genuinely impressed by the spirit shown by the team. we have two former/potential captains combining perfectly with each other, and working without friction under the current captain. there seems to be good interaction between them. shoaib akhtar is throwing himself around in the field. afridi is back in the bowling groove. senior players are playing like senior players. Gul needs to find his mojo, Akhtar needs to stay fit.. Akmal needs to well no point wishing for that one. its not that i expect them to win the world cup, but this is a team I want to follow and cheer for, its what Pakistan should be.
Come on guys - how many batsmen do they need - paranoia driven planning doesn't produce winners...
There are batsmen all the way down to no. 6 then you have Afridi, Razzaq, Gul all of those can hit....
Agree that Misbah and YK will be targeted by the next smart top team since they will be observing that this has become Pakistan's center pin. They will try to break them and get both or one out quickly, however the rest of the 4 full time bats and 2 all rounders Afridi and Razzaq should practice batting in the nets just as hard to make sure if they are needed they are ready. The openers need to shake off their jitters and start giving 100 run opening stands in 100 balls..They should be told that this is their job. Not saying that it will happen but atleast the message should be clear from captain and coach. Shehzad is all nerves right now and Hafeez as well...they are much better players than this.
Finally they can drop ARehman and add a quick bowler to open with Akhtar and that quick needs to be tried in the upcoming game against minnow.
Keeping hafeez is better then keeping a full time spinner (ARehman or Ajmal).
rehman is in no way a better a bowler than ajmal, he needs to be replaced.
i don't mind having razzaq in the team, sooner or later the misbah/younis magic will run out and we will need experience to stabilize the batting
this is a long world cup and Pakistan needs to keep its eye on the prize. There is no reason for Akhtar or Misbah to play the next game against Canada.
I only have one thing to say to his numerous haters on this forum; Akhtar still has IT. All of you should be thanking the heavens now for not sacrificing his abilities for line-and-length acha bacha bowlers like Rao etc. It's only matchwinners like Akhtar or Afridi that can win us this tournament, and thank God we also picked some youngsters with flair this time around (Shehzad, Umar Akmal) instead of choochas like Fawad Alam.
What about dropping one of the Akmals, i say Kamran Akmal, and bringing in Asad Shafique, 2ndly, drop Gul and bring in Wahab Riaz or Junaid...
Rest of the team is fine, Misbah should play against Canada as well.. infact all the other team should remain the same, doesn't matter what team they are playing... but one message should be sent to players that they need to perform or atleast they should try to perform..
Kamran Akmals performance in this watch could have cost us the match... Umer Akmal now only perform against the weaker i.e. mini minows... one of them need to rested, if U Akmal has to play they he can keep the wickets.. atleast this will send message to Kamran Akmal...
Kamran Akmal is the only specialist keeper in the team. His keeping was below-par for sure - missed stumping Sangakarra twice - and he was also responsible for Hafeez’s runout (althought Hafeez should not have been looking at the ball) but he did make some runs against SLA. Umar Akmal is not a specialist keeper and we need his runs more than his keeping skills
[quote="“hanibal, post:25, topic:236925"”]
What about dropping one of the Akmals, i say Kamran Akmal, and bringing in Asad Shafique, 2ndly, drop Gul and bring in Wahab Riaz or Junaid…
Rest of the team is fine, Misbah should play against Canada as well.. infact all the other team should remain the same, doesn’t matter what team they are playing… but one message should be sent to players that they need to perform or atleast they should try to perform..
Kamran Akmals performance in this watch could have cost us the match… Umer Akmal now only perform against the weaker i.e. mini minows… one of them need to rested, if U Akmal has to play they he can keep the wickets.. atleast this will send message to Kamran Akmal…
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Just because Gul had an off day (can happen to any bowler) does not mean we should drop him! He is our strike bowler, a match-winning bowler along with Akhtar and Afridi. I do agree though that Wahab should be in the team. Maybe Rehman should make way for him
We all know that, but unfortunately he doesn't realize that.
He does now (mainly because he has lost a little bit of pace), and just to be clear, I'm fully in support of the mentality of "if you can bowl 150 kph, knock the batsmen's teeth out". What he did in his younger days is something he should never regret.
He does now (mainly because he has lost a little bit of pace), and just to be clear, I'm fully in support of the mentality of "if you can bowl 150 kph, knock the batsmen's teeth out". What he did in his younger days is something he should never regret.
Sure, he should, but at the same time maintain fitness to do it :D
I think Wahab Riaz needs to be in the team, we need another death bowler since Gul looks really out of form and just can't get the yorkers going. Abdul Rehman should make way. If we want to play a spinner it should be Saeed Ajmal anyway.
Absolutely, Shoaib was at his lethal best when he was bowling 150kph. That said, I didn’t notice this during the match but it seems he did bowl 160 kph during yesterday’s match: Facebook
Kamran Akmal once again had a pathetic display of keeping. Just reminded me of his stupid run-out miss in Australia. As many would remember, that run-out was so stupid that it looked like he did it deliberately.
The guy either has some screw loose or he once again was sold to bookies.
On the other hand, Afridi is getting better every day. He is the one who rises to the occasion.
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