Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
^And what can be defendable for this quality attack.
For a quality (pace-less) attack of Asif/Gul 350+ can be a good team total, if luck plays its role as well. They can defend this score against many teams. Even Sami/Rana form a better attacking option or even Razzaq/Afridi or even Kaneria/Malik or (perhaps) even Farhat/Hafeez.
Without Akhtar, people with a hope for trophy better watch WC92.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
We heard similar rants before going to Australia, England and many other occasions 
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
We had Wasim, Aaqib, Mushtaq in 1992; three genuine wicket takers. We have clowns in the team now if Shoaib and Asif don’t play, so your lame theory is easily laid to rest.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
Akhtar had proved himself as lethal as Wasim in WCs, as for the others (including Asif) they can just bowl.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
and on most occasions, Akhtar managed to deliver his best. :snooty: . So its better to wait and watch Pak with or without Akhtar. With Akhtar Pak enter as fav to win trophy, without Akhtar as a team that can make a few upsets.
As for the other part of this theory, that was not considered by you, even an un-experienced pace attack cannot defend a score of 350 or less against a good side these days:
Chappell-Hadlee Trophy - 3rd ODI
New Zealand v Australia
Aus: 346-5 (50)
NZ: 350-9 (49.3)
Result: NZ won by 1 wicket.
http://content-pak.cricinfo.com/nzvaus/engine/current/match/251496.html
So in the abscence of Akhtar, a score of 350+ against a competetive or better opposition can prove as a fightable score for our pace-less attack.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
But you can’t help but admit that Akhtar is our only real match-winning bowler. For Pakistan to have a realistic chance of making it to the last 4, he has to be fit and playing. His attitude and fitness has been questionable over the years but when he does play he usu. has the opposition on the back foot.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
I am not saying if Akhtar delivers good or not, only that we have managed to win without him as well.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
Akhtar is very good bowler, but its the “full package” where the problem is 
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15
Enuff of Shoab Actor… errrrrr meray kaan paaq gaye hain woh aur asif kaaa sun sun kar. plz koi bhi unkay baray mein baat na karye plz plz wait till March 4th.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
yes Pak is a good side without Akhtar as well but Akhtar is required when Pak need to compete against an equal or better opponent. So as you said even if Pak can win many games without Akhtar, his addition to the squad significantly increase the chances of success.
This is not limited to Akhtar: Afridi, Inzy, Yousuf, Asif, Nazir.... (even Azhar Mahmood :) ) I mean all players contribute to winning chances more or less.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
Yeah, but I think there’s a lot of blame on the PCB the way they have handled the “package”.
Selection Errors May Cost Pakistan Dearly - Mushtaq Mohammed
Selection Errors May Cost Pakistan Dearly
Feb 20, 2007 | Mushtaq Mohammed
I will be hoping, like all passionate Pakistan fans, that we can win the World Cup in the West Indies. But I have to say there are a few selections that worry me.
The selection of Imran Nazir as one of the openers is wrong, Kamran Akmal shouldn’t be there if form means anything, and how the selectors can include three seamers who are all injured at the moment is a massive risk.
If we start with the case of Imran Nazir, there is no doubt that he is a talented stroke player but batting him at the top of the order is a gamble because he lacks discipline and his shot selection is poor. I would have Shoaib Malik opening and any one of Mohammed Hafeez or Salman Butt, who has been treated unfairly. He scored a couple of good centuries and has not figured much since.
The way Kamran Akmal has been tried opening has proved to be a mistake. He is ok coming in at number seven but no higher. But you could justifiably argue why he is in the team at all.
I would like to ask my old team-mate Wasim Bari, who is now the chairman of selectors, that if he kept and batted as poorly as Akmal has done on the last three tours, would he expect to still be in the team? I am pretty sure the answer would be ‘no’. Maybe he will come good, as he has been in the past, but he has certainly had enough chances.
Kamran Akmal has been riding his luck for the last two or three tours. If Wasim Bari would have kept for me like Kamran Akmal has for Inzamam, I would have dropped him a long time ago.
Regarding the fast bowlers, I can understand the selectors taking a chance because Mohammad Asif has been their best bowler, while Umar Gul is much improved and Shoaib Akhtar can be a match winner so I can understand them taking a calculated risk on him for his match-winning potential.
But I just think picking three injury doubts as your first choice seam attack is too much. That surprised me. If Shoaib does make the World Cup after his recent troubles with his knee, I’ve got my doubts about him lasting the tournament.
His captain cannot rely on him. As I have said, he can be a match winner but he needs to come down to earth and start to put his priorities right. His first job is to get fit and to be honest with himself and be fair to the rest of the team. He needs to take more responsibility and be more grown up because he has been quite controversial for quite some time and now he has to focus on his game and try to win the World Cup for Pakistan.
Danish Kaneria was a positive choice and I have no problem with Danish in there. He’s a poor fielder and a non-batsman but he is also a wicket-taking bowler, he’s fully committed to Pakistan cricket, gives the captain all he has and you can’t ask any more. The lack of a good one-day spinner gives him a chance to establish himself in one-day cricket.
Looking at the bigger picture, apart from Australia, I can see Sri Lanka doing well. We all know about Murali and Vaas, while Kumar Sangakkara is a class act. Sri Lanka are also the best fielding side amongst the South Asian teams. They are much more agile and alert. They are my outside tip apart from the obvious one of Australia.
http://www.bigstarcricket.com/bs/opinion/mm/article_1783.shtml
Re: Selection Errors May Cost Pakistan Dearly - Mushtaq Mohammed
I think Bari is the main reason he is still in the team. As a captain Mushtaq you may have opted to drop him from the side, but as a keeper he would have loved to have more and more and more chances, and for same wish he is giving more and more and more chances to Akmal.
I still have faith in his batting, though droping a catch or stump of Lara, Sangakara, any Saffies, Symond, Kevin Peterson or any significant player could cost Pakistan the game and thus WC.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
WC 92, we must attribute more to Imran leadership then match winners. No doubt Wasim heroic against England, and Inzi fantastic batting against Kiwis did helpt Pakistan, but it was more about the way every single player was utilized by Imran. On papers, present pakistani team is more talented than WC 92, but Inzi is not an imaginative captain, he will stick to his batting order, and will utilize his power plays and bowlers in same order in every single game, no matter if Rana is going 10 rpo or Asif is taking 3 wickets in first 5 overs.
Otherwise, Pakistan have more experienced and talented alrounder in this side than 92, got more formidable middle order.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
Otherwise, Pakistan have more experienced and talented alrounder in this side than 92, got more formidable middle order.
:)
If Rana was going for 10/over what other options with ball were available to Inzy??? He replaced Rana with Razzaq who went for 22/over. So Rana was called back. And Asif failed to continue his (Test) form as well in SA. Inzy is perhaps one of the rare Pak captains who played a complete series without enough fast bowlers available. So blame it on Inzy (i.e. his form or leadership), Akmal, Rana or whoever and whatever, the most dominant issue in Pak cricket is shortage or un-availability of quality fast bowlers.
Inzy and Imran played with teams of different strengths at different periods of time. Till Imran's retirement no team targetted a score of 300+ which is just a good-looking score these days. Even 400+ was chaseable against the best team of its time.
The team Pak played WC92 with was much much more balanced team than the current side.
That team had good bowlers, good consistent batsmen and match winners and as you said a good captain as well. Even Waqar Younis' injuiry did not had much affect on Pak attack. Pak still played with at least 3 quality fast (or medium-fast) bowlers (Aaqib, Wasim, imran). The best ever Pak fielder (i.e. Ijaz Ahmed) was also a part of this squad with a good keeper. Imran managed that team well but pakistan went to semis (courtesy: LUCK and WI), [so if luck had not favored Pak then Imran could have blamed for letting down one of the best squads Pak has ever managed to produce].
This team is not consistent with bat, but it has more stroke players playing in it. Perhaps no other team has ever played with as many stroke players in ODIs, Hafeez, Nazir, Malik, Razzaq, Afridi, Akmal. Add Yousuf's ability to hit the ball well and Inzy playing his pull-shots and Rana adding some boundaries, we are on the ground with 9 stroke players. On the other hand this team does not have enough attacking options available with ball. Add Akhter's mysterious scripts and this squad is all dependant on stroke players for victories against strong oppositions.
As for Inzy, he has contributed to Pak cricket as much as (or even more) than any other captain. He took charge when almost all key players of our star-flooded team (except Inzy) were banned or forced to retire. So if we are talking about Pak lifting this trophy (that is a posiblity with Akhter & team playing as a unit) or progressing to semis or even performing well in this WC, then Inzy has played his role well in re-construction of Pak cricket team.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
Leadership or no leadership, firepower was needed. I can assure you that Imran would not have won the World Cup with his bowling alone. His captaincy was awesome in the sense that he used his weapons really well; he told all of Wasim, Aaqib and Mushtaq to go for wickets and forget about the runs. But for that to happen, he did indeed need the weapons in the form of wicket-taking bowlers.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15
some good news for pak finally !
Umar Gul recovery news boosts Pakistan ahead of World Cup
by AFP
DateLine: 23rd February 2007
Pakistan’s injury-hit bowling line-up got a boost ahead of the World Cup on Friday with the recovery of paceman Umar Gul.
The 24-year-old Gul, who returned home from Pakistan’s tour of South Africa earlier this month with an ankle injury, featured in Pakistan’s tune-up camp for the World Cup which started here from Friday.
“I am feeling great and have been bowling at full speed for the last few days,” said Gul, whose suspected fracture had threatened to rule him out of the World Cup which starts in the Caribbean from March 13.
Pakistan has set a February 28 deadline for all its 15 players to pass a fitness test before the team leaves on March 1. The squad must also take doping tests.
Bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif – who were banned last year after testing positive for steroids but reinstated on appeal – have yet to take theirs as they are still assessing ongoing fitness problems.
The 31-year-old Akhtar is due to leave for England on Sunday for a final check on his knee and hamstring injuries. Asif is also suffering from recurrence of an elbow injury which forced him to miss three out of four Tests on Pakistan’s tour of England last year.
Gul said he has worked hard to regain fitness.
“It was disappointing to miss the South African tour but it motivated me to work hard with trainer Murray Stevenson and I am now bowling from my full run-up and hope by the time the World Cup starts I will be fully fit,” he said.
“We have two warm-up matches and hopefully they will give me the needed match practice and then I will be able to deliver for my team.”
The Peshawar-born Gul, who has 30 wickets in 25 one-dayers, made his mark by taking five wickets in his debut Test at Lahore against India in 2004.
But back trouble forced him to sit out the whole of 2005 and he returned only last year to spearhead Pakistan’s attack.
“I am ready to perform my duties and hopefully we will have a fit bowling attack which can help the team win,” he said.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15
Eighteen Pakistan players pass dope tests
by AFP
DateLine: 23rd February 2007
Eleven of Pakistan’s 15-man World Cup squad and seven reserves have passed pre-World Cup dope tests, an official said Friday.
“We have received reports of the dope tests held last week and 18 players have cleared tests,” Pakistan Cricket Board director communication Ahsan Malik told AFP.
He said results from captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who were tested on Sunday and Friday respectively, will be received later.
Fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, who have both had doping bans controversially lifted, will be tested later this week, Ahsan said.
Two players outside the five official reserves were also tested in case they were needed in an emergency, he added.
Pakistan asked the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accreditated laboratory in Malaysia to fast-track the test results so they can complete the process before leaving for the Caribbean on March 1.
Officials here have said no player will play in the World Cup without passing the in-house tests.
Pakistan cricket was hit by a doping scandal last year when Akhtar and Asif were tested positive for banned steroid nandrolone and had to be pulled out of the Champions Trophy in India.
Akhtar was banned for two years and Asif for one year. But the bans were controversially lifted on appeal, on the grounds they did not take the banned substance knowingly.
WADA has appealed against the decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, which is yet to give a ruling.
Both Akhtar and Asif face life bans in case they test positive for a second time.
(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15
Pakistan Can Win Without Asif, Shoaib, Woolmer Says
Feb 23, 2007 |
Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer has pondered the possibilities of having to go into the World Cup without Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar and failed to admit defeat.
He would be much happier to take the new-ball duo to the Caribbean next week for the World Cup, though if both fail to recover from respective elbow and knee injuries, Woolmer is confident the squad has enough depth to still remain a threat.
“Shoaib and Asif are our main strike bowlers and it would be a big blow for us if they don’t play,” Woolmer told The News. “But it isn’t right to say we are incapable of doing well without them.
“Pakistan has done well and won matches in the past when Shoaib couldn’t play due to injury or other reasons and when Asif had not even started his international career.
“We are not a bad side even if you take Shoaib and Asif out of the equation. Ours will still be a good side capable of delivering good results.”
One way to do just that is to compile huge totals. Woolmer is of the opinion that one-day matches are won by batsmen.
“One of the best ways to win is to score runs,” he said. “We have a good batting order and I believe there are bowlers in the team capable of defending any decent score.” Pakistan have won the World Cup once before, in 1992.
Re: Pakistan announce World Cup 15 ( Asif, Aktar, Gull, Danish in Team)
Totally agree fire power is required, but the difference between Imran and Inzi is Imran will tell Akram to bowl short pitch to Srikanth since he loves to hook, and will keep a catcher and wait for the catch even if Srikanth will hook successfully few times, and thus will take the prime wicket and will go for the kill. While on the other hand, Inzi will change a bowler as soon as he conceed a six or more than 10 runs in a over.
Also good captains, don't hesitate to bring their part time bowlers, especially if you have bowlers like Afridi and Hafeez, even in power play period, while Inzi will only bring them after 20 overs. Similarly, if batsmen are on rampage then captains even delay their power plays to 40th over (as Fleming did against Aussies), but Inzi think he needs to get done with power plays before 20 overs.
If your bowlers are conceding runs, and you knew most of your seamers could use old ball better than other teams, especially Rana and Razzaq then why not you delay power play to 25 or 30 overs stage and use those bowlers at that stage when they could make good use of old ball.
I don't need to count too much since every one know that:
1. Inzi is a good stroke players and most successful batsman for Pakistan.
2. Inzi is a good slip fielder if ball comes to his hand or on his body.
3. Inzi is a good muslim when it comes to praying.
Else I dont think if he is a smart player or athletic players or a leader by any mean.