Stani Army

Pakistan got their World Cup campaign successfully underway today as they dominated a poor Kenya side to win by 205 runs. Shahid Afridi starred with the ball, taking 5 wickets for just 16 runs, recording the best ever figures by a Pakistan bowler at the World Cup.

Earlier in the week Afridi promised to do all he could to bring the World Cup trophy home after Pakistan were banned from hosting the tournament alongside India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh following the terrorist attacks of 2009, and he looked to make good on his promise with an impressive bowling performance.

Bigfreebet will have installed Pakistan as clear favourites, but their opponents were poorer than expected and sent down a joint record number of wide balls, unenviably matching the 37 the West Indies bowled in the 1991 tournament.

The Kenyans had begun the game well, and restricted a Pakistan batting attack looking to take advantage of their lesser opponents. Two wickets down with just 12 runs on the board, Kenya looked to replicate the success of the Netherlands against England yesterday by putting pressure on their esteemed opponents.

But the Pakistan middle-order came good as they accelerated through the innings, moving from 129-3 off 28 overs to an imposing 317-7; a figure which always looked out of Kenya’s reach

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An irresponsible captain is a bad captain

Earlier today we saw Pakistan lose the first of three Twenty20s to New Zealand, who got home with 2.5 overs to spare. Pakistan had got themselves into at least two good positions to make a game of it, only to surrender meekly.

Chief architect of the downfall was Captain Shahid Afridi. Whilst many would disagree and say he played well for his 20 of 17 balls, it was his gormless shot that triggered a signature collapse. Going at 10 an over after the first 4 overs, Afridi did not have the nous to take advantage of a fast start and begin to rein himself in, keep wickets in hand and then to accelerate later. It was as if he wanted to finish the game in that over. That was his intention, and his shot selection was even worse.

Were it not for Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz, who both made 30, Pakistan would not have ended up with a defendable total of 143. It was at the start of the New Zealand innings that Afridi made his second mistake by opening the bowling with Abdul Razzaq. Even at his best, Razzaq was an average bowler. Having aged and lost some pace, he has become easy pickings for batsmen. Any late good work done by Gul and Wahab was immediately wasted as Razzaq went for 15 off his first over. Suddenly, 143 off 20 overs became 128 off 19. A different game already and New Zealand’s tails were up.

The strange thing is that it wasn’t as if Afridi was limited in choice of who to open the attack with. Wahab, Akhtar and Gul were playing, and we had Ajmal, Hafeez and Afrdi himself to make up any overs remaining. There was no need to bowl Razzaq, even less need to open with him

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Pakistan's new Test captain Misbah Ul-Haq showed the way with three half-centuries in four innings

Pakistan can come out of the drawn two-Test series against world number two South Africa with their heads held high. Though the argument may be that the wickets in the UAE were batsmen friendly, Pakistan’s reconstructed batting line up still held it’s own against South Africa’s, and South Africa had the better bowling attack. Let us also remember that Pakistan’s batsmen have struggled to pass 250 in Tests for a while now, batting paradise or not. Were it not for the time factor, Pakistan could have come close to or matched South Africa’s aggregated total in both the Tests, and that’s no mean feat.

The return of Younis Khan was a major factor in the ability of our batsmen to finally start playing Test match innings and setting Test match totals. The successful re-emergence of Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah Ul-Haq and Taufeeq Umar was also pleasing to watch. I have always been a big fan of Taufiq yet he is just one of many that have been the victim of selection favouritism in the past. He is a proper Test batsman.

Then there’s the emergence of the two youngsters Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. For some reason, Azhar, despite being a reserved young man, seems to really irritate the opposition, ending up at the receiving end of some hostile bowling. He did so in England and here against South Africa also. But his composure and temperament was a joy to see. Shafiq came into the ODI side in England and you could immediately tell the young man was going to be here to stay. I was hoping to see him in the Test side much sooner as it was clear he had what it took to succeed. He got his chance in the 2nd Test though, in place of the out of form Umar Akmal, and he didn’t disappoint with a well played 61 in the first innings.

The biggest positive after the performance of our batsmen was the captaincy and personal performances of Misbah Ul-Haq

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Pakistan have made a number of changes to their Test squad for the two-Test series against South Africa starting this Friday. The most surprising is the inclusion of Adnan Akmal, brother of Kamran and Umar. Adnan, who is the second youngest of the three, keeps wicket and was called in as replacement for Zulqarnain Haider. Regarded as more of a specialist wicket-keeper, Adnan has been quoted as saying that he believes he is the best wicket-keeper in Pakistan. I’m not sure what older brother Kamran will think of that but I guess we will soon find out about the younger man’s credentials.

Want your child to play for Pakistan? Name him Akmal!

Adnan averages just under 23 runs with the bat in the domestics, which is 11 fewer than Haider and 7 fewer than his brother Kamran. If he is any good at keeping though, expect him to cement a place in the side as Zulqarnain has gone into retirement and Kamran is well known for his blunders with the gloves. It means it is a complete turnaround for the Akmal family

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Whilst the shortcomings of our batsmen have in the past been covered to some extent by our bowling prowess, now that our bowlers are having a hard time of things, it’s obvious we’re falling even further short of the mark. Of all the specialist bowers, only Shoaib could claim to be bowling well at the moment and he seems to be stuck together with bandages and supports these days.

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

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'It's all sorted!'

After a meeting between Ijaz Butt and Younis Khan, Younis has been cleared to resume his international cricket and has been drafted in to the limited-overs squad for the games in the UAE against South Africa. It comes just at the right time as Mohammad Yousuf looks likely to miss the series with a groin problem.

It does seem as if Mr Butt is beginning to alter his modus operandi after some forced introspection which followed his allegations against the England team. Yet his ‘apology’ to the ECB, and now his offer of an olive branch to Younis looks more as though he is desperate to cling on to his role. Whatever was discussed in the meeting between Younis and Butt, I would have been surprised if it came out that Younis was the one of the two to have backed down.

Along with the ICC’s warning to Pakistan to sort it’s administration out, I get the feeling that Ijaz Butt has been given a set of demands from within, that he has to comply with if he wants to stay on as Chairman, and like the dignified man that he is, he has climbed down from his position and accepted. This is in the same week in which the ICC’s task force in charge of bringing cricket back to Pakistan, will also be setting out some recommendations for the PCB to implement. Is Butt set to stay on for a new term as PCB Chairman? We hope not, but the signs do not look good.

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Misbah Ul-Haq receiving the trophy for leading his side to a domestic title earlier this year. He comes with plenty of domestic captaincy experience

Though it seems that Misbah Ul-Haq has been appointed Pakistan’s Test captain for the two games in the UAE against South Africa more through circumstance than preference, it is the right appointment as far as Stani Army is concerned.

Upset at being dropped for the tour of England, Misbah’s argument was that he had a better average in all forms of the game than most of the touring party, and he had a case. The reasons for Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan’s axing were that the former had retired and the latter had still not apologised for some apparent disciplinary issue. The reason for Misbah’s axing was less obvious even though it was said that the team was looking to go in a new direction with younger players. The recall of the 36 year old Yousuf mid-series put paid to that excuse. Many argued that Misbah was out of form, but then which of the Pakistan batsmen had shown form in the series’ in New Zealand and Australia that had preceded? At least Misbah had been making runs in domestic cricket whilst the others continued to fail on the international stage.

When Younis Khan resigned as captain this time last year, we went through the four possible candidates for the job of captain and Misbah certainly looked as good as the rest if not better in our opinion. He seemed a clean member of the side (from corruption as oppose to drugs!…o.k, and drugs), intelligent and well-spoken. This is something that former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson has mentioned recently, backing the choice of Misbah as captain. Lawson said that Misbah had the “best cricketing brain” in Pakistan, which is no small compliment

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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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