The current year will be very important for the world cricket as most of the teams are rebuilding their core and are trying to enhance their bench strength in preparations for the 2011 WC. Both India and Pakistan are going through the same phase and are struggling to find good players who are ready for International cricket its mainly because of poor coaching standards of domestic cricket in both countries The young players either learn by playing against the senior players or they learn from a mentor or coach, unfortunately in Pakistan most of the senior players do not play domestic cricket and prefer to play overseas for monetary reasons, India on the other hand is changing its domestic cricket by introducing IPL and ICL, their young players will get instant exposure to top class international players in near future and they will be better equipped to step into International cricket. Australia is a prime example, they have almost effortlessly reconfigured their core after the retirement of key players their new players have made a smooth and effortless transition into International cricket, this shows that Australia has the most depth as far as their bench is concerned and their new players are completely ready for International cricket before they are drafted.
In the recently concluded series against Zimbabwe Pakistan tried a lot of young players most of them came with a lot of promise and hype preceding them but only a few left any positive impression, almost all the new pace bowlers with the exception of Kamran Hussain were flat and single dimensional none of them was able to move the ball in the air or of the seam, Sohail Khan was the quickest but his average speed was not in 140’s it was in 130’s and the fastest ball he bowled was only @142kph he looked over weight didn’t had a smooth run up and even struggled to bowl a well directed bouncer. He has the talent but he needs to improve his skill level otherwise he will be another Sami in the making, Kamran Hussain swung the ball in both directions although he lacked speed but he can prove to be dangerous in shorter version of the game and on tracks suitable for swing bowling he needs to improve his speed out of all the left handed bowlers he was the only one who could swing the ball in to a right handed batsman. Abdul Rauf had pace he is well built but he was bowling all over the place and failed to swing the ball his run up was good but still needs to be improved. Wahab Riaz was the quickest amongst all the new recruits he is tall lean and has a smooth run up and was not afraid to bowl short the only thing lacking was swing he is young and if he is coached well he can be an exciting prospect for us in future, Pakistan tried three new openers out of which Khurram Manzoor and Nasir Jamshed impressed everybody its too early to say if they will be successful against tougher oppositions but they do have the talent and Pakistan should invest on them in future. Fawad Alam was also tried but his bowling is average he is a good batsman and if he improves his bowling skills he will certainly stay in the team for a long time to come, I was most impressed by Sarfraz Ahmed he is energetic and has good reflexes he is our future keeper.
Pakistan will have to revert back to Shoaib Akhter and Umar gul for the Australian series, Akhter was demoted in the central contract categories, which he has not signed, it seems he wants to keep his options open, by signing on a Rs200,000 per month contract he does not want to tie his hands he is doing movie deals and endorsement deals in India and is trying to signup for county cricket all these ventures are far more lucrative financially than the central contract therefore he snubbed it, he knows there is nobody in the country who can take his place and he can dictate terms.
PCB will never be able to find replacement of Shoaib unless and until they either hire Wasim or Waqar for coaching, bowling is an art and you need a mentor or coach.
A lot of criticism is being hurled at PCB and selectors for trying out so many players against Zimbabwe, I think both India and Pakistan should stay the course and should continue to try out young players until they are satisfied by the Team and its bench players, they might lose a series or two during the process but that is not a high price keeping in view the long term dividends.
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