FAISALABAD, Jan 20: Pakistan have decided to make two changes in their squad for the second cricket Test against India starting here at the Iqbal Stadium on Saturday.
Team sources said Mohammad Sami and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan will be replaced by Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq.
Asif, a 24-year-old seamer, has played just one Test against Australia at Sydney where he went wicketless conceding 72 runs from 16 overs.
However, Asif has bounced back well from that Australian tour and had a match haul of 10 wickets against England in a three-day game.
Courtesy: Times of India
If this news is authentic, I wonder why did they drop Rana? I think Rana is a much better bowler than Razzaq. And keeping in mind that this pitch is going to be another nightmare for bowlers, I think, Razzaq is a bad choice to replace Rana.
Absolutely. Another disastrous move by our selectors, and if this indeed goes down as reported, no doubt we will miss Rana's presence in the open field. Besides having a personal liking for the guy, I really feel he brings "more" when he is in the team, with his quality skills, professionalism, and behavior. He is more up-beat, possesses an affirmative positive behavior, and lacks centralistic ego, all of which are highly necessity qualities to be part of a squad, especally at this part of the game.
I for 1 support the move of Razzy if he is 100% fit, he maybe not "super-fast" but he is bang on the target. As for Rana and Sami both were not good in test as far as the "stats" are concerned.
and as for Times of India I think they are tad bit better than rediff :D so wait for the team to be announced before the game.
Mat Runs HS BatAv 100 50 W BB BowlAv 5w
3 195 100* 39.00 1 0 8 3/70 40.37 0
3/74 - 2nd Test v Eng in Pak 2000/01
2/68 - 2nd Test v SA in Pak 2003/04
- 3/70 (3rd innings)
0/33 (1st innings) - 1st Test v SL in Pak 2004/05
- 0/78 (3rd innings)
** Naved-ul-Hasan
**
Mat Runs HS BatAv 100 50 W BB BowlAv 5w
1 26 25 13.00 0 0 5 3/30 18.60 0
2/63 (2nd innings) - 2nd Test v Eng in Pak 2005/06
- 3/30 (4th innings)
Reason for comparison: The best bowling statistics for Razzaq was almost two (2) years ago. Hence, I would certainly opt-out for someone who has more "recent" experience on the same pitch, someone to the likes of Rana. Not to mention all the qualities he possesses, and many more, which I have detailed in my very recent Rana posts.
india is playing with 5 bowlers suposedly and against outr batting line up, whicih is ectremely good but not great, but Pakistan and inzi and bob these geniuses against a ggreat batting lineup will play 2 specialist bowlers with asif who is only playing his 2nd test! playing razzaq who doesent have match practice and is coming off elbow problems! and then dropping some1 like rana just shows all this team man BS that they talk about is really BS, he bring s alot to the team, thinking cricketer and yes im saying this can play a better knock in test cricket then razzaq, who is a bunny for n e spinner!
inzi is learning all his “cricket” since he has been captain, woolmer was also a batsman! the team think tank is weak as we have witnessed b4 i can post numerous blunders this combination has made in terms of selection of playing11! at the end of the day you need 20 wickets to win a match, no matter how many runs u put on the board, and as for razzaq not getting many chances, please open your eyes, he was a permanent member of the squad for 4-5 yrs in a row!
