PCB has announced Pakistan’s squad for the six match Odi series against New Zealand and the 30 probables for the world cup 2011. As usual the mindless public outcry has already begun. The jobless Ex-cricketers and Ex officials of PCB are issuing scathing statements aganist PCB and the selection committee over the decision to ignore Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf and over the appointment of Misbah Ul Haq as the Vice captain of the Odi team, the jingoistic media as usual is trying it’s best to protect Afridi and his captaincy. It’s a sad situation nobody seems to be sincere with Pakistan cricket, the think tank of Pakistan cricket is highly opportunistic and their statements only pressurize the board and add confusion in the minds of the fans and the decision makers.
The same people were criticizing the board for not axing Malik a year ago for creating cliques in the team and for under performance, but now when the selectors have dumped him, they want him back. In last 20 Odi’s Malik has only one score above 40, he has consistently failed, his domestic performance is nothing new he always performs well in the domestic tournaments especially when the key players are on international tours. His form and seniority are irrelevant here, the main problem is that he hasn’t been able to satisfy the integrity committee about the source of a deposit of 90,000 pounds in one of his bank accounts, which clearly puts him under investigation and that’s the main reason for ignoring him, everybody knows about this but would still try to use this situation to criticize the selection committee and the Board.
The second case is of Mohammad Yousaf, he was under investigation for the Sydney test but was later on cleared. In last 30 Odi’s he has only 3 scores above 50. There is definitely no question about the class of Yousaf but his recent performance has not been impressive and to be very honest most of his recent innings have been suspicious as he gets on to a good start and soon after he crosses 20′s or 30′s he throws away his wicket to a loose shot. He hasn’t been able to win matches for us as consistently as a player of his stature should have done. His fielding has always been a liability and on top of that he is currently unfit.
In India and Srilanka Pakistan would definitely be needing players who can play spin better, and both Malik and Yousaf are perhaps the best players of spin in Pakistan, their absence will certainly hurt Pakistan’s chances but only on paper as in reality if these players were going to perform the way they have done in their last 20 matches then Pakistan is better off with Misbah and Asad Shafiq.
The absence of these two players would only hurt Pakistan on paper on the field Asad and Misbah will perform better than these two.
The third case is of Captaincy, no captain has been announced for the world cup as of yet, Afridi has failed as a captain he has lost most of the Odi and T20 series Pakistan played under him his win loss ratio in Odis is 8: 15 and in t20′s it is 8 : 18. There is no plan in his leadership, the team plays instinctively and as a result we only win due to individual performances on many occasions his brainless aggression while batting was the main reason for our loss. Through out his 15 years of international career the sense of responsibility, match awareness, and the ability to read the situation and change gears accordingly has been missing, his fans have given him a license to be stupid and that is harming Pakistan cricket. His fans in his defense give an argument that he is just a bowler who can bat but that is not true he plays as an all rounder and does not bat according to his potential, his bowling performance has also declined which diminishes his value as a player in the team.
In a tournament like World cup every team needs a strong leader who can lead by example, handle difficult situations and can play according to the situation, Afridi lack in all these departments.
PCB is fully justified in contemplating a change of leadership in the team for the world cup, I wonder why there is so much criticism about Misbah’s nomination as a vice captain and a potential candidate for ODi captaincy, he is averaging 114 as a captain and has led a much weaker team than Afridi and produced better results, the team is performing like a team under him and average players are churning up better performance and on every occasion in the last two test series when the team was in trouble Misbah pulled it out of trouble because he batted responsibly and according to the situation.
In my opinion Pakistan stands no chance in the world cup under Afridi unless he changes his game drastically but that it is almost impossible for him to shed the school boy brand of cricket and start playing maturely, nothing predicts behavior like behavior. Pakistan would have won against England and SA had Afridi shown just a little bit of responsibility.
Misbah or Younis are the best candidates to lead the team in the world cup.
Cricket Pundits are not giving any importance to Pakistan team in the world cup but if the selectors selected the team on merit then Pakistan still has the ability to win the world cup. Everybody is declaring India, England and South Africa as favorites.
I think the race will be between India, Pakistan, SriLanka and South Africa.
Pakistan just lost to England and SA away from home, the result was 3-2 in both series, both losses were marginal and were affected by poor umpiring.This clearly shows Pakistan can beat any team and in home like conditions they will definitely dominate these teams.They have a few grey areas, players like Afridi, Razzaq and Umar Akmal can win matches single handedly but they do not deliver consistently and in the absence of consistency these players more than often cause a collapse. The bowling line still has some teeth but unless Umar Gul, Afridi and Ajmal regain their form of last two years, Pakistan won’t win the world cup they can reach the semis but in order to win the cup these three bowlers will have to be at the top of their form.
The pundits always under estimate SriLanka they have lost only one series last year, they’ve got a good team and will enjoy home advantage.
I still believe that the defending champs have an outside chance, Australia has a good limited overs side but it will all depend on the form of Clarke and Ponting as Micheal Hussey is doubtful for the world cup due to severe injury, their pace attack with the return of Tait and Lee will become quite threatening but they have too many things to fix in the batting department. They will also have to overcome the demoralizing affect of recent defeats. England is a team which is on the rise but they rely heavily on their seamers who prefer home like seaming conditions and will find it extremely hard to adjust in subcontinetal conditions they do have a world class spinner but their recent record in India is miserable.They will also have to adjust from hard bouncy wickets to slow and low wickets of subcontinent.
India has home advantage but they have some serious issues with their bowling they have just named two pacers(Zaheer & Nehra) in their 15 men squad, it would be a blasphemy to call Munaf and Praveen as pacers. But despite their weakness in the bowling department India still will be the team to beat, just because of their batting, home grounds and spinners.
South African players have considerable experience to play in India and at the moment they have a very balanced team, their batting line up is in form their bowling has variety.
Pakistan’s squad for ODI series in NZ:
Pakistan ODI squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Muhammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Umer Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umer Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Tanveer Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad
Pakistan’s 30 probables for the World cup 2011:
Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Taufiq Umar, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Naveed Yasin, Kamran Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Salman Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Tanvir Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema, Asad Ali.
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