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.
Afridi has been finally axed from the team, many people will criticise this decision.
Afridi was the #1 ODI bowler in the last 12 months taking 35 wkts in 25 matches, but not many people know that his 22 wickets were against the minnows, Bangladesh, HongKong and Zimbabwe, his SR against South Africa and India was much lower and his Economy rate was much higher against India.
Hopefully Mansoor Amjad will come in his place and Saeed Ajmal will take Malik’s positon.
Good news Afridi is out, bad news Malik is back.
NC A lot of people think Yousuf is a submissive type of person, thats completely wrong I have seen him yelling and cursing at players in Punjabi, he likes to give his input but the question is why would you waste your words of advice if nobody is listening.Yousuf and Misbah are good friends, Misbah once said that Mohd Yousuf immensly helped him through out his domestic career and helped a lot in removing the flaws in his batting.
I think the seniors were never happy under Malik,they all had a grudge against him as he superceded all of them, he was not working hard and hiding behind other players which is creating pressure on other players, as a result all the players tried to make a statement under Misbah, but PCB again missed the message in that statement.
Misbah is a quiet person, he is highly educated and is quite respected by players although he is new in the team.
They want to continue with Malik as he is the perfect dummy for them.
Wasim, It was incredible to see Yousuf speak. That too not mutter under his breath. He actually spoke to other players. Inc the captain. And there were more smiles than I’ve ever seen under Malik. Younis tho, epitmoizes the ills of sub cont politicking. However, how diff are Yousuf and Misbah?
Even if you include Malik the sisth bowler was always on the paper, I think in the absence of quality all rounders its better to play with 5 regular bowlers.
I am surprised that Ajmal has been around for the last 10 years and nobody paid any attention.
Sri Lanka rested Ajantha Mendis and Vaas India might win today and move to the finals.
You are right about Younis, he picks and choses when to perform I have no doubt about it, I have written a lot about him during the past 2 years, either a player is in form or not,I have rarely seen somebody who switches between being magnificient and ridiculous so much.
Even the ICC doubts him.
He always plays like a superstar in matches from where Pakistan cannot make a comeback.
Misbah has a better personality than Malik, but in the past we have seen that due to factions in the team and because of poor selection based on regionalism some of the great players as captains got humiliated. The problem is not of the captain alone the supporting cast has always been the biggest problem.
I agree it was really funny showing Malik collapse during a fitness test.
Nasir should definitely be in the team. The only problem with that though is the lack of bowling options. How do u fit in the 6th bowler?
Younis remains a mystery to me.
Saeed Ajmal was backed by Misbah, who had been instrumental in getting him in 15 and then the 11.
I want Misbah to captain.