***Official*** Pakistan in South Africa

[shortpitched713]

I can maybe give you Afridi, but Sami??? Say it ain't so SP!

Give him a match or two before the World Cup. If hes as dire as hes been in the Tests then we drop him. I think he deserves it given that his one day record is considerably better than his Test record, and the latter shouldn't really have affected the former.

 

[Pup Clarke]

given that his one day record is considerably better than his Test record, .

Mate,other way around
Afridi in Test matches average 37.40 and 47wickets@34.89
Afridi in one dayers average 22.91 and 193wickets@36.40

 

[shortpitched713]

A bit hit and miss?.His batting is so unpredictable and he can only be relied to get a quick 20 or 30 at the best of times.And also Malik must be in the squad as he was playing in the 2020game.

Didn't see the 20-20 so I'll take your word for it. Hes not in the squad listed on cricinfo though, so I thought he still might not have recovered. I guess you could bring him in for one of the seamers then.

I've stated though that Afridi is in more for his bowling, and his batting is a considerable plus when he fires. Of course he'll need to perform in this series if he hopes to retain his spot.

 

[shortpitched713]

Mate,other way around
Afridi in Test matches average 37.40 and 47wickets@34.89
Afridi in one dayers average 22.91 and 193wickets@36.40

I was reffering to Sami.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I was reffering to Sami.

Right

 

[shortpitched713]

For my liking Sami should be taken care of by giving Abdul Rehman a chance . For what I have seen for an off spinner Rehman is second only to Murali who give as much spin to the ball as humanly possible . Success rate and the variety is a different issue . Rehman does give the ball a lot of spin and it is un-believable !!!

I agree that Rehman seems to have some promise, but normally I wouldn't think he'd be neccessary on a SA pitch. That being said, if we wanted to go with two spinners, I'd rather go with both Malik and Afridi as they both provide something with the bat. Rehman would be the obvious choice if Afridi fails.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Always thought Salman Butt looked a decent player and will be a much better option than Imran Nazir.Wonder why he's not in contention for the squad but probably plays a bit like Farhat but has a tighter defence IMO.

 

[shortpitched713]

As far as i am concerned they should play Nazir in the first 2 to 3 games atleast.....we need a attacking opener for one-days.....yasir hameed is not really a good striker of the ball but i can understand why people might have him in the team, for me Nazir should be there instead.

1: Mohammad Hafeez
2: Imran Nazir
3: Younis Khan
4: Mohammad Yousuf
5: Inzamam-ul-Haq
6: Shoaib Malik
7: Abdul Razzaq
8: Kamran Akmal
9: Rana Naved
10: Umar Gul
11: Mohammad Asif

And once akhtar is fit for WC (hopefully) then Rana should be replaced by Akhtar. And that for me is the best pakistani line-up for WC.

I maybe could understand that you'd want to play Nazir as an aggressive opening option, but wouldn't it make more sense to put him in for Hafeez instead of Hameed, especially considering Hafeez's one day record leaves a lot to be desired.

Also, I can't understand why you'd want to drop Naved for Shoaib especially considering that he has consistently been our best bowler in ODIs bar none. I would think it would be Gul who would probably have to go, sad as I would be to see that happen.

 

[shortpitched713]

Always thought Salman Butt looked a decent player and will be a much better option than Imran Nazir.Wonder why he's not in contention for the squad but probably plays a bit like Farhat but has a tighter defence IMO.

Agree with you on Salman Butt looking considerably better than Nazir, but apparently Pakistan goes with the merry go round approach to picking openers instead of looking at who could actually perform well.

 

[FRAZ]

Agree with you on Salman Butt looking considerably better than Nazir, but apparently Pakistan goes with the merry go round approach to picking openers instead of looking at who could actually perform well.

As long as the seniors won't step forward to take up the responsibility to open along with the youngster ,the problem will stay there .

 

[haroon510]

As long as the seniors won't step forward to take up the responsibility to open along with the youngster ,the problem will stay there .

i agree with u
i was wondering if they give younis and yousuf a chance to open in one of these games. in 2000 yousuf was playing in one down position and younis is playing in one down right now. pakistan has tried alot of new combinations of openers. it won't hurt them for a game or two to try this pair. i simply won't mind pakistan losing this one day series. WC is more important to and win. so from where i see pakistan should play this series to prepare the team for world cup. maybe trying to find ideal openers in both bowling and bating and also take care of their wicket keeping problem as i see kamran akmal not performing international level of keeping.

 

[FRAZ]

My long term Pakistan

Shoaib Malik
Younis Khan
Abdul Razzaq/Asim Kamal
Mohammad Hafeez
Mohammad Yousaf
Yasir Hameed
Shahid Afridi
Kamran Akmal
Shoaib Akhtar
Danish/Rehman/Rana/Shabbir/Gul
Asif
And one down is a debateable issue so let the debate begin !!

 

[Perm]

Always thought Salman Butt looked a decent player and will be a much better option than Imran Nazir.Wonder why he's not in contention for the squad but probably plays a bit like Farhat but has a tighter defence IMO.

Fallen from favour after a lack of runs in his last few tests but he looked the goods for a while there.

 

[nightprowler10]

Fallen from favour after a lack of runs in his last few tests but he looked the goods for a while there.

Went downhill since his ton against India in the first ODI. Not sure what happened. Anybody who can score a ton in Australia in a test match must have some good talent.

 

[shortpitched713]

Butt was another case of selector stupidity. His form rapidly deterioted in Tests, but he never really looked that bad in ODIs. I think dropping him in Tests for someone like Mohammad Hafeez wouldn't have been such a bad idea, but I don't think they gave him enough time to regain his form in ODIs.

And then they replaced him with Imran Farhat, a man who if anything looks like a more unreliable version of Butt.

 

[FRAZ]

Butt was another case of selector stupidity.

As far as Butt is concerned,My younger Brother Abdullah Saif Waraich played a match for his team (I guess PCC) against the Butt's team at the model town cricket ground and my brother got him stumped while he was trying to attack him ! Honestly speaking bar Inzamam and Tendulkar ,no teenage batsman of sub-continent ever impressed me ........... Selectors have this non-scientific strategy of picking up a promising youngster and then exposing him/her to all the harshnesses of international level and once he/she gets picked up by the bully bowlers then they dump the youngster .They are just plain stupid tbh . And I think may be Inzamam has some sort of a hand in the failure ,dropping or selection of Butt (I am not sure).

 

[Fusion]

SA off to a good start. 19 runs off the first 2 overs.

 

[haroon510]

what is rana doing here man?. giving alot of runs here. asif is puting pressure and rana gives runs. rabbish bowling. i dont know why shabbir isn't in the team in place of sami.

 

[Xuhaib]

Pitch looks a road I expect 330+.

 

[alternative]

Smith murdering Naved, 27 runs so far of the over.