*Official* Pakistan v New Zealand in the UAE 2018

[trundler]

Hassan Ali being carted around in the death by a tailender again. Awful.

 

[Days of Grace]

Gary Stead looks like an old farmer in that hat.

The post-Baz triumvirate is complete. Farmer Stead, postman Larsen and Captain Kane.

Conservatism will reign. It’s back to the 1950s little old New Zealand who won’t want to upset anyone and will just quietly go about their business. Pass me the tea and scones.

 

[weldone]

What would be your WC bowling lineup for Pakistan? I'm thinking this:
Shaheen-Amir-Hasan-Faheem-Shadab

Amir to bat at 9 and Hasan 10 imo

 

[nightprowler10]

Imam

 

[trundler]

That was a nasty blow.

Great to see Fakhar batting sensibly. What a day for crap dibbly dobblies it would be if Grandhomme picks up a couple!

 

[Prince EWS]

What would be your WC bowling lineup for Pakistan? I'm thinking this:
Shaheen-Amir-Hasan-Faheem-Shadab

Amir to bat at 9 and Hasan 10 imo

Amir won't be picked IMO. Probably won't even make the squad at this rate.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Fakhar just being a Fakhar...

 

[trundler]

Fakhar has a serious weakness against short and wide stuff.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Just woke up to the score (absolute thrashing) and a rebund catch off Henry N's shoulder

Well done Pak for the win

 

[nzfan]

Our batting has to improve. Can't rely on Kane and Taylor all the time. I'm just not convinced about Munro, he's averaging 25 after nearly 50 games and about 6 50s. I don't know what's the big deal about him in this format. He's had a lot of hits. It's like watching pinch hitters from the 90s. Just throw the bat at everything. Bowlers aren't mugs.

 

[Flem274*]

im more concerned at how hattrick aside, boult and southee have been toothless while ferguson has put in two solid performances

latham got a pearl and kane was unlucky but our openers need to step it up big time

 

[straw man]

Not a very impressive remainder of batting performance to wake up to, from either those that failed yet again (the Colins) or from those that hung around a while and barely scored anything (Worker, Nicholls). Of all the various non-performing batsmen in and around the side, I've been at minimum expecting the Colins to start scoring, having shown some signs of that in the past. If we can't even manage that then our batting really is screwed.

Good wickets from Ferguson, he's quietly performed pretty well this tour.

 

[smash84]

Finally, new Zealand's 12 match winning streak broken

 

[Howsie]

Gary Stead looks like an old farmer in that hat.

The post-Baz triumvirate is complete. Farmer Stead, postman Larsen and Captain Kane.

Conservatism will reign. It’s back to the 1950s little old New Zealand who won’t want to upset anyone and will just quietly go about their business. Pass me the tea and scones.

Haha, I love this post.

I said it when he was hired but Stead won’t last 18 months, he’s just a yes man. Combine him with the fool that is Gavin Larsen and just watch this New Zealand team drop down the rankings and not even fire a shot at the World Cup.

Anyone with a working cricketing brain can see that Munro isn’t an international opening batsman, Latham/Nicholls isn’t a 5/6 middle order combination in 2018, or that Tim Southee should be anywhere near a New Zealand ODI squad. But nope, he’ll come in and try not to rock the boat by runnning with the same team and then wonder in a couple of years time where it all went wrong.

 

[Moss]

NZ also need to figure out a way to score against decent spin bowling. Latham and KW aside, it's a major achilles heel at the moment. Of course, Pakistan in the UAE is a tough proposition, but they regularly struggled against Ali and Rashid at home. The India series last year went well but that was largely because Latham had something of a breakout series.

 

[Gomez656]

Uncapped Shaeen Afridi, Saad Ali named in Pakistan Test squad

Pakistan squad for the first two Tests: Mohammad Hafeez, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Babar Azam, Saad Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed (c & wk), Yasir Shah, Bilal Asif, Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Mir Hamza

"The team has been selected keeping in mind the conditions of the UAE, where Shahdab Khan and Fakhar Zaman have been rested from the Test matches and have also been advised to undergo training at the NCA," Inzamam ul Haq, the Pakistan chief selector, said in a media release.

 

[Moss]

For tomorrow's game would like to see a) Henry for Southee and b) Watling for Nicholls or Worker. Bit pointless including them in the squad and not playing them (repeatedly in Henry's case).

 

[Prince EWS]

Haha so Fakhar scores 94 and 66 on debut and not only gets left out of the eleven for the next game (fair enough in a way, he was only in for injury to begin with) but actually gets left out of the squad altogether even though they picked an uncapped spare batsman?

 

[Gomez656]

BJW deserves

moss
yes BJW deserves more than worker but hey kw probably not wants change otherwise wagner [ 53 n.o and 4 wkts] surely picked up for second ODI,
I can even pick rachin Ravindra from A team, he is still in dubai for 64 more hours


nzA vs Ind A will be great fun this month in newzeland

 

[Starfighter]

I don't see how you can 'rest' Fakhar. Stupid.

Amir left out again too. That interview last year where he said he anticipates playing what seemed like a very small number of tests? Well his wish is being fulfilled.