Stani Army

It seems that this may well be the last series Shoaib Akhtar will participate in for Pakistan unless he undergoes some kind of radical change. Questions on his fitness and commitment have surfaced again after his last two poor performances against Sri Lanka. Here we have a look at who the possible candidates are to replace him.

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Sri Lanka levelled the 3 ODI series against Pakistan with a convincing victory leaving Pakistan with a number of things to think about. In reply to Sri Lanka’s score of 290, Pakistan lost early wickets but Salman Butt and Shoaib Malik steadied the ship and Pakistan recovered to 125-3 when Malik lost his wicket. This then triggered a dramatic batting collapse with the home side ending up on 161 all out. After not such a good game yesterday, most of the damage was done by the two M’s, Murali and Mendis with 3 wickets each. Nuwan Kulasekara also bowled well with his two early dismissals.

Chief among Pakistan’s concerns and the major talking point was the performance of the Rawalpindi Express who seems to be grinding to a halt. Having bowled 7 expensive and wicketless overs he only managed 6 today taking one wicket and giving away 7.5 runs per over. Apart from not bowling his full quota of overs in both games, he also seemed lackadaisical and unenthusiastic in the field.

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