Stani Army

Asked to suggest an extra fast bowler to accompany the squad for the Test series against Australia, Mohammad Sami would not have been the first name I would have thought of. Though a perennial underachiever, Sami has many of the attributes to be successful at what he does. With a decent build, raw pace, repeatable, uncomplicated action, and fire in the belly, he really should have had more Test wickets to his name.

Last chance for a talent unfulfilled

So why Sami and not anyone from our contracted players? We have Rana Naved, though not an out and out pace bowler, he has many strings to his bow. Rana is quite expensive though and this is probably the reason why he has never been favoured in Tests. Then there’s Sohail Tanvir and Yasir Arafat, both of whom can bat a bit and would have added strength to an already fragile batting line up.

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Pakistan have dropped Misbah Ul-Haq from all three squads for the upcoming games against New Zealand. As a big fan of Misbah, I think this is a big mistake and one which will show come the end of the New Zealnd series’.

Compared to 2007-8, Misbah has not had a great time of it this year, visibly struggling to play his natural game. Even though, his ODI average has still been a useful 33.33, better than Shoab Malik, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi and our captain at the time of writing, Younis Khan. In case you don’t believe me, click here.

The figures above show that it was a not only Misbah who struggled but for some reason he has been the one sacrificed. When looking at an individual’s performances, they must, as above, be put into context. Pakistan have played on some tough batting pitches of late in Sri Lanka and the UAE. In the 5 match ODI series against Australia in the UAE, the team batting first scored over 210 on only one occasion. Our batting performances in general have not been great of late.

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