3rd ODI PAKISTAN v SOUTH AFRICA @ DUBAI - Nov 2, 2010

[Captain1]

Re: 3rd ODI PAKISTAN v SOUTH AFRICA @ DUBAI - Nov 2, 2010

@GoldenAsif

Captain I am not blaming anyone for the defeat just questioning the team selection and our whole strategy & approach during batting. I would take a fit Umar Akmal - true he can be reckless but he has better technique and hitting ability - over Asad Shafiq in ODI any day and both Yousuf and Gul should play. Farhat made runs today but his ultra go-slow approach also meant that the batsmen that followed him were under undue pressure to get on with it right from the start which might have contributed to their downfall as well. Pakistan traditionally have this bad habit of playing just tuk tuk in the opening overs and leaving everything till the last overs. We need to do better in the initial overs incl. first pp. No blame can be apportioned to Fawad for the defeat because he played his part with the bat. He sure made an error of judgement when he took that single on the 4th ball of the last over but he will learn from his mistakes and be better for it and the decision to send Ajmal ahead of Akhtar was another bad one IMO. And yes Younis and Afridi - well what can you say, any runs from him are a bonus - were the biggest disappointments today

Asif, “strategy and approach” can only be developed and followed (enforced) by a captain who can think and act accordingly. Afridi may be able to ‘think’ (we don’t have any proof) but we all know that he can’t act accordingly. So long as we have Afridi as captain we should never talk about strategy and approach of a chase (specially).

I would’ve chosen Umar Akmal 6-8 months ago when the star was rising but having seen him over the period of one year I will support dropping him for an entire series after telling him that he needs to straighten his act otherwise he will stay on sidelines. He has shown his immaturity now, he throws away his wicket, can’t play the situation.

Asad Shafiq is being messed around now, one day he is opening, then he is one-down, then he is part of middle order. He is a good find, he needs to be persisted with at a particular spot, he can provide the stability we need in the batting line up alongwith Fawad Alam as rest of the team is laparay-baaz or incompetent.

Again, I don’t believe anyone here is Farhat’s fan but today he played a good knock. Had he played his usual game we would’ve cursed him for not playing according to the situation. His innings made sure that we make a game out of it as senior batsmen failed.

Sending out Ajmal vs Akhtar is no biggie in my opinion as Akhtar is not an all rounder, remember batting pitch was not an easy one so Akthar may not have been able to do anything either, we’ll never know that.

Only selection I have is Younis over Yousuf, not sure if Yousuf is injured or not but if he is fit then he should play ahead of Younis.