Pakistan have included the uncapped opener Raffatullah Mohmand in their 18-man squad for a training camp ahead of the series against India. He replaces the dropped Hasan Raza while there is also no place for Mushtaq Ahmed. Mohmand, 29, scored 444 runs including three hundreds in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy last year and has caught the eye of Inzamam-ul-Haq. He also scored an impressive 55 against England in the warm-up match ahead of the one-day series in December.
There are also recalls for the fit-again paceman Umar Gul and opener Yasir Hameed, who made 57 against England in the final one-day international. Gul played the last of his five Tests against India two years ago before being sidelined due to a back problem.
Abdul Razzaq makes it into the squad despite fears that he would miss most of the Test series after being admitted to hospital with a serious chest infection. Pakistan squad Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousaf, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Arshad Khan, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Asim Kamal, Yasir Hameed, Raffatullah Mohmand
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohammad in
Good decision to include a performing domestic talent. We won't lose anything with this experiment as nobody else seemed to be settled on the opening spot either.
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohammad in
Umar Gul is obviuosly a welcome selection. After Shabbir's unfortunate episode we need a complimenting bowler in the squad who can swing the ball with a high arm action. Top order is our foremost concern and I hope they play Rafatullah straight away. This guy has been getting raving reviews of late. Good bye Hasan Raza. Now go spank domestic bowlers all over the country. Good luck!
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohammad in
^^ Gul plays for PIA and Akram used to play for PIA now he is coaching PIA boyzz. I saw Akram giving tips to PIA bowlers and Gul was standing right next to Akram trying to get as much info as he could.
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohammad in
Important thing is r they going to play with a regular opener along with Salman Butt or again they r going to go with Malik.. I think after Afridi's selection we don;t need Malik... Afridi is lately getting more wickets than Malik....
So we should have some pure batsman.
Good Selection.. Insallah they will have a convincing win.
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohmand in
^ We need a regular opener but that is not as simple.
Leaving Shoaib Malik out will just leave 4 bowlers (+ Afridi) in Pak's expected (or usual) regulars, and I guess this is not enough in Tests. So either remove Malik to make room for an opener and rest one of your batsmen in favor of a bowler, or bring another all-rounder (in this case the only other option is Razzaq). If Malik is just replaced by an opener, then amongst 5 bowling options, 3 are fast bowlers, and fast bowlers can only bowl 10-20 overs in a day.
(assuming 15 overs per fast bowlers) 45+ overs can be bowled by fast bowlers in a day. There will be another 30-45 overs left with just 2 bowling options.
India will have almost 8-9 bowling options, although some are just part-time bowlers.
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohmand in
Its good to be baaaaaack....
Overall, satisfactory selection of players, however there is always room for improvement provided there is a need, therefore here are some names which have been missed for obvious reasons:
Bazid Khan
Faisel Iqbal
Misbah ul Haq
Imran Farhat
All of the baove have done exceptionally well either against international teams (Bazid) or domestically. My personal favorite is Misbah ul Haq, captain material who has led Faiselabad twice into the finals and has a exceptional batting record.
Hasan Raza was unable to perform when given an opportunity, personally I wud have preservered with a bat averaging 51 in domestic cricket.
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohmand in
^Hassan raza Misbah ul Haq & Faisal Iqbal,all are used "kartoos"...i guess they were given enough chances every now & then...i don't know they perform well in domestic cricket but perform only averagely in international cricket...
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohmand in
^ Misbah wasn't given a fair run, neither is Hasan Raza.... If Imran Farhat was given such a long run, then why not Misbah/Hasan, not necessarily as long as Farhat's, but atleast 2 series.
Re: Pakistan announced 18 member squad: Hameed, Gul, Mohmand in
^If i am not wrong Misbah played in that test series where Australia refused to come to Pakistan & he failed miserably to score on the flat pitches of Sharjah....I haven't seen him scoring above 30-40's in his short career...most of the times he seemed under confident to me....
In regards to Hassan Raza, i know he had a lot of talent....but i guess young age in the begining & then easy attitude failed him later on....Again he was one of those players who lacked seriousness in my opinion....in current series against england i guess he could have proved himself...but again he failed.
:k:
