How so? They have some pretty good openers in the country although they seem hesitant to pick them. Why do you think that this aspect is Pakistan's biggest weakness?Quite obviously Opening batsman are their biggest weakness.
Because they chop and change their openers every series, show no faith in them and hence never establish a combination. This creates constant undue pressure on them and results in continued failures there. Take your selections for example - Butt and Malik. In the last test series they played, they used Hafeez and Farhat. Hafeez averaged nearly 50 before the South Africa series - dropping him now would be making the same mistake they've made so many times before.How so? They have some pretty good openers in the country although they seem hesitant to pick them. Why do you think that this aspect is Pakistan's biggest weakness?
I confess I actually forgot about Mohammad Hafeez, mainly due to how dire he is in ODI cricket which Pakistan have been playing a bit of recently. In my ideal side I would have Butt and Hafeez opening with Malik coming in down the order a bit more. I can't help that the selectors chop and change, although I do suppose that this adds to the opening dilemna.Because they chop and change their openers every series, show no faith in them and hence never establish a combination. This creates constant undue pressure on them and results in continued failures there. Take your selections for example - Butt and Malik. In the last test series they played, they used Hafeez and Farhat. Hafeez averaged nearly 50 before the South Africa series - dropping him now would be making the same mistake they've made so many times before.
And your talk of manufactured openers... well what is Malik then? He probably has it in him to become a good opener if he focuses on it, however with the added captaincy pressures and the fact that he still considers himself a genuine allrounder, doing so might not be the best idea.
Opening is a grave concern at the moment - whether it be talent, coaching, selection or whatever, it's a serious problem. Much more than their fielding which is meh to me.
No match fitness (As far as international standards are concerned) !!!As mentioned above, what happened to players of the calibre of Asim Kamal? I know India try hard to make debutants look good but Kamal actually looked like a pretty good prospect.
Their middle order is pretty decent, their fast bowling is one of the best in the world. Spinner wise, in test cricket, i'm not convinced with Danish Kaneria, but he's ok. Not a weakness at least.How so? They have some pretty good openers in the country although they seem hesitant to pick them. Why do you think that this aspect is Pakistan's biggest weakness?
Just incase anyone's interested, Fazl-E-Akbar plays for Chichester in the Sussex league and frequently tears it up, season after season.Pakistan has 2 problems.
1) Their selectors are as fickle-minded as their supporters. They constantly drop players based on one poor series, almost no one gets a consistent run in the side, and of the players who do get a consistent run in the side are the Samis, Afridis, razzaqs(tests), naved ul hasans when instead you would think the more efficient and devoted players like Asim Kamal, Mohammad Hafeez and Fazl-E-Akbar's of this world would be given the chance to play and develop.
2) They lack discipline, but that is obvious given Shoaib Akthar, the steroids, the ball tampering and god knows what not that has haunted Pakistan over the years. Then theres the classic indiscipline of players just playing like amateurs, like this game: http://www.howstat.com.au/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=1846
when nearly all of their batsmen got caught playing the pull/hook shot.