Cricket is a religion in those parts, and while that has enormous benefits it also brings with it the pressure of expectation and the glare of the media spotlight with almost everyone in the country keeping an eye on their latest scores.

Pakistan have had more than their fair share of media attention in recent months, but upon their arrival in Bangladesh the players seemed quietly confident and content to concentrate on matters on the pitch.

Certainly the mood of this Pakistan team is key to their success. They possess the talent but it is their tendency to blow hot and cold that infuriates their passionate support – they know what the players can do, they just don’t always show it.

Their batting line-up stretches down as far as eight, combining a blend of youthful exuberance – think Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal, and Asad Shafiq – with the cool, calm heads of experience like Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq. Their latest cricket scores heading into the tournament are pretty good, and they will be looking to shine on the biggest stage.

Bowling wise they are obviously weakened by the bans handed down to Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir but their strength still lies with the ball.

Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul are cricketing warhorses will plenty left still in the tank. Wahab Riaz is growing at international level and will be a useful post-power play back up while spinners Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman have all the capabilities required to extract the maximum out of the sub-continent pitches.

They have all the tools therefore to go far in this competition, but like many Pakistan teams across the years, will they bring those tools with them when it matters?

My team: Hafeez, Shafiq, Younis, Misbah, U. Akmal, Razzaq, Afridi, Zulquarnain, Gul, Ajmal, Akhtar.

A number of things need to come off for Pakistan to be challenging in this ODI series against a powerful and adept One Day South African side; a side which has won it’s last five ODI matches.

Firstly, our openers need to form a partnership of at least 50 even if it comes up in the 14th over. With wickets in hand and Razzaq and Misbah (hopefully) coming in lower down, the score can be accelerated later on. Wickets in hand will also allow Umar Akmal to play his more natural and attacking game rather than getting confused and stuck at the crease trying to throw down the anchor. Younis also needs to quickly find form and glue the innings together.

As for the bowlers; Gul needs to step up to the mark and help out Shoaib, and Saeed Ajmal needs to rediscover his wicket taking abilities. Maybe concentrating on conventional spin and bowling slower will help. The contribution of Mohammad Hafeez with the ball will have a big say in our success in restricting the South Africans. Ideally, I wouldn’t want Razzaq bowling. If we have to go to him then he should be given a few overs in the middle part of the innings when things slow down. Going in with the team above, we would be able to bowl 50 overs without the use of Razzaq yet that does not take into account a bowler having an off day. Hence, Razzaq may well be used.

With the World Cup around the corner, the coach and the captain should be looking to experiment and get some idea of the make up of their squad, one which they will hopefully be consulted on. Players will want to do well and I hope some of the players on the periphery are given the chance to do so in this series.

England had no answer to Gul's reverse swing

A quite brilliant spell of swing bowling from Umar Gul clinched Pakistan the third ODI against England at the Oval. Gul finished with figures of 6-42 which included three bowled dismissals. Through certain parts of the Test series and the previous two ODIs, Gul has looked a shadow of the man who holds the accolade of being the best bowler in Twenty cricket – the form of cricket which is harshest on bowlers. Gul does seem to be one of those bowlers that needs to be near optimum fitness in order to perform at his best. A few niggles whilst he has been over here in England may lay claim to why he hadn’t shown the type of bowling he showed today.

At most points throughout the England innings it seemed as a forgone conclusion that England would knock off the runs and go into a 3-0 unassailable lead. Indeed, Billy Doctrove who saved Andrew Strauss and England in the last game tried his best to do so again today when he for some reason did not refer a stumping appeal to the third umpire. Luke Wright was the batsman and Umar Akmal, deputising for his injured brother behind the stumps, did very well to time the stumping just as Wright’s foot was off the ground. Rather than go up to the thrid umpire and make sure, Doctrove immediately said no as Akmal appealed.

Earlier in Pakistan’s innings, there was a far less convincing appeal by England, and one that would be far less in line with the spirit of the game, when Shahid Afridi took evasive action to a throw which struck his bat and went onto the stumps. Docrtrove walked over to the stumps to replace the bails and seemed as if he wasn’t going to even consider it as a run out until Stewart Broad queried it. After taking a few seconds to think about it, Doctrove went upstairs for the decision and Afridi was given out. The difference between the two events was a clear case of double standards that could probably only be explained by some sort of inferiority complex displayed by umpire Doctrove.

In regards to Doctrove not going upstairs for Wright’s stumping; getting a marginal decision wrong is one thing, but when you have the third umpire as a back up and you don’t use him, it’s criminal. I hope Pakistan raise the issue and Doctrove is reprimanded as this kind of thing cannot happen again at the top level of the game. He has already cost Pakistan the previous ODI, and he almost cost us another one. Of course, this is the same Billy Doctrove who stood back quietly as umpire Darrell Hair decided to act as judge jury and executioner in the infamous Oval Test in 2006.

So onto the fourth game in the series on Monday with Pakistan unfortunate to be trailing 2-1. Should the Stanis take the next one, it will leave an exciting decider at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday.

Asad Shafiq; looks to be made of the right stuff

Pakistan may find themselves 2-0 down in the ODI series against England but Stani fans can take some hope from the two performances, particularly today’s one. In the first game which Pakistan lost by 24 runs, the difference ended up being Umar Gul and his bad day at the office with the ball. Today it was the failure of the Pakistani batsmen to accelerate near the end of their innings and get the total up and around a challenging 310.

The most pleasing aspect was the emergence of what seems like another little gem for Pakistan in Asad Shafiq. He looks a ‘busy’ type of cricketer that keeps the scoreboard ticking by just dropping the ball and picking up vital singles. As he showed in the first ODI, and at certain times today, he can also attack and do so quite effectively.

With the  3rd ODI on Friday, Pakistan should look to make a couple of changes at least with Fawad Alam and Mohammad Irfan failing to impress. Though Fawad’s strike rate was good today, he still found it difficult to get the boundaries when they were required nearer the end of the innings.  I would certainly consider bringing in Azhar Ali in place of him, who showed in he Tests that he can certainly power the ball over the boundary.

As for Mohammad Irfan, I think he has a long long way to go. Though he does have the very useful physical characteristic of height, he doesn’t make the best use of it and was a liability in the field today. He certainly shouldn’t be discarded and forgotten about, but should be worked on closely back in Pakistan at the academy. Just from the problems he had with cramps in both games, it is obvious that he is simply not used to the game at the international level yet so should be taken away and refined rather than persisted with in which case he will leave England with nothing but mental scars. Pakistan should look to replace him with Abdul Razzaq for the remaining three ODIs.

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.

An inclusion that I am certainly in favour of was that of Azhar Ali. With the absence of Younis Khan, Azhar should go straight into the ODI side to bolster the middle-order batting line up. He has all the attributes: technique, temperament, talent, to become a permanent fixture in our ODI side for years to come as I am sure he will be in the Test side.

As expected, Shoaib Akhtar also retains his place from the squad that faced Australia in the Twenty20s earlier in the tour. With Wahab Riaz also included and Akhtar’s level of fitness considered, it will be interesting to see if Akhtar makes the ODI team. If he does, it may well be a straight battle between Umar Gul and Riaz for the final spot with the other two taken up by Asif and Aamer. We must not forget Gul’s deadliness in the shorter form and that Wahab has been quite expensive in this form in the past. Although, with Abdul Razzaq and Saeed Ajmal also in the squad, and considering the fact that Afridi will bowl himself, it will be interesting to see how many pacers are included in the attack from the five of Aamer, Asif, Gul, Akhtar and Riaz. Certainly that’s one area in which we’re spoilt for choice.

All in all, it looks a very exciting squad with plenty to work with for captain Shahid Afridi ahead of the World Cup:

Squad for the five ODIs and two Twenty20s:

Shahid Afridi (capt), Salman Butt, Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Azhar Ali, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Asif, Mohammed Aamer, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Wahab Riaz.

Reserves:

Sarfraz Ahmed, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Irfan, Abdur Rehman.

'We're not dumb, we batted rubbish so that we could lose the Test early to give our bowlers a rest'

If just for the sake of our bowlers, then the PCB must react to the current batting situation even if it means sending out a call for Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan and maybe even Misbah Ul-Haq. The argument that we should persist with the youngsters would be a fair one in any other situation, but we need to get these youngsters out of the cauldron they are in because this is not helping them or our bowlers.

The longest our batsmen have occupied the crease thus far in England has been 90 overs. With only Asif and Aamer of the bowlers showing any form, and Aamer being just 18, there is a worryingly huge workload placed on the bowlers, in particular the aforementioned two.

Kamran Akmal: The ‘wicket-keeper batsman’
The other thing exacerbating the situation is the dropped catches and general fielding. It is as if the bowlers have to get the opposition batsman out twice for every one dismissal. The chief culprit in this is Kamran Akmal. I stated in my last post that enough was enough, that since Kamran is making the same mistakes and not showing any improvement, then he has to be dropped. The argument that we select him because of what he gives with the bat is a false one. If you look at his contributions with the bat, then there is no reason why he should remain in the side in place of a good wicket-keeper who is not a batsmen because Akmal doesn’t look like much of a batsman either. In his seven Test innings in England, he has managed an average of just 14.58.

Disappointment all-round, as the ground fails to swallow up Kamran Akmal

Team for the next Test
Whilst it is drastic, this is the side I would go in with for the secnd Test against England and it looks like a much more competitive one to me: Butt, Hameed, Malik, Younis (or Misbah lower down), Yousuf, Azhar/Umar Akmal,  Zulqarnain, Asif, Aamer, Gul, Ajmal.

Listening to Salman Butt’s after-match interview, it did not seem as if changes were going to be made and it felt as though they were going to stick with the same line up. Butt backed the young batsmen and the wicket-keeper Akmal. His argument was that after losing similarly to Australia in the first Test, we came back strong. Yet, our batting was still poor in that game and we were lucky to win that one in the end, and should not forget that after making just 88 in the first innings, Australia still managed to get back in the game, with our bowlers having to hit the winning runs under pressure on what turned out to be the last day.

And if we do stick with the same side as Butt indicated, what happens when we lose the next one in a similarly embarrassing manner? Knowing the media and ex-cricketers back in Pakistan, our young batsmen will get overly criticised. Both the players (current and those that are called up) and the backroom staff, need to forget the clash of personality issues, forget the character issues, it’s time to be professional and come work for the country.

UPDATE:
Danish Kaneria has been dropped for the remainder of the series and is now available for Essex. Mohammed Yousuf has been called up into the squad for the remaining games against England. Both positive steps in my opinion.

Confident or plain stupid?

Collingwood was quoted as saying: “I don’t want to go overboard on ‘these guys are the best thing since sliced bread’ – or Wasim Akram, or this, that and the other”, he went on: “I think they have got a lot of talent. But to say they’re the number one bowling attack in the world I would say was over the mark. They have come up in conditions recently where it’s done a fair bit”.

It’s interesting because it comes at around the same time that the Pakistan captain said in an interview to cricinfo that he believes that in Mohammed Aamer and Mohammed Asif, he has the best pace pair in the world. Add Umar Gul to the mix, who as statistics prove, is the best bowler in Twenty20, the form which is harshest on bowlers, then it’s not such a bad pace attack.

“Without any doubt I can say that Aamer and Asif are the best pair in the world at the moment and Gul with the old ball is the most dangerous” Salman Butt.

I hope the Pakistan captain Salman Butt prints out Collingwood’s words and sticks them to the dressing room walls (with translation if required), because that will be his team-talk done for him. If I was an English batsman who had watched the manner in which our bowlers bamboozled the likes of Ricky Ponting, I wouldn’t exactly be over the moon hearing the comments Collingwood has publicly aired. But this cockiness is very much the way the new England team operates under Andy Flower, under whose stewardship the indiscipline of the English players seems to have multiplied. The reasons for it may well be that like many other sides, England are trying to follow the successful Australian blueprint on how to be the best in the world. Unfortunately, the Australians know how to do it and can back it up with actions, whereas the English over do it and don’t always back it up with actions.

With our bowling attack, we have all the required ingredients. It is time to cook up a meal, serve it to Collingwood and let him eat his words.

A resigned Ricky Ponting falls after being bamboozled by Mohammed Asif

Having run out of superlatives, I leave you with some of the highlights of the text commentary from Cricinfo by Andrew McGlashan and Liam Brickhill, as Pakistan dismissed the Australians for 88 all out in the second Test at Headingley. Enjoy…

Over 5.4

Asif and Aamer haven’t been anywhere near as impressive as they were at Lord’s

6.1

Mohammad Aamer to Katich, OUT, 87.6 mph, gone! A breakthrough for Pakistan and Katich plays for shuffling across the crease as he’s caught on off stump with the ball angling towards middle and leg. A strength can often be a weakness and he’ll always been danger if he misses the ball – he should have gone like that early at Lord’s. Rudi raises his slow finger to send him on the way.

SM Katich lbw b Mohammad Aamer 13 (21b 2×4 0×6) SR: 61.90

A very timely strike for Pakistan who had looked a little flat this morning and it was the perfect full length from Aamer

7.2

Mohammad Asif to Watson, OUT, 80.5 mph, gone! Another falls. Game on. Asif gets his line and length right, full on off stump with a hint of shape back in, Watson misses his drive and is caught right in front. Ian Gould quickly raises the finger, but Watson isn’t happy and takes a while to leave.

SR Watson lbw b Mohammad Asif 5 (19b 1×4 0×6) SR: 26.31

Michael Clarke in at No.4 with Australia wobbling. Replays show Watson’s lbw was as out as you’ll see…bat was nowhere near it.

9.3

After shaking off the early rust, Asif and Aamer now look unplayable

12.3

Umar Gul to Clarke, OUT, 85.4 mph, gone! Australia all over the shop as Clarke is cleaned up. Was the perfect full length and he drove all around it having played two wild shots previously. Gul has pitched the ball up and got rewards

MJ Clarke b Umar Gul 3 (20b 0×4 0×6) SR: 15.00

Well, that’s Pakistan’s hour without a doubt. Australia have lost 3 for 7 in six overs and have some major rebuilding to do. Good toss to win, Ricky? Here’s the man for a crisis, Michael Hussey…three slips and a short leg in place.

13.1

Mohammad Asif to Ponting, no run, 79.9 mph, what a ball! Unplayable. It landed on a length on off stump and jagged away off the seam sharply. Ponting is well beaten shaping to play the ball to leg on the walk. A belated appeal, but more for the quality of the delivery as he missed it completely!

13.5

Mohammad Asif to Ponting, OUT, 80.0 mph, gone! Again Ponting thrusts the left leg forward and swishes across the pad at a ball nipping back in to him. He’s struck infront of middle and leg, huge appeal from bowler and fielders and that’s out! A remarkable exhibition of the control of seam and swing from Asif, and Australia are in all sorts of trouble now.

RT Ponting lbw b Mohammad Asif 6 (21b 0×4 0×6) SR: 28.57

16.5

Umar Gul to Hussey, OUT, 80.3 mph, Hussey goes! Gul strikes! He fired the ball full and straight, snaking it back into the batsman to strike him on the pad. Rudi’s slow finger of death begins to rise, and Hussey’s got to go. He’s unlucky there, replays suggest the ball may have missed leg stump. But look at this, Australia are 41 for 5!

MEK Hussey lbw b Umar Gul 5 (13b 1×4 0×6) SR: 38.46

20.0

Now, this is interesting. Umar Gul is being replaced at the other end by… Umar Amin? Not too sure about this change, Amin is finding plenty of inswing but it’s at a very gentle pace.

22.5

Umar Amin to North, OUT, 72.4 mph, Amin strikes! North falls! Kamran holds a catch! Amin picks up his first Test wicket as he lands one on a length around off stump. North could have left that, but he pushed forward in defence and had to reach for the ball. A healthy edge, and Kamran takes a good catch diving to his left. North is utterly disconsolate as he trudges off. Kamran and Amin are over the moon!

MJ North c †Kamran Akmal b Umar Amin 16 (33b 2×4 0×6) SR: 48.48

The peerless Andy Zaltzman has been playing with Statsguru again, and has this to say: “Gents. A stat for you. That is the first time this millennium that Australia’s top six have all been out for under 20. The last such occasion was 156 baggy green Tests ago, on the dreamy, mirage-like first day of the 1997 Ashes.”

25.1

Mohammad Aamer to Smith, OUT, 83.7 mph, Done him first ball! That’s a beauty from Aamer, snaking back through bat and ball to smash into middle stump! Smith was angling through midwicket but the ball simply wasn’t there.

SPD Smith b Mohammad Aamer 10 (8b 2×4 0×6) SR: 125.00

25.2

Mohammad Aamer to Johnson, OUT, 83.3 mph, Oh. My. Goodness. What a beauty from Aamer, that was unplayable, full on middle and off and it shaped away and took off stump. Aamer is on a hat-trick!

MG Johnson b Mohammad Aamer 0 (1b 0×4 0×6) SR: 0.00

25.3

Mohammad Aamer to Hilfenhaus, no run, 87.1 mph, ooh… so close! Fizzing past the outside edge of the right-handed Hilfenhaus, but just eludes the edge …

What a resumption. This is magical cricket.

28.0

This isn’t Australia’s worst performance in the first innings of a Test match, but it could be pretty close. Lots of grim-faced Aussies peering out of the dressing-room. They don’t quite know what has hit them today.

32.4

Umar Gul to Paine, 2 runs, OUT, 81.2 mph, another one bites the dust, and what a way to go! Paine chopped down to third man, and sized up a tight third run, but a sliding stop and a fine flat throw came in from Umar Amin in the deep, and though Kamran Akmal had to gather high to remove the bails, he did so with Hilfenhaus’s bat still short of the crease!

BW Hilfenhaus run out 3 (16b 0×4 0×6) SR: 18.75

33.1

Mohammad Asif to Paine, OUT, 78.4 mph, and that, as they say, is that! A regulation outswinger, a loose leaning waft of a cut, a thin snick, and Kamran Akmal wraps up an outstanding effort from Pakistan by claiming the decisive catch.

TD Paine c †Kamran Akmal b Mohammad Asif 17 (47b 2×4 0×6) SR: 36.17

Eighty-eight all out. By Junkers, that’s a collapse and a half. Pakistan required barely a session to skittle the Aussies, and my goodness, if they can’t win their first match against them for 15 years from this position, when will they ever?

That is, incidentally, the lowest score by a team electing to bat first since 1957, and their seventh-lowest first-innings total of all time … and their lowest for more than 50 years.

Commentary by Cricinfo.com

But what gave the bowlers something to bowl at was the superb innings from Umar Akmal. With Pakistan missing Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan and Misbah Ul-Haq from their squads, the talk before this tour was of the younger Akmal having to step up to the mark. He has certainly started off very well, with an innings of class, filled with a complete range of strokes. Hopefully there will be more to come from him.

Shahid Afridi also had a good game in the field. Though he failed with the bat, he bowled at his attacking best, took two very good catches and made the right bowling changes at the right times. His decision not to risk Shoaib Akhtar for a 3^rd over was a strong and correct one. Akhtar still seems a bit heavy and though his speed was there, he bowled the ball far too short and his pace was used to score easy boundaries. Akhtar needs to be persisted with so that he can find his rhythm but he could do with concentrating less on the pace whilst he gets back into the swing of things.

Though the first win in thirteen games against Australia will go some way in bringing joy to the long suffering Stanis, the same old concerns still remained. The out-fielding was still very poor, with Abdul Razzaq and Salman Butt being the main culprits. The other old issue of our batsmen not performing was still evident as it took a man of the match innings from Umar Akmal for Pakistan to post a competitive total. Once again it was the bowlers who had to step up and save the team, and as Nasser Hussain mentioned on commentary, it is Pakistan’s bowling attack which is the reason behind why Pakistan win more Twenty20s than any other team.

The Australians didn’t do much wrong, and Pakistan will have to bear this in mind come tomorrow’s second Twenty20, in which the Aussies will come back strong.

Scorecard