are gone and its 72/1 Malik is batting exceptionally slow,if Pakistan lose this match they will be out of the tournament.
Sure UTP
He should get enough time,but its not about somebodies own technique its about right or wrong technique maybe as his confidence grows he will improve he looks like a very energetic and smart cricketer,
I hope he gets better and permanently take the WK slot.
its too early to start judging…everybody has got his own technique…and standing up to the wicket should only be done if effective…not just for the sake of it…which a lot of wicketkeepers are doing…its almost like acting daring…..
No need..more time…required…lets give him some time…he is good on technique and that is all we need right now…
Malik’s century went in vain,in todays defeat there was a lesson for people who blame every defeat on the captain, leading from the front and all that bull crap, Malik did his part today it was the job of his troops to put up a fight and complement their skippers effort, but what did we saw in Malik’s absence, there were at least four people giving instructions to the bowler before every delivery creating nothing but confusion in the bowlers mind as a result we saw the most wayward bowling performance by Pakistan in a longtime as a policy Malik should keep Afridi way in the deep the guy wants to take over and interferes in every decision he is out of form and often looks animated on the screen yelling and screaming at players unnecessarily I think today he was more interested in sending Umar gul back to the dressing room than Umar gul himself. Umar gul left the field after one over, if Shoaib Akhtar had done this he would have been crucified by the media for months, I have seen many bowlers breaking down during a match its quite normal, but never saw a performance like this,what was he doing in the dressing room if he was injured he should have been visiting a doctor. According to the media he injured his rib muscle but apparently he was grabbing his back.
A score of 300 was enough or not It is debatable but one thing is for sure the bowlers never showed up for work and gifted the match to the opposition without putting up the fight.
It has become a fashion among critics to use the term leading from the front the term is more losely applied on Malik than anybody else.
Malik is averaging 45.45 as a captain has scored a 1000 runs in 28 matches which is better than Dhoni who has scored 903 in 27 matches.
A captain in subcontinent especially in Pakistan can never be successful unless he has some say in selection he cannot impose his will on the players, half of your planning depends on the team combination if a captain is not consulted before selecting the team then he played no part in the planning.
You can only control rogue players if you have their replacements ready, otherwise neither the captain nor the board will ever have any control over strange inconsistencies of these players.
We will have to drop an all rounder or a regular batsman to include a regular fifth bowler, on dead pitches you cannot play with four bowlers especially against a batting power house like India.
Pakistan has lost only 8 Odis out of 27 under Malik because his team has been feasting on minnows,although he lost to India and SA by a narrow margin the series could have gone either way. The move to open is a good one he should lead from the front and the best way to regain form is by facing your demons. His bowling form is still a concern, a Victory in Asia Cup will boost Pakistan team’s ranking to # 3 and Malik will be able to establish himself as a captain.
Afridi supporters will shut up for a while especially those who want him to open the innings, when you are out of form no matter where you bat the result is always the same.
I don’t agree with you on Malik he silenced his critics by opening and he will open against India there is no other choice.
Fawad Alam was excellent today, don’t want to take anything away from him but his true test will be against India. HongKong was nothing but a club level team.
UTP
I also wanted Akmal to be axed, but its too early to rejoice as his replacement so far looked ordinary.He was standing to far behind the stumps against the quicker bowlers sign of a keeper who is low on self confidence.Anyways he has the whole tournament to showcase his skills and I sincerely hope that he succeeds.
Pakistan survived the early scare and recovered from 161/7 and finally scoring 288/9.
Fawad Alam and Sohail Tanvir were the saviors for Pakistan
they had a 100 run partnership for the 8th wicket.
Pakistan feilded their full strength team against HK, I was expecting them to rest Yousuf and Afridi. Afridi is struggling with the bat and carrying a wrist injury, it would have been a smart move to give him a few days off before the match against India to recover from the injury,
the sweltering heat can further aggravate his injury.
Also Pakistan could have tested Mansoor Amjad.
Afridi always looks energetic in the field, he was clearly looking short on confidence while batting and was carrying the burdon in the feild he was not in the best of the mood today.
Pakistan should have scored at least 350 on this pitch against HK, all the top batsmen lost their wicket to complacent shots nobody showed any sense of responsibility.
It was good to see Tanvir assuming the role of an All rounder
and performing according to the situation, Pakistan is desperately in need of an all-rounder to give their batting a little bit of depth especially when Afridi can no longer be regarded as an all rounder his batting has been consistently poor during this last year.
Fawad Alam showed maturity he can cement his place in the team if he can perform well against India.
The bowlers bowled well but then again their was not much of a challenge.
Malik needs to bowl more and should correct his follow through as Wasim Akram pointed out he delivers the ball while standing their is not much of a follow through as a result he doesn’t get enough turn.
Pakistan’s next match is against India the only thing they lack is an enforcer down the order since Afridi is out of form also Malik is going to start slow as compared to Kamran Akmal,eventually Pakistan will have to accomodate Nasir Jamshed in their line up as the tournament progresses.
Thank God for finally letting Akmal go. A new dawn…
I like the team combination, SL are without Malinga and Mahroof so their pace attack will be weak, I cant understand why India is being declared favorites, Pakistan can beat them, it will all depend on which team plays better on that day, otherwise they are evenly matched.
There is no reason for such a move, I think they will rest Afridi against minnows because of his wrist injury to give him time to recover and will play Mansoor or Saeed in his place.
I think Mansoor Amjad will play instead of Alam.