Malik is a specialist all rounder with a big question mark over his bowling action, BUT his performance in one day cricket has earned him the respect and confidence of Inzi/Woolmer. This is where I get worried. How can professionals of Woolmer/Inzi calibre make such mistakes? More importantly, why does the system allow this? Had Pakistan tested a regular opener or two, we could still have been at the same position, but surely they would have tested new talent and who knows it might have worked. Thus, opportunity lost.
using malik in these matches also showed that wooli and inzi have no confidence in our other specialist openers whicih is abasured because they never gave ne 1 of them a run on 3 matches on the trot!! i think taufeeq got 2 in a row thats about it!! now wooli and inzi will say we criticize but this is criticism which is definelty constructive, another series and another series we havent established regular openers!! Yasir and Butt ideal openers in n e conditions!!
Aik tau aap log jazbaati aur emotional buhat jaldi ho jaatay hein.
Shoaib Malik has no place in the current test team, unless he plays as an opener. Woolmer and Inzi did good to persist with him for 3 games. None of the other domestic cricket superstar specialist openers have done anything at test level anyway.
Faisel Bhai,
Ghalath baath…just look at the averages of the recently tried openers and compare them to Malik’s, there is no comparison, regular’s have a much better record. If you compare their initial test averages as openers with that of Malik, then the comparison gets even worse for Malik cause these openers started off with flying colours, later in their very short tenure when they start to underperform does their averages start declining.
This was not a fair experiment from to start with, unfair to malik and unfair to all those poor chaps who play as openers for their respective teams in domestic cricket.
exactly its unfair to malik also who has talent but in middle order!! n e wayz yousuf i think was recieving a phone call in pavilion because that cut shot he attempted looked like he wanted to go bak!
This is my personal opinion and not many will agree but I guess woolmer has gone actually overboard with this experiment. First of all I don't agree with a statement that woolmer gave before the start of the series, that Pakistan will continue with shoaib malik for the enitre series. How can you be so sure about a batsman who is not a specialist test batsman, who just became a regular member of your ODI side a year ago and has no place in the test side. It would have made sense if he had said the same thing about hasan raza since he is a specialist. And why did they drop afridi in the first test? On one hand you are dropping one of your most successful player of the year and at the same time saying that malik will be there for the whole series, without knowing how well malik is going to perform. I guess all this is pointing that woolmer inspite of all his expertise was kind of obsessed about trying his prodigal ODI allrounder as a test opener.
In these same very forums, people have insulted ad nauseum all the Wajahatullah Wastis, Taufeeq Umers and that lefty with bandana on his head. The reason was consistent failures. Not sure who else is out there to be experimented with.
Malik has shown remarkable consistency in ODI’s in flat pitches. That he failed in this test series is, but, one loss.
I am not sure if Malik will agree with you that this is unfair on Malik. He has to make a decision. Either he stays out of the test team till Inzi retires. Or tries his luck as an opener. With Younas, Yousaf and Inzi, firmly in place in slots 3, 4 and 5, there is no other space for Malik.
The only reason Kamal is playing is because Younis is unavailable. Frankly Kamal is a middle order player, and till the time, Pakistan has Razzak and Afridi, Kamal uncle ki bhi chutti hi samjhein aap sab.
