***PCB selectors are ready to make wholesome changes for the Champions Trophy but certain senior players Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul are likely to be retained for the tournament.
Pakistan’s national selection committee will meet in Lahore on Friday to name the probables for the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England in June.
“The chief selector, Iqbal Qasim, has been told by the Pakistan Cricket Board to hold a meeting of its selection committee to name the probables for the Champions Trophy. The participating nations will have to submit a preliminary list of 30 players by April 4 and then the final squad of 15 by May 4,” a source told PTI.
The selectors will also examine the reasons behind Pakistan’s disappointing tour of South Africa, where they lost both the Test and ODI series.
“The meeting which is to be held on Friday could also see serious discussions on the future of some senior players,” the source added.
“The selectors are ready to make wholesome changes for the Champions Trophy but some players Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul are likely to be retained for the tournament,” he added.**
re: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Pakistan squad announced
If they are ready for “wholesome changes” but want to keep Younis, Afridi and Gul then what is the point of changes? They want to drop new faces and bring older faces back?
re: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Pakistan squad announced
Instead of making a serious effort to win what will be the last edition of CT, we are repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results! Based on performance only Misbah among the seniors deserves to stay. YK, Afridi, Malik and Kamran Akmal all (or atleast 3 of them) need to go and be replaced by Asad, Hammad, Haris Sohail & Umar Akmal respectively.
There are 8 teams and Pakistan are in Group B along with India, South Africa & West Indies. We are the only team in our group to not have won CT. In fact we have yet to reach a final!
Australia are the only team to have won it twice and they will be seeking a hat-trick of wins in England in June
CT Winners:
1998 - South Africa (beat WI)
2000 - NZ (beat India)
2002 - India/SLA joint winners (rain washed out final twice)
2004 - WI (beat England)
2006 - Australia (beat WI)
2009 - Australia (beat NZ)
re: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Pakistan squad announced
Pakistan make to semifinals if we don't keep trundlers in the team, no Umar Gul, no Afridi, no Younis Khan and no Malik. Irfan, Junaid and Ajmal are must, Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shahzad, Shahzaib, and Asad should be in, I wish Fawad to be taken on board as well.
re: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Pakistan squad announced
Pakistan make to semifinals if we don't keep trundlers in the team, no Umar Gul, no Afridi, no Younis Khan and no Malik. Irfan, Junaid and Ajmal are must, Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shahzad, Shahzaib, and Asad should be in, I wish Fawad to be taken on board as well.
re: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Pakistan squad announced
I would drop Malik and Afridi and bring in Hammad and Haris.
janab VP sahib, mohtram sir jee ......we need malik...we really do.
every match that we have won playing 2nd since Indian tour is coz of malik....some examples"
first T20 in india,
second ODI in india,
4th ODI in south africa...
and in all these matches, we need 50 to 60 odd runs in last 8-10 overs and he contributed 20-40 runs playing with tailenders and literally finished those matches by playing the winning shot...
no one has been able to do that in Pakistani team after razaq...whenever we needed 50-60 runs in last 8 overs, we used to panic...and that was the biggest gap we had playing 2nd and malik solved that. ** he is the reason why we are winning playing 2nd these days...since his contribution is usually less than 50 (he bats at 6 or 7), people ignore him but those 30-40 runs are golden runs. **
he is a fantastic fielder with supreme fitness, steely nerves, never panics and a very useful bowler....misbah under-bowls him.
so not sure why shd we drop malik? we need him..at least till the world cup if he continues his form...we cannot get rid of every senior player.
re: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Pakistan squad announced
janab VP sahib, mohtram sir jee ......we need malik...we really do.
every match that we have won playing 2nd since Indian tour is coz of malik....some examples"
first T20 in india,
second ODI in india,
4th ODI in south africa...
and in all these matches, we need 50 to 60 odd runs in last 8-10 overs and he contributed 20-40 runs playing with tailenders and literally finished those matches by playing the winning shot...
no one has been able to do that in Pakistani team after razaq...whenever we needed 50-60 runs in last 8 overs, we used to panic...and that was the biggest gap we had playing 2nd and malik solved that. ** he is the reason why we are winning playing 2nd these days...since his contribution is usually less than 50 (he bats at 6 or 7), people ignore him but those 30-40 runs are golden runs. **
he is a fantastic fielder with supreme fitness, steely nerves, never panics and a very useful bowler....misbah under-bowls him.
so not sure why shd we drop malik? we need him..at least till the world cup if he continues his form...we cannot get rid of every senior player.
Younis, afridi and senior akmal need to go.
even though I am a Malik fan I am not impressed with your arguments for two reason. from what I have seen of hammad Azam he is a better all rounder than Malik and can deliver the same and even more runs than you have mentioned. he reminds me of razzaq in his prime. Furthermore a full batsmen like haris will probably do more damage to the opposition than Malik and Afridi combined.
In England we will need fast/medium pacers who can take advantage of the swinging ball conditions which again Hammad can do while malik or Afridi cant.
