Re: Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Imran Nazir, Taufeeq Umer, Imran Farhat …
Spot on about Yasir Hameed.
Also Salman Butt isn’t as bad as some people are suggesting. He has scored atleast two memorable hundreds to date - a sparkling one-day hundred when chasing a formidable 292 at Eden Gardens, Calcutta in the platinum jubilee game against India in Nov. 2004 http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=1749
Yes Butt did go thru a rough patch in early 2006 (who does n’t?) but I am pretty sure in my mind that if Pakistan had taken him to SA instead of Imran Farhat, he would have ‘earned’ a place in our world cup squad..
So in my considered opinion Pakistan should have persisted with Yasir Hameed and Salman Butt (in both tests and ODIs) with Imran Nazir as back-up in ODIs
Imran Nazir has played one or two good knocks like in Tower series in Australia in 2002) and his blistering 58 in the 2nd ODI against SA which laid the platform for 354, but he is too flashy and reckless as an opener. The others Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar have yet to play a meaningful innings in a one-dayer](“Scorecard - 2004-2005 India v Pakistan - 1st ODI - 13/11/2004 - Eden Gardens, Kolkata - ODI No. #2192 and a”)