In the just concluded 'home season' in the UAE, the Pakistan cricket team played 8 one-day games, winning 2 and losing 6. on the T-20 front things didnt look very rosy either - played 4, won 1, lost 3.
the once vaunted bowling attack is now in 'tatters'. our spin king Saeed Ajmal has been banned for illegal bowling, with Mohd Hafeez following in his footsteps. (conspiracy theorists please stay away).
this leaves Shahid Afridi as the only 'legit' one day spinner and he is now afraid to bowl his 'faster' delivery lest he could also be called for "throwing'.
the fast bowling dept. once the 'pride of the team' is now empty. Umar Gul is past his prime and suffers from preodic breakdown. Junaid Khan, once touted as a spearhead is injured and will miss the WC-15.
whats left one may ask - Sohail Tanvir and Wahab Riaz - all the cricket teams for the WC are probably licking their chops as they can hardly wait to play Pakistan. Oh! wait a minute - there is Mohd Irfan the 7 footer - he would be a handful on the bouncy pitches of Australia, but he too is coming off serious injury and could breakdown anytime. Anwar Ali & Ehsan Adil, less said the better.
so in the recently concluded season, we couldnt field 5 front line bowlers. thats how bad it has gotten. the 5th bowler spot was shared by - are you sitting down - Ahmad Shehzad (LB) and Haris Sohail (SLA). between them they had never taken a ODI wicket before this season and on the fast and bouncy wickets of OZ, they should go for plenty.
wonder what the great proponets of fast and leg-spin bowling - waqar younis & mushtaq ahmad are doing as coaches?
one might think that since the bowling attack has weakened, the selectors might have fixed the batting to compensate for the bowling - well not exactly - things are still the same here as they have been for some time.
we dont have a 'opening pair' to talk about. Ahmad Shehzad has talent, but he is inconsistent and not to mention a bit arrogant. Hafeez is his partner but he has had a run of low scores for some time. Hafeez probably still sees Steyn in his dreams or are they nightmares. Steyn exposed him badly in SA recently and the other teams are sure to watch video of that series.
what are the alternates, Nasir Jamshed (2 ducks v. NZ), Sherjeel Khan, Shoaib Maqsood etc, etc. you get my point right! - where thou art Saeed Anwar...
one down - we have tried Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq both very decent Test Match players but not ODImaterial. So we are probably going to rely on Younis Khan who has a life-time strike-rate of ~75/100 balls. gentleman of a cricketer but too slow for the modern ODI game.
fourth slot will probably go to Umar Akmal who once boasted that he will be the greatest ODI player in the world - slow down mate! - when was the last time you played an innings of significance. the alternate is Shoaib Malik!!! - less said the better.
fifth slot goes to Haris Sohail who has shown signs of being a good player but has never played in australian conditions.
sixth slot will go to the capt. whomever he is - Misbah or Afridi. hamstring injuries have a way of recurring and Misbah is getting on in age (40+).
seventh spot goes to the 'darling' of the selectors, Sarfaraz Ahmad - good bat, hands of stone WK. i would take Kamran Akmal anytime over him.
Afridi comes at 8th - we all now know what he can do after 400 ODI's.
9,10,11 will be from the 'formidable' names i have mentioned at the start.
our opening WC match is against India - Good Luck - we havnt beaten them in WC ODI's since i was born in 1954.
FM17
