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Pakistan team left for Abu Dhabi to play a three match ODi series against West Indies,  Pakistan squad recieved another setback when opener Nasir Jamshed reported himself unfit on the morning of the team’s departure, Khurram Manzoor has been announced as his replacement, Khurram has been in good form and scored a double century in his last match against Punjab his team mate and fellow opener Khalid Latif was named the replacement for Mohammad Yousuf who defected to ICL last week.

Pakistan Squad

Shoaib Malik (captain), Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Salman Butt, Khalid Latif, Khurrum Manzoor, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Sohail Tanvir, Abdur Rauf, Saeed Ajmal.

Likely eleven:

Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor or Khalid latif , Younis Khan, Misbah Ulhaq , Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir

I would prefer Khurram Manzoor over Khalid Latif as Khurram always scores more than Khalid but somehow fails to win the confidence of the selectors. The selectors think that Khalid has a better technique than Khurram.

As a captain this might be the last series of Shoaib Malik, although Coach Intikhab Alam announced today that the minor rifts in the team have been resolved but I doubt it, there are still three aspiring captains in the team, Malik never had any personal spat with any of the senior players, he was accused by some senior players that he is nice and supportive on their face but conspires against them with the administration.

We all know Malik had no control over selection so how can he conspire, he did tried to exclude Afridi on a few occasions but wasn’t successful, I think any captain would have done the same given Afridi’s pathetic form with the bat and his inconsistent form with the ball against quality teams, but other than that he always tried to support Afridi on the field and always changed his batting order according to Afridi’s wishes but still if there is a spat it has to be about money and control of the team, the other player who complained about Malik was Shoaib Akhtar, he has never been a candidiate for captaincy but probably felt a bit let down when Malik didn’t stood up for him against the board and now he holds a grudge against Malik.

Younis Khan and Umar Gul also have strained relations with Malik. Malik sent Umar Gul back home from India as the bowler was not listening to him later on it was said that Gul got injured, both Lawson and Malik complained to the higher management several times that Gul doesn’t listen, which is a fact, Gul bowls like a champion in some matches but in key matches he is up and down the track doesn’t bowl according to the field and performs so poorly that you start thinking is he the same bowler who was so brilliant in the earlier matches. Younis and Gul play for the same team in domestic cricket and have very close friendship.

Malik has been a dummy captain with no powers at all, probably this was the main reason due to which Younis rejected the job, in the past Inzamam kept all the players happy he consistently played with a certain group of players regardless of their performance as a result all these players still respect him.

In the past there have been rifts in the team because the captains and key players took the lion’s share from the money recieved from illicit activities as a result there were rifts in the team for the control of the team, under Inzi there was no such problem he kept everybody happy and is still luring disgruntled players to ICL and looking after their financial well being.

PCB under Nasim Ashraf took full control of the Pakistan team and curtailed the powers of the captain and tried to curtail “player’s power” by implementing a strict discplinary code but they faltered big time as they didn’t had a strong bench and as a result they had to flipflop on every major disciplinary action.

Malik will never be a sucessful captain if he won’t have the support of core players, the upcoming series against West Indies will determine his fate, majority of the senior players are out of form Younis, Misbah, Afridi and Kamran Akmal all of them exhibited poor batting form in the domestic season he has lost his most dependable batsman to ICL, the bowlers showed some improvement but it will be hard for him to win this series if his key batsmen are out of form, and if he doesn’t win this series it will be his last series as a captain.

The team selected for Abu Dhabi has been done mostly on merit, Misbah Ul haq and Kamran Akmal are completely out of form, but given their seniority and the unavailability of suitable replacements they were given automatic selection, Rao Iftikhar was selected over Sohail Khan which is completely unfair, although I don’t think Sohail will be successful against big teams right now as what I have seen of him so far he is fast but completely flat, he can’t swing the ball but still he deserved the selection over Rauf or Rao as his domestic performance was far more superior than these bowlers, but those who think that he is better than Shoaib or is ready to replace Shoaib Akhtar are completely wrong as Sohail can’t move the ball.

West Indies team recently won the $20 million match against England and their confidence level must be quite high, their team has improved over the last year, but Pakistan team is still strong enough to win this series provided that the team plays like a unit.