Stani Army

Pakistan have announced the squad for the upcoming ODI series and Twenty Internationals against England and there are a few interesting changes. It does seem that one squad of 16 has been announced for both formats with the likes of Abdur Rehman and Shoaib Malik who had made  the 14 man Twenty20 squad that beat Australia 2-0 earlier on the tour, missing out this time around.

The fortunes of Yousuf and Malik seem to be going in opposite directions

Shoaib Malik’s exclusion for the last Test against England came as no surprise but his exclusion from this limited over squad is slightly more surprising. With Fawad Alam and Mohammed Hafeez coming back in, maybe Malik’s role would have been seen as being covered adequately enough. Hafeez’s inclusion also means that there is no place for Imran Farhat, who strangely enough, is probably more suited to the shorter form.

Most interestingly, Mohammed Yousuf has completed his come back by being named also. One would think that he’d only be used in the ODIs but I for one am certain he could do a job in the Twenty20 see-ball hit-ball form of the game. Younis Khan was overlooked because, according to captain Shahid Afridi, he has not sorted out his dispute with the PCB. In what seems a very unsympathetic and ruthless statement, Afridi said: “I asked the chairman PCB about the situation with Younis twice. But the clearance wasn’t given by the PCB. I did what I had to do”. Make of that what you will.

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Well that doesn’t quite do this absorbing encounter justice. Even at the half way point Pakistan looked the likely losers after scraping to a total of 205 for 6. With the Australian innings starting off well, Indian fans all over the world who were watching the Pakistan match must have started to turn their TV sets off as Australia cruised to 140 for 2. News must have got through to MS Dhoni in the Indian game who in a strange move, whipped off his wicket keeping gloves and brought himself onto to bowl. Though he did take a wicket, he cost his side boundaries which at the time seemed insignificant. But then came the superb Pakistan fight back and Australia found themselves in trouble at 187 for 8. All of a sudden there was hope for India.

The chief protagonists in the fight back for Pakistan were Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Asif and Rana Naved who bowled maidens in both the 45th and 47th overs of the Australian innings. This meant that not only had the Aussies have to worry about wickets but also the number of balls remaining.

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The Champions Trophy is set to kick off on the 22nd of September in South Africa. On paper, Pakistan seem to be in the tougher of the two groups (A) but with the typical unpredictability of them and the West Indies, who are in their group, this may turn out to be the easier of the two groups in terms of the margin by which the top two progress to the knockout stages. The other two sides in group A are Australia and India respectively. Should the West Indies and Pakistan blow cold rather than hot, Australia and India will pretty much cruise through. Should they do their potential justice however, it will be a very tough, exciting and close fought group.

Umar Gul and Younis Khan have come out and said how they’d love to beat India but there’s a trophy out there up for grabs, a tournament, so let’s concentrate on that. Holding the Champions Trophy as well as the Twenty20 World Cup will strengthen any argument about Pakistan being the side to beat in the shorter form of the game so there’s plenty of incentive there.

The other group (B), is made up of England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

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Mohammad Asif’s inclusion in the Champions Trophy squad has divided opinion amongst Pakistani fans. Many feel that he will be undercooked and I get the feeling that the remainder just don’t want to see him back because of the issues he’s had with drugs, which is fair enough.

If you keep in mind Pakistan’s tour to Australia which follows the Champions Trophy, then bringing Asif back now would be the right thing to do in my opinion, but whether the selectors thought of this is another matter. This will be a vital series for us and we’ll need our best bowling attack and Asif would certainly fit into that category as he’s arguably the most talented seam bowler in world cricket.  The Australian tour comprises of 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and a Twenty20. If Asif was not picked for the Champions Trophy then it would be very difficult to justify his inclusion in a team to play Australia, especially with the 3 Test matches coming up first.

The fact that the Champions Trophy is a short tournament in which he’ll come up against quality but where the result won’t matter as much as it would in a WC tournament, makes it a good place to return. If he does fail, then at least he’ll fail here and not on a long and important tour.

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With the emergence of Mohammad Aamer, would a fit Shoaib have a place in the Pakistan first team?

In the past, we’ve had to keep on going back to Shoaib because there was no one else fast or good enough to partner Umar Gul as the other of the two Pakistan pace spearheads. Maybe part of the reason for his bad behaviour was that he felt he brought something unique to the Pakistan attack so was thus indispensable and could do pretty much what he liked. His recent comment, “I am the fastest bowler in history and it’s not possible for everyone to bowl at 150 (kph)”, does give some indication of such a mindset. Yet now that we have Aamer, and due the reasons which we will now examine, I think Shoaib would find it very difficult to get a place in any of our sides.

His reverse swing and slower ball skills will not be missed as Gul has demonstrated that he is one of the very best exploiters of these qualities. His pace will not also be a miss as both Gul and Aamer are adequately fast enough. In most of our sides, barring injury, we will probably go with three main fast bowlers due to the strength of our all rounders and spinners. With Gul and Aamer a certainty, this leaves one place

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