***Official*** Sri Lanka and Pakistan in UAE 2017

[Black_Warrior]

Happy with the session. A little concerned about the inexperienced seam attack and lack of a second spinner

 

[smash84]

Mods, at least sticky this thread

 

[vcs]

Good to see Karunaratne building on his decent series against India.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Yeah its going to be tough to pick up wickets here. Not sure why Pak went with 3 seamers and that too without Wahab.

 

[vcs]

Amir is obviously an automatic pick. Both he and Abbas bowled well in WI IIRC. Hasan Ali didn't do great, but his Champions Trophy heroics probably got him in.

UAE pitches reward patience, it's going to be an attritional game. SL could have lost the game by losing too many wickets in the first couple of sessions, they've avoided that. Let's see if they can build on this start.

 

[harsh.ag]

Wow. Didn't know this was on. More posting please otherwise I'll have to read cricinfo.

 

[smash84]

lolmal

 

[Black_Warrior]

wow how lucky was that

 

[Black_Warrior]

Amir is obviously an automatic pick. Both he and Abbas bowled well in WI IIRC. Hasan Ali didn't do great, but his Champions Trophy heroics probably got him in.

UAE pitches reward patience, it's going to be an attritional game. SL could have lost the game by losing too many wickets in the first couple of sessions, they've avoided that. Let's see if they can build on this start.

Yeah I get those reasons..but I still don't think this is the ideal combo

Amir has played 2 tests in UAE
Abbas is 3 tests old, 0 tests in UAE
Hasan is 1 test old, 0 tests in UAE

Picking up wickets in UAE is not easy so ideally you don't want to go with an inexperienced attack. Abbas had an excellent tour of West Indies so you can't drop him. Hasan was picked because of his ODI heroics. Ideally I would have played 2 spinners to go with Amir and Abbas but if you're picking 3 seamers, there's no way Wahab doesn't make it ahead of 2 relative rookies when he has been Pakistan's best seamer in UAE after Junaid, and has a 5fer in his last test in UAE and is the best reverse bowler in the country.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Good to see Chandimal among the runs

 

[Black_Warrior]

Loving Shafiq's beard.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Ramiz is getting bored

 

[mr_mister]

Karunratne is starting to become really consistent. keeps choking near a hundred too


and lol at Thirmanne in over De Silva


good to see Dickwella perform as usual

 

[vcs]

Match nicely poised.

 

[SeamUp]

Happy with the session. A little concerned about the inexperienced seam attack and lack of a second spinner

I know it would be pointless to have two leg-spin bowlers in but where is Shadab & his longer version game now ?

 

[Black_Warrior]

I know it would be pointless to have two leg-spin bowlers in but where is Shadab & his longer version game now ?

Had a poor debut and they finally realized that he needs FC overs under the belt. Both Shadab and his coach Mushtaq have mentioned now that they are focusing on FC in the immediate future. Asghar who has been the second spinner in the squad for a while before Shadab is back in the reckoning. A bit disappointed he didnt get a debut here.

This is where Pak missed Misbah. They saw a touch of green on the surface and wrongly concluded that this was a 3 seamer pitch. Arthur since taking over has mostly played overseas and doesn't quite have the grasp of UAE yet.

Even if there is grass, the surface never offers the same bite or movement and 2 spinners is a must here

 

[Black_Warrior]

Pretty even 1st day I would say. Pak bowled well without finding much from the pitch and Chandimal and Karunaratne did well to dig in. Dickwella looks in fine touch and if these two survive the first hour, Sri Lanka could get 400+

 

[Himannv]

Can someone tell me why Thirimanne got a recall?

Selectors are just in it for the lols at the moment and are randomly trying to bring back players who have failed to fill in the captaincy void.

 

[Himannv]

Pakistan are in the driving seat here. This is the last proper pair of batsmen and there's no way they'll survive for long. 300 seems unlikely at this point.

 

[vcs]

Umar Akmal slapped with three-match ban | Cricbuzz.com

"I then went to talk to the chief selector (Inzamam-ul-Haq), but he referred me to Mickey Arthur. Arthur took me back to Inzi bhai's room and started scolding me and using bad language in front of Inzi bhai, which I found demeaning and insulting.

"It's not even my fault, and I find it painful that anyone should be allowed to swear at me. I accept my fitness isn't up to the mark, and I am trying to work on it, and I asked to be allowed a trainer to help me. But Mickey said I shouldn't even have come to the NCA, and should be playing club cricket instead."

Don't know where to put this, but I feel a bit sorry for Akmal there.