Black_Warrior
Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah same here. He has been released from contracts this year so hopefully he won't be in the reckoning in the near future.
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*Official* Pakistan in England and Ireland 2016
- Thread starter Grumpy
- Start date
Xuhaib
International Coach
One of Pakistan's biggest issue is many of its excellent test players are average or below average ODI cricketers. If I was Mickey Arthur I would try to get Umer Akmal and Sohaib Maqsood back and give them one final chance it would not be a bad idea to get Umer to open Dilshan and Rohit sharma were able to turn their careers around when they started opening. Pakistan needs an attacking opener but Sharjeel does not have the quality to consistently score runs against International attacks who know this might just be Umer's niche.
I like the look of Babar, Hassan, Imad and Nawaz with Amir easing his way back I don't think we are far away from building a competent ODI side just hope some of the new blokes settle in well.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Yeah Umar should still be in the team. His ODI record is still pretty good despite the fact that he's a frustrating player; I fear he may go the same way as Malik and end up with a big chunk of his prime wasted due to lofty selector exceptions despite a mediocre ODI side. I don't mind the idea of him opening either, although Sharjeel will probably be given a run now because of his assault on Ireland.
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Black_Warrior
Cricketer Of The Year
Agreed. I do feel that there is a good LO side in there. I was actually quite impressed with a few things during the short NZ tour earlier in the year. They could have won both the ODIs but mistakes at crucial moments cost them those games.
I am not that keen on U Akmal mainly because I don't see any real sense of maturity or change in his behaviour. He keeps playing the victim, keeps blaming everyone else including his teammates, coach, captain etc for his failures. Ultimately the only person responsible for this is himself and he is unwilling to face that. Same with Shehzad.
I think a decent top order can be built around
Azhar
Sami
Babar (yes he should be 3)
Haris Sohail
Malik/Rizwan
Sarfraz
Imad/Nawaz
Nawaz
Agree that Sharjeel is a hit and miss player but if you're opening with Azhar, he is your best bet to get a brisk start. He is probably the only guy who can give you 50 runs in 5 overs.
Until Haris is back, Sharjeel can be tried as opener with Azhar at 3 or Sami at 3.
Botttom line is these are the best lot you have here. Chopping and changing as per Pak Passion or GEO TV 'experts' is going to hurt this team. Misbah built the test team by keeping pretty much the same batting line up for 6 years. That's what this ODI teams but they need to be given a clear template and clearly defined roles and this is where Arthur comes in.
He has to define the roles for Azhar, Sami, Babar, Sharjeel etc. Azhar, he is to bat at below 80 strike rate will need to bat 40 plus overs and try to get those hundreds off 130 balls and hold it together while Shajeel, Babar, Sarfraz can push the scoring rate from the other end.
As happy as I am with Babar, I am waiting for a big knock here..guy needs to go out there and get a hundred.
Sohaib Maqsood unfortunately has regressed too much. Don't think he should be anywhere near the side. It's deflating how little he has worked on his game since his debut. Absolutely no real improvement or development as a player. **** him.
Xuhaib
International Coach
I do agree Umer is frustrating and his attitude stinks but I do feel he has been mishandled a bit during the Misbah ODI era. He was wrongly givin the role of finisher when he does not have the intelligence to guide run chases or deduce whats a good score batting first then he was not helped by the fact that the top order always batted at a snail pace so when he came in from ball one he had to play catch up cricket, most of the games were were on low and slow UAE tracks where batting in last 20 movers is much tougher then early on. Asking him to open the innings with a clear simple defined role of going hard in the power play might just do the trick for him.
I love Azhar I don't think ODI's will ever be his game yes you need a guy who holds the innings together and scores a 120-130 ball hundreds but that will happen once every 10-12 innings most of the times he will give you a 60 ball 35 which will hurt the side more maybe get Sharjeel to start with Umer and go hard from both ends with Babar or Haris doing the holding of the innings role from # 3.
I love Azhar I don't think ODI's will ever be his game yes you need a guy who holds the innings together and scores a 120-130 ball hundreds but that will happen once every 10-12 innings most of the times he will give you a 60 ball 35 which will hurt the side more maybe get Sharjeel to start with Umer and go hard from both ends with Babar or Haris doing the holding of the innings role from # 3.
Xuhaib
International Coach
No one who matters seem to rate him could be the ideal guy for the middle overs with Sarfraz but unlikely to get a gig soon.
Black_Warrior
Cricketer Of The Year
Fawad is finished. The powers that be never rated him mainly because they don't like the 'look' of him..but he is now 30 years old and is unlikely go get a chance..at least not in the ODIs. Also he is seen as another 'slow' player with a relatively lower strike rate and they are now desperately looking for more 'modern' batsmen. This is not my assessment as I still think he can be a solid ODI batsman, the one time Misbah's ODI team looked like clicking was during early 2014 when Fawad Alam was batting in the middle. He even got scores consistently including a hundred but was not enough.
Xuhaib and PEWS, do you guys see an ODI future for Azhar? Calls for Sarf to replace him is getting louder every day.
Xuhaib and PEWS, do you guys see an ODI future for Azhar? Calls for Sarf to replace him is getting louder every day.
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Niall
International Coach
Fawad has no place in the current Pakistan ODI side, the last thing they need is another guy who can't hit big especially against pace. Watch his innings v Australia in the second ODI in 2014, where they starved him off singles and dared him to hit out and he failed horribly, truly one of the worst pieces of finishing I ever seen. They have enough guys who can play the anchor innings in the middle at the moment.
I'd definitely consider bringing back Umar Akmal after this series and possibly as an opener if Sharjeel shows nothing of this series. Sharjeel bar smashing mediocre Irish trundlers of doom has a shambolic record in ODI'S for a reason. I admit Umar is an idiot, but hopefully missing such a high profile series will have wised him up somewhat. He has a kid now doesn't he? Another thing that should help him mature a little.
Maqsood is a hack, and had regressed horribly before he was rightfully dropped.
For me the jury is somewhat on Azhar, not sure his ilk of batsman can survive in 2016, especially as I type, their is plenty of other Pakistan slow starting batsman in the side.
Sami opening even if he stunk it out on Saturday and Wasim having a good game at least are some positives for the future.
I'd definitely consider bringing back Umar Akmal after this series and possibly as an opener if Sharjeel shows nothing of this series. Sharjeel bar smashing mediocre Irish trundlers of doom has a shambolic record in ODI'S for a reason. I admit Umar is an idiot, but hopefully missing such a high profile series will have wised him up somewhat. He has a kid now doesn't he? Another thing that should help him mature a little.
Maqsood is a hack, and had regressed horribly before he was rightfully dropped.
For me the jury is somewhat on Azhar, not sure his ilk of batsman can survive in 2016, especially as I type, their is plenty of other Pakistan slow starting batsman in the side.
Sami opening even if he stunk it out on Saturday and Wasim having a good game at least are some positives for the future.
theegyptian
International Vice-Captain
England to bat first plz.
theegyptian
International Vice-Captain
Why they continue to have these 15/16 man squad for home odi series is beyond me. Ball and Dawson would have been better off playing county cricket as they were always very unlikely to play. Hopefully they get released for this week's games- although Wood and Root will be possibly be rested if they win today and then they'll be 12 and 13th men as Jordan/Willey and Bairstow come in.
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Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Yeah, I do tbh
If he can get his strike rate into the low 80s I think he has a place, particularly given the fragility of the rest of the lineup and the fact that the next World Cup is in England. It's a bit low right now at 75 but I think he can improve it with more exposure and confidence. He's always going to be the anchor but I think he can have a role; I'd rather have him anchor from the top and set a platform than go the opposite way of having low-quality hitters at the top and then picking Fawad to hit singles at five.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Yeah he's backing up my earlier call that he should have been in the Test squad instead of Iftikhar. When I first saw the squad I thought they'd gone with Iftikhar because he provided opening cover, but when he came in he batted down the order even though he came in for an opener, so it can't be that. It was such a random selection; the best I can guess from this point is that he turns it the opposite way to Yasir and was favoured over the left armers for that reason.
Just putting it out there, but in the 2015 calendar year he was averaging 46 @ 84. Jury is still out on whether that's him genuinely speeding up in ODIs or a Cook-in-2011 weird patch of fast scoring, but we shall see.
Niall
International Coach
From all accounts Misbah is a huge fan of Ifi, captained him in the PSL, it looked a foolish inclusion on reflection, but I suppose when it comes to Misbah, when you consider how amazing he been over the last few years you have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Ifi also had a pretty good year with the bat last year in first class cricket which also helped his cause to be fair.