It seems like Khalid Latif was just invited to the camp to be the new water boy.
Pakistan Cricket Board Selection Committee has announced the following 16 players for the One-Day Series against India scheduled to start on 5 Novemeber 2007.
Pakistan will leave for India on November 1 and play the first ODI at Guwahati on November 5.
Pakistan will also play three Tests which follow the one-day series. The Test squad will be announced later.
Squad:
Shoaib Malik (captain)
Salman Butt
Imran Nazir
Yasir Hameed
Younis Khan
Mohammad Yousuf
Shahid Afridi
Misbah-ul-Haq
Fawad Alam
Kamran Akmal
Mohammad Asif
Shoaib Akhtar
Umar Gul
Sohail Tanvir
Abdur Rehman
Iftikhar Anjum Itinerary:
November 5: First one-day international, Guwahati
November 8: Second one-day international, Mohali
November 11: Third one-day international, Kanpur
November 15: Fourth one-day international, Gwalior
November 18: Fifth one-day international, Jaipur
with players like salman butt, ifthikar anjum, sohail tanvir, younis khan, yaseer hameed we can never beat India..Salman butt is not in form and too slow for ODI , i would rather see abdur razaq open the innings for pakistan.
Yasir Hameed scored 10runs in 37 balls at strike rate of 33.33 , why is he in the team.
well mr Butt has been officialy removed as a VC. The new VC will be announced before the team leaves for india. I dont think so this is going to be much of a surprise. Its going to be Afridi.
PCB have tried many opener since 2003 but none are able to perform. After the world cup 2003 PCB tried Taufiq and Hafeez and they both failed. We tried Hafeez and Imran farhat, Imran tried to play too flushing and usually got out by silly mistakes. Imran * tullay baaz * Nazir got some many chances but his shot selection is too poor and tried to hit every ball. Yasir * fisherman * Hameed also has shot selection problem, he needs to stop fishing. Taufiq * test class opener * Umer*, *he had failed few times in the past, poor foot work and very poor technic.Salman * fluent English speaker * Butt poor performance...silly mistakes, as VC he should play with responsibility.
Every now and then some of these players have shown some sign of improvement but there is no consistence in their performance.
Where are the Genuine Openers? Is Pakistan not able to produce genuine opener or is it because selectors are not willing look beyond nazir, salman and Hafeez?
In my opinon we can only resolve this issue by requesting Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan to take the responsibly to open in ODI. Both of these players are very experience in ODI format of the game If they became the permanent opener than we should be able to bring in a solid middle order from domestic cricket and plug him in the team. Bazid Khan, Adnan Raza, Usman Tariq, Fawad Alam and Shahid Yousuf... anyone of them should be a good choice for middle order. I would also move Akmal up in the order so he is not waisted at 7th or 8th position.
We will have to look beyond Misbha (33 years old) and Mohammad Yousef (34 years old) who probably won't play for more then 2 years (2009).
1- Younis Khan
2- Shoaib Malik
OR
1- ??? / Afaq Raheem /Khurram Manzoor / Khalid Latif / Imran Ali
2- Younis Khan
3- Shoaib Malik
4- Mohammad Yousef
5- Kamran Akmal
6- Adnan Raza
7- Fawad Alam
8- Shahid Afridi
9- Shoaib Akhtar
10- Umar Gul / Muhammad Asif
11- Yasir Ali / Najaf Shah
I dont think so any new player will get a chance in India or Aus series. However, if Pak plays ODI series at home against Zim in Dec or Jan, we might see some new caps.
*Team for 1st ODI
*
01 *Sohaib Malik
02 Younis Khan
03 Shahid Afridi
04 Mohammad Yousuf
05 +Kamran Akmal
06 Misbah-ul-Haq
07 Fawad Alam
08 Sohail Tanver
09 Shoaib Akhtar
10 Umar Gul
11 Mohammad Asif
*Team for 1st ODI
*
01 *Sohaib Malik ->Open the inning just like SA captain GC Smith
02 Younis Khan -> Mature player, should open with Malik
03 Shahid Afridi -> Waisted at 7th, take advantage at power play
04 Mohd Yousuf -> hope he clicks and score big.
05 +Kamran Akmal -> should use him as batsman, if failed replace him.
06 Misbah-ul-Haq -> hope he clicks and have good series
07 Fawad Alam -> hope he clicks and have good series
08 Sohail Tanver -> hope he clicks and have good series
09 Shoaib Akhtar -> hope he clicks and have good series
10 Umar Gul -> hope he clicks and have good series
11 Mohd Asif -> hope he clicks and have good series
^^ Good team, but I think Malik should open with Afridi. There's no point in him coming in at number 3. Since he hasn't really done much in the lower order, a quick 30-40 from him as an opener would provide a good foundation for the middle order. If he fails, oh well. The other openers aren't doing anything either.
