Looks like Cheetah has become lazy now a days. The match start in 11 hours time and he has not even opened a thread.
The three day match against Northampton will be important for Pakistan as they will most probably play Taufeeq and Niazi to test their readiness for the upcoming test at Old Trafford in a weeks time. Razzaq will be missing but I do hope that they play Mushtaq and get him into rhythm of things. With our current sorry state of affairs in the bowling department we need him.
Weather is expected to be very hot over the 3 days and the play will commence at 11am BST every day.
Tour match, Northampton: Northants v Pakistan
Match starts 1100 BST Thursday
Vice-captain Younis Khan returns from injury to lead the tourists in their four-day match at Northampton.
Younis, 28, missed the drawn first Test at Lord’s due to a knee niggle which lingered longer than expected.
However, he will take over the leadership from Inzamam-ul-Haq, one of a handful of Pakistan players resting following the exertions last week.
Also resting are Abdul Razzaq, troubled by a back problem, Danish Kaneria and their star batsman Mohammad Yousuf.
Coach Bob Woolmer welcomed the resumption of Younis’ tour, amid praise for the way the injury-hit Pakistanis dug in throughout the npower series opener.
“He is 100% fit and will be back and firing, which is very good news for us,” said Woolmer.
“The positives of the Test were that we didn’t crumble in the face of a large total, that we continued the fighting spirit we have shown over the last 18 months and that we are still in the series with a chance of winning.”
The Pakistan tour management are still mulling over bringing in temporary recruits for the tour, who are playing club cricket over here, with off-spinner Arshad Khan among those under consideration.
Left-arm medium pacer Kamran Hussain will not be joining, however, after initial contact was made.
The three new additions to the tourists’ full-time ranks - Taufeeq Umar, Samiullah Niazi and Rao Iftikhar Anjum - will all face Northants and should not need long to acclimatise.
With temperatures in the mid-30s, conditions are not dissimilar from the ones they operate in during their own domestic seasons.
“It’s very much like Pakistan,” said manager Zaheer Abbas. “We are quite used to this weather.” Razzaq’s back problem is not likely to put him in doubt for the second Test starting on 27 July.
How are you? There is no problem for us playing beyond Abdul Razzaq as he is not very special in test matches. He is aggressive ODI player though. We may have Mushtaq Ahmed in place of him. Well, Mushtaq Ahmed is only with us for short period of time as he is over 35.
That would definitely reduce the strength of our batting line up but I guess we will have to drop an allrounder to include Mushi in the side.
That's true. We need him on the playing field since we will get a chance to see him in action when he is playing well before he leaves the scene for good.
Honestly IMO I dont think so we need Mushi to fill in the gaps, No doubt Mushi is a top class bowler but if he is need for an odd match after month(s) or year(s), then what is the message we are sending to the youngster. this is a slap in the face of coach coz his list top agenda was to prepare "a pool of players" is really this a pool of players? if that is the case PCB should have drafted M. Bevan when he was kicked out of Aussie team by now he would have been a Pakistan player.
Nice to see some players getting a deserved rest. The amount of overs Danish will have to bowl in this series is mind boggling. I hope for his sake that both Rao and Niazi put in a good performance so that they can share the burden.
Pakistan's team:
Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Umar Gul, Faisal Iqbal, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, J Khan, Rao Iftikhar, Arshad Khan, Shahid Nazir, S Niazi
The great Rao Iftikhar already gone for 25 off his 4 overs.
Is Chacha Arshad included in this match because he may play in the second test match or is he just there to make up the numbers?
If he is just there to make up the numbers then surely more deserving younger player should have been brought over; even if that player doesnt't get into the test squad these sort of matches no doubt would have provided him with good experience of palying in English conditions.
Who the hell is jantal Khan. Is he a batsmen, bowler or what??? Where did he come from. We fly Taufeeq all the way from Pakistan and than play Butt (My speciality is giving slip catches) in the match.
J Khan is Jannisar Khan…he is a pretty good domestic player. He is an all-rounder but more of a batsman than bowler. He’s from Peshawar. And Arshad Khan is back Just when you think he’s gone…he comes back. Good to see Nazir, Niazi, and Rao getting a chance and Sami dropped…and I ** Really** hope he’s dropped and not rested.
I reckon as long as the dopey Inzi is charge of this team - there will always be a room made for chacha Arshad khan. Once he goes then we may finally also see the end of Arshad Khan.
