PCB has announced the Pakistan team for all three formats for the upcoming series against New Zealand.
Squads:
ODI (16 members): Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Khalid Latif, Younis Khan (captain), Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Rao Iftikhar, Wahab Riaz.
Twenty20 (15 members): Khalid Latif, Imran Nazir, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi (captain),Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Rao Iftikhar, Saeed Ajmal, Imran Farhat, Fawad Alam, Sohail Tanvir.
Test squad (18 members): Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor, Imran Farhat, Younis Khan (captain), Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal, Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamir, Abdur Rauf, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed.
Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Faisal Iqbal, Yasir Arafat, Khalid Latif and Sohail Tanvir are making a return to International cricket whereas Misbah Ul Haq has been dropped from all three formats.
Once again the selectors have decided to change the openers, PCB selectors are continously rotating openers after every series since last two years and not allowing one couple to settle down by giving it a longer run. Iqbal Qasim has probably tried to play it safe by selecting every single opener in the country, I think he has seriously neglected the bench strength for the middle order.
Imran Farhat scored an innings of 141 against the weak bowling of Karachi blues and he was immidiately picked up for all three formats. He scored 12 & 14 against KRL which has a decent pace attack that included the new pace sensation Mohammad Irfan. He has scored just 6 runs in the first innings of HBL in their on going match WAPDA. I don’t think Imran farhat should have been selected for all three formats he has never been a good test batsman at most the selectors should have selected him for T20′s.
Salman Butt’s innings of 177 against Lahore Shalimar impressed the selectors enough to recall him. Lahore Shalimar team also doesn’t include any renowned bowler, he scored 6 & 8 against NBP whose bowling line up includes Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Talha and Mohammad Aamer. He scored 0 in the first innings of NBP’s ongoing match against ZTBL whose bowling line up includes Razzaq, Sohail Tanvir and Rao Iftikhar. Scoring a big century against a club level bowling on a flat track doesn’t prove anything Salman Butt has serious flaws in his batting, he has been given a very long stint as an opener perhaps the longest amongst the current crop but he has not managed to correct his technical flaws.
PCB should stop this policy of change for the sake of change and should carefully analyze the technique of the openers before selecting them and they should also keep in mind the quality of opposition before taking into account the domestic performance of its players.
Khalid Latif is another opener who has been selected, Khalid scored a mammoth innings of 254 against a completely un known and inexperienced bowling attack of Peshawar. He scored another century against Abbottabad which also doesn’t include any renowned bowlers. Khalid often scores heavily against domestic clubs but he failed miserably when he was first selected under Shoaib Malik.
Khurram Manzoor is also scoring heavily in the on going Quaid e Azam trophy. He scored 241 against KRL and 117 against Sui Northern and has scored 51 against Pakistan customs. Both of his centuries were against good bowling attacks. Khurram was dropped after the Srilankan series where his performance was not that impressive he also has technical flaws he is not a great on side player and mostly likes to play square of the wicket and often loses his wicket if his runs are blocked in that region or if he tries to play his favorite cut short too frequently.
Fawad Alam who was used as an opener against Srilanka in the test matches is also scoring heavily in domestic cricket he scored a century against Lahore Shalimar and another century aganist Wapda which has a decent bowling attack. Fawad has not been selected for Odi’s which surprised me a lot, I think he should have been selected in place of Salman Butt.
Imran Nazir has been dropped from the Odi’s and test team, although Nazir failed to make any positve impact in any of the champions trophy matches but I think even if he scores quick 20′s or 30′s and gives his team a flying start I would still prefer him over a batsman who wastes too many deliveries and then fails to build an innings. I think since Pakistan doesn’t have any established regular opener they should have continued with Nazir in Odis’s to make full use of Power Plays.
The inclusion of Faisal Iqbal is completely questionable, I think he is only in the team because he is the nephew of Miandad, he hasn’t done anything of note with with Pakistan A team or at the domestic level to deserve his place in the team. It’s a shame for Miandad that a player of his stature doesn’t believe on merit. I think Faisal Iqbal’s place should have gone to Saeed anwar junior who has scored the best century in the tournament against a strong bowling line up of Habib Bank which includes Umar gul, Danish Kineria, Shahid Nazir and Abdur Rahman. Or Azhar Ali should have been given a chance for his consistent domestic performance. Bilal Khilji is another player who scored a mammoth match saving innings of 161 against NBP against bowlers like Asif, Aamer and Talha.
PCB should stop this policy of playing muscial chairs game with a pool of tested and tried players and should give chance to youngsters who perform well against quality teams in the domestic circuit. Umar Akmal only got a chance because his brother was already in the team, but it seems PCB is reluctant to try new players. We can never find replacement for our aging middle order unless we show some confidence in our young players especially against weaker teams.
The selection of Yasir Arafat and Rao Iftikhar baffles my mind. Evidently under Younis PCB has adopted a new policy of rotating senior players and dividing matches between them on quota basis. I don’t think either one of them deserves a place, they are not the future of Pakistan team and the likely hood of them making any positive impact on the game if given a chance is very minimal. I think PCB should have selected Talha and Sohail Khan in their place.
The only noteable ommision was of Misbah Ul Haq, who scored 284 for Sui Northern in their last match. Misbah deserved to be dropped because he failed to perform.
The form of Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousaf is also questionable they haven’t given a single good performance in the QEA trophy. If YK had selected influenced the selection of a Azhar Ali or Saeed Anwar Jr that could have provided him with some reserve strength to fall back upon.
Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi are resting and taking full advantage of being the captain and vice captain of the team they are not playing the domestic matches. Younis reportedly has gone fishing.
In NBA when a team makes an early exit from a tournament they say it has gone fishing probably YK has taken that expression literally. I wonder how fishing will help him in regaining his poor form, now don’t tell me that his chichi is still hurting, it was just a hair line fracture it should have healed by now.
Please ignore that previous comment. I accidently pressed some button b4 finishing.
Yh I agree that Nazir should have been in the ODI team. He applies pressure on the opposition early on with his counter attack style and can really get the innings tempo and tone flowing. Nonetheless, he’s in the T20 reckoning and I look forward to see him dominate with his flamboyance there
and show the selectors what they have been missing !
Yh I agree that Nazir should have been in the ODI team. He applies pressure on the opposition early on with his counter attack style and can really the innings tempo and tone. Nonetheless, he’s in the T20 reckoning and I look forward to see him dominate with his flamboyance there.
What in the world is happening on the administration front? The whole episode of match fixing, Younis Khan-Afridi-Misbah rifts were so silly and blown to ridiculous levels. The manner in which both the administrators and the players reacted were also dumb. It is high time especially players from the sub-continent start reacting to anything put across by the media.
As for the selections, Fawad looks like a bright spot. I watched his innings against Srilanka. I suppose they should now have one spot in the opening slot fixed for a while.
Afridi has made a statement that he and YK get along very well and their is no problem between them.
If this is true then what were they trying to sort out.
Yk has said that he has no grudge against any player and those who have problems with him should come out in open.
He also said that he will not tolerate lack of commitment.
I have grilled Younis enough in my last few posts. But I fully support him in taking action against players who play politics in the team and do not give their 100%
Whether it is Malik , Afridi or Misbah Yk should not tolerate underperformance.
But he will have to show his own commitment to curb this menace and for that he will have to lead from the front and will have select his bench on merit.
He hasn’t done both in recent past. He should have influenced the selection of at least two promising youngsters for the middle order.
At this time when PCB was willing to accept all of his demands he should have looked for substitutes for Malik and Afridi.
Nobody can touch a few players in the team, nobody can even think of selecting their replacements.
If Yk is sincere with Pakistan cricket he will fix this menace now that he has his men in the team management he has all the power if fails now either it will be his lack of sincerity or incompetence.
Can anybody tell me why YK and Afridi are not playing QEA trophy.
YK was seriously out of form and Afridi also looked out of color.
One has gone fishing and the otherone is playing his favorite past time game and that is politics in the team. What are these two guys fighting for, I mean why captaincy is so lucrative for them are there any extra benefits of which people are not aware of. It is also clear now who that Afridi is continously causing problems with in the team. PCB will have to stop the influence of jingoisitic forces in the team. Afridi needs to be put on a tight leash.
Stani
That shows the incompetence of the selectors and the confusion in their minds.
According to Iqbal Qasim the solution for Pakistan’s opening woe’s is to select every damn opener in Pakistan who scores a century against any team in QEA trophy it makes his job easy and nobody will be able to point finger at him.
But imagine the problems for the team managment.
Misbah deserved to be rested his 284 is against unknown bowlers and its the same team against which Butt scored 177.
PCB is going in circles as far as their policy of regular openers Vs make shift openers is concerned.
The selection of Imran Farhat for test matches and Khalid latif & Butt for Odi’s is not right, Imran Nazir should have been retained for the Odis.
Wasim,
More absurdity from the Pakistan selectors. I cannot believe Salman Butt has been brought back for no reason what so ever.
They should not have dropped Misbah in my opinion. This looks even worse when they fill the selections with all the newbies. There have been far too many changes.
Agree with you about the middle order lack of strength. Same old story with Iqbal. Why on earth they dropped Nazir from the ODIs I do not know.