seriously why dont people understand? why Afridi, hasnt he already been tried a million times???? Afridi for the team is a must yes, but his effectiveness is not as an opener
I think most ppl do understand that Afridi isn't suitable as an opener (even Afridi himself wants to bat at 6 slot outside subcontinent) however the problem with Pakistan is that they don't have much choices.
I said many times that the selection of Pak team was dead wrong, Salman Butt happens to be their best bet as an opener and its a shame that he wasn't selected and his place was taken over by Imran Nazir who is complete crap.After todays game it should be clear that Pakistan should be looking to discard two players from the remaining matches, one is Imran Nazir and other is out of sorts Rana Naveed. Hafiz isn't a good bat either, but he is valuable as a bowler, Danish can be tried for few more games, he didn't do very badly with ball today, though his fielding is terrible.
Somone should tell coward Inzamam that either he should bat up the order or get ready to get sacked after WC.As for openers, Pak have tried Akmal and Younis in past as openers with no success, and the current pair isn't working either, the only option taht Pakistan have now is to either go with Afridi and Haffez as openers, or try out Malik and Afridi.
I would go for foll lineup
Malik
Afridi
Inzamam
Yousuf
Younis
Hafeez
Akmal
Azhar
Yasir A
Anjum
Gul.
The lower-mid order batting (hafeez,Akmal,Azhar) doesn't appear to be much strong, as such much of the work will have to be done by upper order batters.
Gul,Anjum,Hafeez and Afridi can all do good job with the ball, for fifth bowler Pak will have plenty of option with Azhar,Malik and Arafat.If Arafat can contribute with bat that it will be great for Pakistan.