Cant believe people want to play Malik in the Sydney test. What has he done since the last test he played in New Zealand? Last I checked he was dropped because of poor performance and his replacement Faisal Iqbal has scored at an average of 35+ runs.
I have never been a great fan of Faisal but if I compare him and his recent performance ( yes I know he has been shaky at times playing fast bowlers) with Malik, Faisal selection becomes an obvious choice.
May be we need to give Faisal an extended run and may be he'll get better after playing few more innings. To be honest his performance in the 3rd test against Kiwis and Melbourne test was not at all horrible. I will definitely stick with Faisal especially considering Sydney traditionally being a spinner's wicket and Faisal is a good play of spin bowling.
Coming back to openers, I would like to stick with them too. I hate Imran Farhat and not a huge fan of Salman Butt. This is what they have done so far in the 3 tests.
2nd Test in New Zealand: 60 and 49
3rd Test in Newzealand: 13 and 129
1st Test in Australia: 26 and 18
Their partnerships might not look big but I think they have managed to stay on the crease and looked like improving. The improvement is slow but it is there.
Gul needs to come back in place of Rauf. No question should be asked why he should be playing instead of Rauf.
Kaneria needs to be back as well in place of Ajmal. Ajmal is a very intelligent bowler but for ODI and T20s. FOr test we need to have an attacking bowler like Kaneria who can go for runs but still can manage to take 4-5 wickets.