I like the team that Pakistan has selected for the 1st ODI. It would have been a suicide to go against India with only 5 bowlers. Afridi gives us a 6th bowling option and I think he is a better bowler than Shoaib Malik. According to jang, Afridi will open with Imran Farhat and Yasir will be coming at #3. Its a good strategy but I think it would have been better to have Yasir open with Farhat and then to have Shoaib Malik at #4 and Afridi at #6. This is a good team with a strong bowling attack with Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami and Shabbir up front.
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I agree. With India's powerfull batting lineup, and Razzaq's bowling going down the drain and Sami struggling to find form...it would be suicide to go in with only 5 bowlers. We must have a sixth bowling option. Wasim Bari made it clear, Afridi job would be to score a bit of runs, but most important, bowl a few tight overs and also make the most of his excellent fielding skills. He is by far the best and most consistent fielder in the current Pakistani team.
The following is Pak's best bet in my opinion:
Yasir Hameed
Imran Farhat
Youhana
Inzi
Shoaib Malik
Razzler
Moin Khan
Shobby A
Mohd Sami
Saqi
Shabbir Ahmed
It gives us six bowlers and makes our batting as strong as it can be realistically speaking. Playing Younis Khan will be a waste 'cause the guy is nothing more than a support player. Plus if the rest of the batsmen can't do it, Younis isn't going to either, for sure. If Saqi really looks off colour, replace him with Afridi or Rana Naveed?
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*Originally posted by sambrialian: *
The following is Pak's best bet in my opinion:
Yasir Hameed
Imran Farhat
Youhana
Inzi
Shoaib Malik
Razzler
Moin Khan
Shobby A
Mohd Sami
Saqi
Shabbir Ahmed
It gives us six bowlers and makes our batting as strong as it can be realistically speaking. Playing Younis Khan will be a waste 'cause the guy is nothing more than a support player. Plus if the rest of the batsmen can't do it, Younis isn't going to either, for sure. If Saqi really looks off colour, replace him with Afridi or Rana Naveed?
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Why Saqlain & shoaib malik together?
both are off breaker, we need a leg breaker like Afridi or Danish Keneria.
I don't buy that "can't have two off-spinners/legspinners in one team" theory at all. If we had five world-beating pacers, I would always play five fast men. And similarly if I had a world-class spinner, I would play him even if the track was a seaming paradise. Quality bowlers will always be quality bowlers.
If both of them deserved selection, I would not keep out one of Saqi and Malik just because they're both off-spinners. But that's just my opinion. I've seen many teams play bowlers according to the pitch's nature and fail miserably including the Pak team (England's tour of Pak a couple of years back is an example).
At the end of the day, you just have to go out and bowl at your best and not worry about whether you're an offie or a leggie. But then again, that's just my opinion. :)
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Originally posted by earthquake: *
we need a leg breaker like Afridi or **Danish Keneria.*
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that is a good suggestion in retrospect. I would alternate between Danish and Saqi depending on which specialist spinner is in form. But I would have no qualms playing Afridi with Kaneria and Malik with Saqi just because they turn the ball the same way.
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*Originally posted by earthquake: *
1st ODI team..........
01 Yasir Hameed
02 Imran Farhat
03 Yousuf Youhana
04 Shahid Afridi
05 Inzamam-ul-Haq
06 Abdul Razzaq
07 Shoaib Malik
08 Moin Khan WK
09 Shoaib Akhtar
10 Mohammad Sami
11 Shabbir Ahmed
Any comments?
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BEST Team.. but i am not really sure abt Afridi.. :) lets see him in the first match..
Yasir
Afridi
Yohanna
Inzamam
Younis
Misbah
Razzaq
Moin
Shoaib
Saqlain
Sami
12th man - malik :p
this way we have 5 specialist batsmen, 3 bowlers, 3 allrounders (including moin)....
u cud swap the positions of malik and misbah....
that will give malik, razzaq and afridi 20 overs to share between them which can be more useful than risking it with only 5 bowlers....
i’d rather c malik in the team than afridi 
have u seen malik’s performence lately.. 
I think its a pretty good team to start with. I,m not a big afridi fan, but I think on our home tracks, against the indian bowlers, he can deliver the goods, and I always thought hes pretty handy with the ball. Overall, his so so batting, a decent bowling, and an excellent fielding brings a lot more to pak than a plain old saqi. I would have saqi in the taem if he was in a devastating form, which he isnt. I always though younis khan was such a classy player, but unfortunately he never really made an impression with his performances. He,s an under achiever with a lot more potential. I hope to see him do really well for pakistan in the future. I want to see yoyo and younis being the backbone of pak cricket team in the next few yrs. For now, the team looks nice. :k: