**Official** India v Pakistan

[yohanna]

Choora, actually it seems that Pakistanis have almost given up on test macthes...the team in some manner but also the crowd. There was a recent study/interview etc I read on a Pak-deicated forum (not forum members, actual Pakistanis in Pak) and they are only/mostly interested in ODIs. Moresover, they are happy to beat India and dont care abt real cricket (Test) as long as afridi is hitting those sixes.

I would like to point out some facts!

If that is the case, i.e Pakistanis only caring about matches with India and that too ODI then why was there such a hue and cry when a depleted Pakistan side lost to Australia in test matches? PPl wanted Inzamam to be replaced as captain, some were critical of Bob, over all everyone was upset.

Also in the last Indo-Pak series, Pakistan lost to India in both format of the game but it was the loss in test matches that really upset Pak fans! In India it is said that winning a WC match against Pak is MORE important than winning the WC itself, but in Pakistan its the opposite as Rashid Lateef pointed out earlier!

Pakistan problem was that since a long time they have not been producing quality batsmen, thus they started relying on bits and pieces allrounders like Afridi,Razzak,Malik etc. Obviously thats is not going to work, now they do have some better prospect in Hameed, Butt and Asim and they just need to stick to them and give them enough time.


And yeah between Asim and Malik i would certainly opt for Asim

 

[Sehwag309]

In addition, they feel more confident about ODI's than Test.

 

[mofo123]

This is one of the reason as to why Pakistan is struggling at the longer format of the game, they have been playing so many onedayers that they seems to have forgotten as to how to play in test matches. Recently the PCB boss has said that Pakistan need to cut down on the number of Oneday matches and instead would be looking to play more test matches and has asked England to play an additional test matches in Pakistan at the expense of 2 onedayers, this he's doing coz he think onedayers are effecting Pak team performance.

In test matches you need to have specialist players, allrounders are of little value in test matches. This is something Pak think tank (including their coach) need to understand. There were times when Pakistan actually played with just three specialist batsmen and 4 allrounders , needless to say that the result was a disaster.

Shoaib malik shouldn't even be in the 16 man test squad as a batsman, leave alone be in the playing eleven. If he's allowed to bowl then he can be selected in the 16 man squad only coz Pak don't have a decent offspinner.Asim Kamal is technically more correct, far more talented(as a test batsman) and has the ability to occupy the crease for a long time.Pakistan badly need such kind of batsman in their test team, its futile to compare Malik and Asim, as there is no comparison.

As long as Pakistan continue to pack their test team with the likes of Malik,Razzak,Rana and afridi, they will continue to struggle in test matches.

dear dear me, well y pick any1 at all? razzaq is a quality all rounder and he shouldnt b picked? average of nearly 30 coming in to bat at numbers 7/8 that isnt good? well sorry for that, i suppose, as for afridi in the longer version of the game he averages almost 35, is that not good again for some1 who would now b comming in at 7/8 position (yes he has opened in the past but woolmers has made it clear he will not do so now), and then we come to rana, yes i had my reservations abt him but the effort that man puts into a game, seldom i have seen, although he is still to prove himself to me in the longer version of the game, obviously he has proven himself to team mates and to coach. and then we come to malik, no matter wot u say u havent seen this guy play, if u had then u would realise he is a talented bat, hes 22 years old he needs a chance to prove himself y not now...as for y pakistan cricket isnt improving in the test form is we r comming thru the phase of replacing the last generation its dragging admittedly as we have not gelled a team but we seem to b getting there, whereas india r still running with there gelled top order, when dravid ganguly tendulkar retire india will have the same problem as we did wen saeed anwar and wasim and waqar retired also the spin king that is saqlain has been injured for a long time he is sadly missed kaneria and saqi will make an AWESOME spin attack. i posted a point before it is all about gelling the squad if u have young players who show talent then let them have a go at gelling into the squad like australia do then u have a team who will consistantly play together for 40-50 matches... that just my views and my views dont seem to b agreed with, as far as i can see. i feel maybe u r missing the point im trying to get across as u r an indian with no real interest how pakistan do, and i am a pakistani who wants pakistan to b at the top of their game consistantly for a long time? not just use a player who will retire sooner then expected and leave another gap in the squad. and as for asim kamal being the first same on the list...before inzi youhana younis khan kamran akmal ...i doubt it

 

[mofo123]

I would like to see Kamal play the tests.

My team:

Butt
Hameed/taufeeq
Yoyo
Younis
Inzi
Kamal
Akmal
Sami
Rana
Arshad
Kaneria

6 Acomplished batsmen, 1 WK batsmen and four bowlers, 2 of which, can hold a bat.

Though if it isnt a spinners pitch, i'd prefer to see razzaq ahead of arshad.[/QUOTE
]i think that wud be the team with razzaq instead of arshad

ive seen this list twice now, for one yousuf youhana always, in a normal situation, bats after both younis khan and inzi. 2 u left out razzaq, now u see i dont see how u can replace him in the pakistan squad a useful lower order bat and a useful seamer, infact i wouldnt b too surprised is him and sami opened and rana was the 1st change. asim kamal over malik yes i do see the very obvious veiw point of OH SO MANY! he is a specialist bat and a talented one but afridi is also very talented and he can provid the 2nd spinner therefore relinqueshing the need for arshad khan that position now we come to the point of razzaq, now one thing is bowlers win matches batsmen can get as many runs as u want if u havent got the bowlers u can win so on the basis i would give the nod to razzaq over kamal (ppl starting to think i have sumthing against kamal, i dont he is a gr8 player im look at it on the scale of the team not induvidually) ...so after i have considered ur veiw point i have changed my team to accomodate ur ideas:
bat ave/bowl ave

Butt 34/-
Hameed 42/-
Younis 40/-
Inzi 49/-
Yousuf youhana 48/-
Razzaq 30/35
Afridi 33/36
Akmal 16/-
Sami 12/42 (dont b fooled by the average)
Rana 6/45
Kaneria 5/29

this way the batting goes to number 8 and leave a tail that is capable of lingering...wot do u think shahid_afridi? out bowling is weak on averages but come on lets give them a chance IN NO WAY AM I SAYING IM RIGHT I JUST WANT A DISCUSSION hope no1 takes offence to my veiws or posts. thanx

 

[bhajji24]

what sorta ******** is that!!

Hadlee talked about the 'drain effect'- after two fierce rivals play a match, even the one that wins loses the next match- to anybody. Whether the Indians win or lose, they should field a very different team from the PAK series for the next event- at least those players won't suffer from the drain effect.

well well well SJS was right we've found the replacement for coach indeed .......honestly what sort of joke is this to replace players in the next series just cos they r drained or tired ......very very ameturish , arjun if you knew anything about professional cricket or even professional life for that matter you'd never say anything as wonky as that

 

[SJS]

well well well SJS was right we've found the replacement for coach indeed .......honestly what sort of joke is this to replace players in the next series just cos they r drained or tired ......very very ameturish , arjun if you knew anything about professional cricket or even professional life for that matter you'd never say anything as wonky as that

Bhajji my dear,
Just hang around a bit longer and you will find wonky too mild a term

 

[Choora]

dear dear me, well y pick any1 at all? razzaq is a quality all rounder and he shouldnt b picked? average of nearly 30 coming in to bat at numbers 7/8 that isnt good?

No it isn't good, it should be VERY simple to understand if a person has some understanding of the game. Razzak would be playing at number 7 slot, i.e at the expense of a specialist BOWLER, what is Pakistan going to achieve by having a player who can bat but isn't potent with the bowl ?If packing a side with allrounders is all one need then thrown out the likes of Akhtar,Kaneria and Sami and bring in Azhar Mahmood, Yasir Arafat and Qaiser Abbas!! You didn't provide me the stats of Razzak's bowling?? and don't bother to come up with it coz Razzak's bowling has declined considerably( even by his own admission) and he's no longer the bowler he used to be.

as for afridi in the longer version of the game he averages almost 35, is that not good again for some1 who would now b comming in at 7/8 position (yes he has opened in the past but woolmers has made it clear he will not do so now)

That he averaged while openeing the innings and almost every sane person would say that its an ordinary! Again what are yopu going to achive to have Afridi comming in at number eight? Razzak at seven, Afridi at eight, Akmal at nine DO YOU WANT PAK TO GO IN MATCH WITH JUST 2 SPECIALIST BOWLER???

and then we come to rana, yes i had my reservations abt him but the effort that man puts into a game, seldom i have seen, although he is still to prove himself to me in the longer version of the game, obviously he has proven himself to team mates and to coach.

Rana has limited potential, he's in the team coz Akhtar,Shabbir and others are injured.Yes he does give 100 percent and that is admirable, but that is not the only factor on wich a player's potential is judge.

and then we come to malik, no matter wot u say u havent seen this guy play, if u had then u would realise he is a talented bat, hes 22 years old he needs a chance to prove himself y not now

Malik is talented, so is Razzak and Asim .But the best person should be the one who should play as the specialist batsman. Asim is the more compact batsman and has the better technique, as far as test matches are concerned Asim is certainly a far better candidate.

when dravid ganguly tendulkar retire india will have the same problem as we did wen saeed anwar and wasim and waqar retired

Ever heard of Kaif, Yuvraj,Laxman, Mongia... the list goes on. Atleast as far as batsman are concerned, India have abundant talent!!

also the spin king that is saqlain has been injured for a long time he is sadly missed kaneria and saqi will make an AWESOME spin attack

Saqlain was a spin king, he's no longer the bowler he used to be.The decline in his bowling is very visible.I would be surprised if he ever get to play more than 3 test matches again!

i am a pakistani who wants pakistan to b at the top of their game consistantly for a long time? not just use a player who will retire sooner then expected and leave another gap in the squad

This is something common in India and Pak, they prefer to have young players in their team. Asim might not be young, but he still have 5-6 years of cricket left in him.You can't just exclude someone just coz he's in late 20's? And if you wanna do that then throw out Rana Naveed, Yasir Hameed and Shabbir Ahmad too !

 

[Choora]

Sami 12/42 (dont b fooled by the average)

Its amazing how this guy has been fooling the entire Pakistan selection comittee !! The guy is crap, totally useless and a burden on Pak team.

 

[vandemataram]

Pakistan Panicking already!!!

Lacklustre Pak show improves Shoaib’s chances

NEW DELHI: Pakistan is already looking at the possibility of wanting a fit Shoaib Akhtar join the team during the Test series after a disappointing bowling performance in the three-day tour opener in Dharamshala which has been badly hit by inclement weather, write Waheed Khan and Abdul Majid Bhatti.

A team source disclosed that captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and coach Bob Woolmer were concerned with the available bowling resources after an insipid bowling performance in Dharamshala.

"The situation is such that if things don’t go right in the first Test in Mohali, then Shoaib might be joining the team sooner than expected because there is a feeling developing that the bowling might not be able to cope with the strong Indian batting line up in the Test matches," the source said.

Only off-spinner Arshad Khan and left-arm pacer Mohammad Khalil didn’t play in the Dharamshala match.

However, there is unanimity over the fact that Shoaib should only be asked to join the team if he is fit enough to bowl as it would serve no purpose carrying an unfit fast bowler around.

"Indications are that the team management will ask the selectors and board to have Shoaib go through a fitness test as soon as he completes his rehabilitation process to recover from a hamstring injury.

"So that if he is fit he can join the team during the Test series," the source added.

Shoaib, who pulled out of the Test series because of the hamstring strain he suffered in Australia, is presently training with South African trainer Grant Compton in Lahore and when contacted said he should be fit in two and a half to three weeks’ time.

"Hopefully, if everything goes well then I can make myself available to the selectors but it is an injury that takes its own time to heal properly. But, naturally, once the trainer declares that I am fit I would love to join the team in India even if this happens before the third Test," he said from Lahore.

The senior bowler - with 144 Test and 186 One-day International wickets - is said to have an uneasy relationship with the captain and coach but sources said that manger Saleem Altaf had had a long chat with the temperamental fast bowler before coming to India to sort things out

 

[SJS]

Its amazing how this guy has been fooling the entire Pakistan selection comittee !! The guy is crap, totally useless and a burden on Pak team.

I dont know if he is as bad as you make him out to be, but from whatever one has seen, he must be one of the most over rated cricketers of all time.

 

[vandemataram]

Oh this is soooooooooo funny. Pakistan and their big claims .Before the start of the tour Bob was saying that Pakistan don't need Akhtar for the Indian tour as they have bowlers who can do the job. Sami was being said to be pumped up, Rana Naveed was being treated as if he was some kind of a legend, Danish was being regarded as the best leggie in the world.And just after one match in which only 19 overs were bowled , Pakistanis seems to have the change of heart L L.

The hammering that Razzak,Rana and Sami got at the hands of BP's young guns made the think tank to realise that maybe the so called "mighty Pak bowling attack" wasn't that great atall, and if rookies can take such an attack to cleaners then how would such an attack fare against Indian test batsman is anyone's guess

 

[Choora]

I dont know if he is as bad as you make him out to be, but from whatever one has seen, he must be one of the most over rated cricketers of all time.

Won't say if he's overrated as now days noone rates him and even in Pakistan noone expect much from him.But he's certainly the biggest under achiever of all time.

 

[Beleg]

Sehwag posted,

Choora, actually it seems that Pakistanis have almost given up on test macthes...the team in some manner but also the crowd. There was a recent study/interview etc I read on a Pak-deicated forum (not forum members, actual Pakistanis in Pak) and they are only/mostly interested in ODIs. Moresover, they are happy to beat India and dont care abt real cricket (Test) as long as afridi is hitting those sixes.

I can pretty much relate to this study. Most people who watch cricket don't have the time or the will to sift through 4 or 5 days of compartively lifeless, boring competition. [As evident by the ground attendence figures in recent test matches]

(And certainly not in the state our bowling is at the moment)

 

[PAKMAN]

These are barbequued lamb chops. Great if done well. My favourite kabaab.

i jus love gol gappay
do u giyz know what they are it probably has a different name in inda

 

[SJS]

i jus love gol gappay
do u giyz know what they are it probably has a different name in inda

Yes we call them Gol Gappe in North but in Mumbai and Gujarat they call them
Pani Poori.
I simply love them But in Bombay they cant make them as well as in the North

 

[SJS]

i jus love gol gappay
do u giyz know what they are it probably has a different name in inda

I believe the food is unbelievable in Lahore. Would love to go one of these days

Last summer I ate at a restaurant called Lahore Kadhahi in London. The Kababs were very good.

 

[Shahid_afridi]

ive seen this list twice now, for one yousuf youhana always, in a normal situation, bats after both younis khan and inzi. 2 u left out razzaq, now u see i dont see how u can replace him in the pakistan squad a useful lower order bat and a useful seamer, infact i wouldnt b too surprised is him and sami opened and rana was the 1st change. asim kamal over malik yes i do see the very obvious veiw point of OH SO MANY! he is a specialist bat and a talented one but afridi is also very talented and he can provid the 2nd spinner therefore relinqueshing the need for arshad khan that position now we come to the point of razzaq, now one thing is bowlers win matches batsmen can get as many runs as u want if u havent got the bowlers u can win so on the basis i would give the nod to razzaq over kamal (ppl starting to think i have sumthing against kamal, i dont he is a gr8 player im look at it on the scale of the team not induvidually) ...so after i have considered ur veiw point i have changed my team to accomodate ur ideas:
bat ave/bowl ave

Butt 34/-
Hameed 42/-
Younis 40/-
Inzi 49/-
Yousuf youhana 48/-
Razzaq 30/35
Afridi 33/36
Akmal 16/-
Sami 12/42 (dont b fooled by the average)
Rana 6/45
Kaneria 5/29

this way the batting goes to number 8 and leave a tail that is capable of lingering...wot do u think shahid_afridi? out bowling is weak on averages but come on lets give them a chance IN NO WAY AM I SAYING IM RIGHT I JUST WANT A DISCUSSION hope no1 takes offence to my veiws or posts. thanx

i am sorry i am not from the uk(and i have not gaduated from school yet) and my english is pretty weak.thats y i dont really understand y you speak to me in your post.but if i understood your post right i think you are right cuz averages are not everything in cricket...just look at samis batting average!he can bat pretty good and was about to be an allrounder some months ago!i think the pakistani team is really under-rated right now.

so lets all hope that pakistan(especially shahid afridi)gives india a good fight and maybe even wins the series...

 

[Shahid_afridi]

Its amazing how this guy has been fooling the entire Pakistan selection comittee !! The guy is crap, totally useless and a burden on Pak team.

i dont think that such posts are right!

 

[SJS]

ive seen this list twice now, for one yousuf youhana always, in a normal situation, bats after both younis khan and inzi. 2 u left out razzaq, now u see i dont see how u can replace him in the pakistan squad a useful lower order bat and a useful seamer, infact i wouldnt b too surprised is him and sami opened and rana was the 1st change. asim kamal over malik yes i do see the very obvious veiw point of OH SO MANY! he is a specialist bat and a talented one but afridi is also very talented and he can provid the 2nd spinner therefore relinqueshing the need for arshad khan that position now we come to the point of razzaq, now one thing is bowlers win matches batsmen can get as many runs as u want if u havent got the bowlers u can win so on the basis i would give the nod to razzaq over kamal (ppl starting to think i have sumthing against kamal, i dont he is a gr8 player im look at it on the scale of the team not induvidually) ...so after i have considered ur veiw point i have changed my team to accomodate ur ideas:
bat ave/bowl ave

Butt 34/-
Hameed 42/-
Younis 40/-
Inzi 49/-
Yousuf youhana 48/-
Razzaq 30/35
Afridi 33/36
Akmal 16/-
Sami 12/42 (dont b fooled by the average)
Rana 6/45
Kaneria 5/29

this way the batting goes to number 8 and leave a tail that is capable of lingering...wot do u think shahid_afridi? out bowling is weak on averages but come on lets give them a chance IN NO WAY AM I SAYING IM RIGHT I JUST WANT A DISCUSSION hope no1 takes offence to my veiws or posts. thanx

Hi Mofu,

At the outset dont get disturbed by those out to provoke you. You should be able to see that. You can quickly find who are the ones interested in a discussion and which are only interested in displaying their bigotry. Unfortunarely the second variety exisits and is amongst supporters of all teams.

Coming to your team, I would send Yohanna at number three. It is the most vital, pivotal position in the batting order and the best batsman in the team must be placed here. It has to be Inzy or Yohanna. Pakistan need to correct this. Yohanna has the game (knowing that the skipper is not keen on number three), to hold fort in case of an early disaster AND the strokes to consolidate on a strong opening. he must be number three.

I would love to get Malik into the side. I think he is a test batsman to rank three (after Yohanna and Inzi) in this Pak side. But I can see the problem of accomodating him after his bowling action problems. I wish either him or Younis would open the innings.

I think it is a reasonably good side and only a totally biased person would right them off for this series. Yes they do not start as favourites but they are capable of springing some surprises.

As an indian, i hope these are few, though

 

[ReallyCrazy]

Oh this is soooooooooo funny. Pakistan and their big claims .Before the start of the tour Bob was saying that Pakistan don't need Akhtar for the Indian tour as they have bowlers who can do the job. Sami was being said to be pumped up, Rana Naveed was being treated as if he was some kind of a legend, Danish was being regarded as the best leggie in the world.And just after one match in which only 19 overs were bowled , Pakistanis seems to have the change of heart L L.

The hammering that Razzak,Rana and Sami got at the hands of BP's young guns made the think tank to realise that maybe the so called "mighty Pak bowling attack" wasn't that great atall, and if rookies can take such an attack to cleaners then how would such an attack fare against Indian test batsman is anyone's guess

Remember the great Indian batsmen got bashed up by Australia. And then South Africa came over and really took it out at them. It was by no means a totally successful series. And finally these guy even lost a ODI match to BANGLADESH.