I think now we have 6 bowlers and 7 batsmen (8 if Aamer is considered as all rounder) which is what we need. I personally think Faisal Iqbal has much better technique compared to Salman and Imran Farhat.
Better technique against spinners may be but against medium pacers he is horrible.
Re: Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test, Sydney Jan 3-7, 2010
And Its alright if you want wholesale changes like the drastic move of playing Faisal as an opener. Poor guy was already made to play at one down by our reluctant senior batsmen. Asking him to open would be hazardous for both him and the team.
Sydeny is a spinning pitch so why not play two spinners?
That what I have been saying all on the last thread as well. But unless you change the top batting order and Younis is in the mix with an opening change, that mean 1 less batsmen. So I see what critics were feeling with that suggestion.
Kind of a dilemma since the team skipper wants Younis, but PCB's ego is in a clash with Younis' ego.
lose lose situation..
spot on comment. Only thing, we would need a 100% committed Younis and not a “let me make a point by saying yes, but then inside i really don’t care since I gave the captaincy up so I won’t work out there in the middle, that way I can still say hunh…”
Australia ALWAYS played with four bowlers. Watson only recently broke into team after Symonds' antics. Pakistan team of yester years also played with four bowlers and won everywhere.
However, they key here is to play four good bowlers on form.
I hope they play the following team (considering Younis is not going to be there)
Farhat Butt Malik Yousuf Umar Misbah Kamran Aamer Asif Kaneria Saeed/Gul
I like this team. But the thing is would Yousuf give Malik the ball? It was Akmal who tried Farhat for a few overs in the last match when Yousuf stepped out of the ground. I hope he tries Farhat/Malik even just to rotate the bowlers.
You just cannot drastically change the whole team and expect the new faces to shine and beat the aussies. there is a reason why fawad, malik and all other players are benched. Farhat and Butt have been opening for some time since NZ series, so stick with the current pair. They are more familiar with the pressure, bowling attack, conditions than any other players we bring in. We just need to tweak our lineup. Replace Rauf (he was horrendous) with Gul and Ajmal with Kaneria. Ajmal was as bad as Rauf if you ask me. He gave no pressure to the batsmen. Also Faisal Iqbal can be replaced with Shoaib Malik/Alam. Iqbal is hit and miss just like Malik but atleast Malk/Alam is a useful part time bowler and can be pivotal in breaking partnerships.
Also I would like to see Farhat bowl more. He can give us a fifth bowling option. I was very disappointed at Yousuf for not utilizing him at all when we actually needed a breakthrough and none of the bowlers were effective. Ponting wasn't afraid to use Katich! He experimented with all the bowling options. so what is wrong with Farhat then? I mean seriously! Farhat looked legit guys! no joke! I'm not saying he is our saviour but he looked way better than hauritz and katich!
Re: Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test, Sydney Jan 3-7, 2010
Forget Younis, his ego must be touching the 9th cloud right now because he is being asked to join the team.
kya kar le ga? tuk tuk aur phir out!
Drop
-farhat, ms. butterfingers. He has dropped too many catches and needs to be punished.
-Abdur Rauf - WHY is he in the team?
Replace them with whatever junk we have left like malik, sami and that new guy, fawad.
We are going to lose this one as well... why? Because the planning is being done by us and not by the management, captain or the players!
You just cannot drastically change the whole team and expect the new faces to shine and beat the aussies. there is a reason why fawad, malik and all other players are benched. Farhat and Butt have been opening for some time since NZ series, so stick with the current pair. They are more familiar with the pressure, bowling attack, conditions than any other players we bring in. We just need to tweak our lineup. Replace Rauf (he was horrendous) with Gul and Ajmal with Kaneria. Ajmal was as bad as Rauf if you ask me. He gave no pressure to the batsmen. Also Faisal Iqbal can be replaced with Shoaib Malik/Alam. Iqbal is hit and miss just like Malik but atleast Malk/Alam is a useful part time bowler and can be pivotal in breaking partnerships.
Its strange that you want to keep the openers same just because they are familiar with 'pressure' but you are okay to replace other batsmen as if the one on benches were familiar with pressure!?!? Iqbal is hit and miss just like Imran Farhat, both of them should be used as paani wala only!
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.
Re: Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test, Sydney Jan 3-7, 2010
I think we need Afridi to fill in as 5th bowler and play him at No. 3 or No. 6.
Let Iqbal open the inning, he cannot be worse than Farhat. And Afridi cannot be worse than Iqbal, if he gives himself time to settle in and do took took.
Re: Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test, Sydney Jan 3-7, 2010
So long as we keep thinking that Farhat and Butt are test material our misery will continue. Lagay rahoo munna bhai.
as Fkhan has mentioned above in the 6 innings that these two have now played together in four of them the partnership was below 50 and in 3 pathetically so. That puts pressure on the middle order.
farhat and Butt never were, never will be test material.
If we persist with the likes of butt wait till Pakistan comes to England next year, the guy will not cross 10 runs in any one innings. he just cannot play a swinging delivery. infact can he play any delivery? 
Most of us are not huge fans of Farhat and Butt. However my point is to stick with one pair till we find a new one. Sticking with one pair is far better than constant reshuffling.
Is afridi an option for Sydney? He is already in Aus and is playing commutative cricket and on top of all this, he has shown the intent to play. Lack of 5th bowler was one of the cause of defeat in MCG. With Rauf not responding to anything (i.e bowling, fielding and batting), Pakistan was practically restricted to 3 bowlers. Afridi has developed into almost a full time bowler with batting capabilities match or beat those of Imran Farhans and Salman butts etc.
With younus almost out of question for Sydney, here is the team I'll put on field in sydney
Its about time that we give Faisal atleast half the chances provided to Salman/Imran
Re: Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test, Sydney Jan 3-7, 2010
thank GOD rauf n alam has been called back to pak..........we really needed younis
Re: Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test, Sydney Jan 3-7, 2010
Even though I would love to drop Malik from the squad, but it makes sense to play him in Sydney. Malik is a pretty good player of spin, but he's horrible against fast bowling. But Malik can only come in place of Faisal, but I'd rather keep Faisal since he did make some runs in the last Test.
We must also resign to the fact that Imran Farhat is here to stay. With that century in NZ, he is going to be in the team for next 1 year at least. Butt is better than Farhat, and he scored a Test century in Australia in the last tour, so he stays too.
Ajmal didn't look very threatening in the last Test, but Sydney being a spinning wicket, he might find a place in the squad in place of Rauf/Gul.
We need someone who can reverse-swing the ball. Mohammad Asif relies on seam, and Mohammad Aamer hasn't learnt reverse swing yet. That leaves us with Gul or Sami. My vote is for Gul, because he can not only reverse swing, but also bowl good yorkers.
There's no substitute for raw pace. Aamer's pace was unsettling for Australians. Sami's got pace, but his line and length is atrocious, so I'd rather have Gul than Sami in the squad.
The dilemma is whether to play 3 fast bowlers and 1 spinner, or 2 fast, 2 spinners. I say we go for 3 fast (Asif, Aamer, Gul) and 1 spinner (Kaneria). Yousuf also must think about using Farhat as a bowler.
Yousuf also must think about using Farhat as a bowler.
We all know that's not gonna happen. The best bet is to go with 2 spinners. No point in playing an extra fast bowlers if the pitch is gonna assist spiners.
Its strange that you want to keep the openers same just because they are familiar with 'pressure' but you are okay to replace other batsmen as if the one on benches were familiar with pressure!?!? Iqbal is hit and miss just like Imran Farhat, both of them should be used as paani wala only!
Right now Malik or even Afridi provides us an extra bowling option which was badly needed in the last test. Replacing Iqbal with either of these batsmen won't be a big drop.
Asking any other batsmen to OPEN will be a sure failure at least with farhat which I hate to say this is a better option at this point. The sad part is I'm liking farhat as bowler more than as a batsman. He was fun to watch. I hope Yousuf use him more! who knows! can't believe I'm in farhat's' bandwagon!
Right now Malik or even Afridi provides us an extra bowling option which was badly needed in the last test. Replacing Iqbal with either of these batsmen won't be a big drop.
Asking any other batsmen to OPEN will be a sure failure at least with farhat which I hate to say this is a better option at this point. The sad part is I'm liking farhat as bowler more than as a batsman. He was fun to watch. I hope Yousuf use him more! who knows! can't believe I'm in farhat's' bandwagon!
I didn't watch when Farhat was bowling but according to other guppy it was Kamran who asked Farhat to bowl when Yousuf was off field, so when Yousuf is incharge it is very less likely that he will use either Malik or Farhat for bowling.
We need someone who can reverse-swing the ball. Mohammad Asif relies on seam, and Mohammad Aamer hasn't learnt reverse swing yet That leaves us with Gul or Sami. My vote is for Gul, because he can not only reverse swing, but also bowl good yorkers.
He hasnt learnt it fully yet but he is learning from Waqar first hand. Evidence is second innings at Melbourne when he got three quick wickets through reverse swing :)
We need someone who can reverse-swing the ball. Mohammad Asif relies on seam, and Mohammad Aamer hasn't learnt reverse swing yet. That leaves us with Gul or Sami. My vote is for Gul, because he can not only reverse swing, but also bowl good yorkers.
He hasnt learnt it fully yet but he is learning from Waqar first hand. Evidence is second innings at Melbourne when he got three quick wickets through reverse swing :)
absolutely! Although he is still learning the art, Aamer got it to reverse for sure and that is how is picked up some of those 5 top class batting scalps...
Great thing to have him as a protege' of Waqar in this respect - he showed more pace and late swing...Inshallah he will blossom more!