Pakistan vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test, Karachi, Feb 21-25

Believe it or not....

Few questions to answer

1- Who will open? 17 year old Shahzad or Manzoor
2- Who will be the 2 middle order batsmen out of Faisal, Alam and Kamal?
3- Who will be the 2 bowlers out of Arafat, Sohail Khan and M Talha?

there are 5 debutants in the squad(should have been 7)

Is Pakistan still a country these days?

I thought they only played tests against Rhodesia, Burma & Atlantis these days...

Gary 111 wrote:Is Pakistan still a country these days?

I thought they only played tests against Rhodesia, Burma & Atlantis these days...

good one there...


but yeah Pakistan is still a better team than England in all 3 forms of the game(i know thats not saying much )

The 4 fast bowlers selected have a total of 17 test matches between them(16 for Gul, 1 for Arafat, 0 each for S Khan and M Talha)

so considering that fact it will be difficult to take wickets and at least 90% of the chances have to be taken for Pakistan to have a chance hence selecting Kamran Akmal for his batting ability is a BIG mistake.

"but yeah Pakistan is still a better team than England in all 3 forms of the game(i know thats not saying much "


You could be right, but really it is hard to be sure, because the Pakistanis don't actually play much international cricket these days. England won the last test series between them 3-0. while the most recent ODI series between them ran 2-2. Heck, the P-boys didn't make it past the group stage at the World Cup. Remember that? Good times.

The official rankings show England a smidge ahead in Tests and a smidge behind in ODIs, and that's probably about right.

I'll give you that Pakistan is ahead in T20.

it was a bit of a TIC comment....

you are right about not knowing how good/bad the current Pakistani test team is....i am guessing that they suck.

I think Manzoor will open with Butt, and Alam will get the middle order spot. Pakistan-

Butt
Manzoor
Younis(c)
Misbah
Malik
Alam
Akmal+
Arafat
Gul
Khan
Kaneria

Don't think Manzoor will play

Shahzad just scored a quick 140+* against the same team....

and M Talha should play as welll....

I thought Gul bowled well here in the one match (a T20) I saw him play in. Seemed like a really happy go lucky guy who got on well with his WA team mates

horace wrote:I thought Gul bowled well here in the one match (a T20) I saw him play in. Seemed like a really happy go lucky guy who got on well with his WA team mates

he is now the most experienced( 16 times more than the next one) fast bowler in the current squad

PlanetPakistan wrote:and M Talha should play as welll....

So you say that Pak should play with 13 men in the team?

thats how many they will need...

but no...they should probably drop Arafat and go with MT.

I am glad Sohail Tanvir isn't a part of the squad.

KARACHI: Just weeks after being appointed as Pakistan captain, Younis Khan on Wednesday showed his teeth and then had his say in the selection of the national squad for the opening Test against Sri Lanka starting from Saturday.

Sources told 'The News' that Younis forcefully pushed for the inclusion and omission of several players from the 15-man squad announced by chief selector Abdul Qadir on Wednesday.

According to the sources, Younis gave his recommendations to the national selection committee and then fought for his choices whenever the selectors seemed to be going in any different direction.

At one time, things almost came to a boiling point but in the end better sense prevailed and the team was selected through a consensus.

There were differences of opinion on several players. For example, the selectors were in favour of bringing in left-handed opener Nasir Jamshed but Younis fought for Khurram Manzoor - another young opening batsman - to take that place.

According to one source, even the selectors managed to score a point when they shot down the team management's proposal to have Saeed Ajmal, as another specialist spinner in the squad alongside leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.

There was also some debate on Sohail Tanvir but in the end both the sides agreed that the left-arm pacer is still not fully ready for Test cricket.

"There was certainly some friction between the selectors and Younis over some players but in the end everything was settled," said a source.