Pakistan have played 45 Twenty20 internationals but they have never played an international T20 encounter against the West Indies.
Out of the 45 T20 internationals Pakistan have played they have won 27, however they have only won 1 in the last 7 they have played.
Pakistan have lost the last 3 Twenty20 series they have played against England (2-0), South Africa (2-0) and New Zealand (2-1).
West Indies on the other hand have played 28 T20 internationals and won 11.
Last time Pakistan played in St Lucia the breath taking final over heroics from Mike Hussey shattered their dreams of reaching a 3rd consecutive Twenty20 World Cup final on Friday 14th May 2010 as the baggy greens successfully chased down 192 with 3 wickets and 1 ball to spare.
During the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Cup as a whole Pakistan played at the venue 4 times and won twice and lost twice.
Saeed Ajmal is the leading wicket taker in international T20 matches at the venue with 9 of his scalps captured at this very venue.
Pakistan have reached the T20 WC semi finals 3/3 times whereas the West Indies have only reached the semis one of the 3 times in 2009 where they were defeated by Sri Lanka who eventually went on to convincingly lose the final against Younis Khan's victorious Pakistan side.
Pakistan have won 8/18 Twenty20 internationals in which Shahid Khan Afridi has led the side.
Prediction: Pakistan will win convincingly and start their preparation for winning the 2012 ICC WT20 which is to be held in Sri Lanka with a bang. For this match I expect to see 3 debutants including Hammad Azam, Mohammad Salman and Junaid Khan. The team as a whole will also go on to win all 3 formats on this tour which includes their first ever Test series win in the Caribbean under the leadership of Misbah Ul Haq. Winning the Test series and creating some history ultimately will be the main objective of the 8 match tour which all gets under way with this T20 encounter.
Unearthing some young guns and discovering some top notch finds will be an area Waqar Younis will be focussing on too. I am tipping Hammad Azam and Junaid Khan specifically to do brilliantly and become the "next big name" in the eventful world of Pakistan Cricket.
Series Predicitions
T20-Pakistan win
ODIs-4/1 Pakistan win
Tests-1/0 Pakistan win
All in all its exiting times. Fans can expect good performances, but must be patient with the newcomers rather than being rushed into making any exaggerated judgement and calling for the recalls of past players if they happen to fail. A transition process can take time to develop and has the potential to pay off richly over time. All newcomers have admirable potential to do wonders for Pakistan cricket and go on to achieve plenty and replace some high achieving names, but expecting miracles from them straight away is unreasonable. Futuristic planning and sticking by the new faces is the best way forward. Lets bear in mind they have all reached where they are for a reason and obviously therefore possess some undiscovered credentials.
Updated articles, stats, news, views, discussion, posts BACKING Team Misbah and beyond
good analysis. keep it up! send me links if you ever need a RT. Good luck :)
ReplyDeleteMaz,
ReplyDeleteOur t20 record was the best in the world until the recent run you mention. Strange when we're probably more suited to that form. Our players must remember that 20 overs is still a long time.
We just came out of a ODI wolrd cup...we should have scheduled more Tests and less ODIs.
I haven't seen our new names play so looking forward to it, especially watching the guys you and Wasim have been mentioning. Irrespective of what they score or how many wickets they take, we should watch for ability and temperament.
Squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Taufeeq Umar, Usman Salahuddin, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Tanvir Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Hammad Azam, Sadaf Hussain and Mohammad Salman (wk)
ReplyDeleteProbable playing 11 in the T20's
Hafeez, Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Misbah, Umar Akmal, Afridi, Salman, Rahman, Riaz, Junaid, Tanvir/ Hammad Azam.
Batting is not reliable and has been weakened further.
I would have picked these players.
Imran Nazir, Hafeez,Razzaq, Misbah,Umar Akmal,Shehzad, Afridi, Rahman, Riaz,Junaid, and Salman.
It's criminal not to play Imran Nazir and Razzaq in T20's. Hammad Azam is not ready yet have seen him play in last year's T20 tournament his bowling is far worse than Razzaq's he has some potential as a batsman but he isn't any better than Razzaq.
Taufeeq and Asad Shafiq are not T20 players.
They can't win a match single handedly.
Why PCB selected 3 lefties is beyond my comprehension, Hammad Azam is as good of a bowler as Fawad Alam so leave him out other than that we have only Tanvir.
Both Sadaf and Junaid have impressive domestic records but Sadaf took too many wickets on ordinary balls, they say inswinger to the right handers is his stock ball which if it is correct then he is a good addition.
Junaid is a replica of Aamer, but to succeed at international level you need a lot more than skill.
Wasim,
ReplyDeleteHammad Azam was the 2nd leading wicket taker in the last domestic T20 tournament. He also played league cricket in England last summer and claimed 24 wickets in 8 matches. His bowling has never been great or overly impressive but he has been selected and made a name for himself as a batting all-rounder who has got potential with the ball too. He has pace, height and can move the ball both ways and when he starts working with Aqib and Waqar he can only get better. You are right he tends to be expensive and wayward but he tends to take wickets at the same time. On batting potential alone he is good enough to fit into the ODI and Twenty20 national side and will be a useful edition as he has a wide range of shots and can play according to the situation well. He can carry the bat and play a longer innings and play the big shots when required. He should be an automatic starter in the LO formats and preferably bat at number 5 or 6, but he is a flexible batting option so it should not really matter as long as he is in the team somewhere.
Nazir and Razzaq are fantastic players for the T20 format but you cannot really name 2 separate squads for the LO formats when they are only 1 off matches. Both of them could be eyeing a place in the next WT20 tournament though. I would prefer Shehzad over Nazir in any case as he is the younger option.
Asad is too good a batsmen for T20s. I agree so it's better he avoids this format.
Maaz
ReplyDeleteI watched every single match in the last domestic T20 WC he was the weakest link as far as bowling was concerned for his team in every match he gave good performance with the bat but then every thing that he did went down the drain because he was very expensive with the ball.
Unless he has improved drastically with the ball since last year I don't see him replacing Razzaq.
In my view, he is on par with Razzaq on bowling potential. He doesn't have to bowl his full quota or take the new ball. He just has to chip in with 5 or 6 overs per game and maybe take 1 or 2 wickets. His batting will be better utilised than Razzaq as it's clear he is a batting all rounder so his role can be defined properly and his effectiveness will be greater rather being a waste of space and extra baggage which Razzaq ended up being on numerous occasions as the captain and management were reluctant to promote him up the order as a floater and instead used a batting all rounder as low as number 8. Hammad is expected to bat higher up around 4-7 so he should be able to make an impact with the bat. They have to use his bowling carefully. He certainly could become a long term replacement for Razzaq and is a worthwhile option to invest in.
ReplyDelete@ Maaz
ReplyDeleteBut don't you think Razzaq was also doing the same job. Sooner or later we had to replace Razzaq and this series is a good opportunity to give some youngsters a chance and prepare them to replace some of the aging players. I am fine with this strategy but don't think that Hammad is an allrounder or will ever become one, he is a good batsman but as an all rounder he will create the same problem which Razzaq, Afridi and Malik created in the team for so many years.
But lets wait and see may be he has worked hard on his bowling.
As regards Sadaf Hussain and Junaid what are your views?
I think Junaid will be a good edition, I don't know why Basit Ali called him a chucker before the WC his action is exactly like Aamer and the little that I have seen of him he has a very clean action unless somebody recently changed his action.
Sadaf Hussain's stock ball is the one he brings back into the right handers that makes him very dangerous but he has no pace seems like in the long run he will be more suitable for the test matches.
He is tall 6.3" bowls with a discipline but has to work on his outswinger which should have come to him naturally but for some odd reason he brings the ball back in, very lefties in international circuit can do it consistently and effectively.
A few people are saying that his bowling is modelled on Zaheer Khan.
We will be fine in bowling even without Umar Gul but batting will cause some problems.
Do you know anything about the new kid Usman?
Warm up match: Pakistan won the toss and are batting first. It is 12 a side. Afridi, Misbah, Ajmal and Sadaf Hussain are sitting out of this match. All other 12 members of the 16 man squad are therefore playing. Hafeez is captain. The score is currently 50/0 in the 13th over with Hafeez and Taufiq Umar opening the batting. It is a 50/50 List A fixture.
ReplyDeleteWasim,
ReplyDeleteUsman Salahuddin?
I have not seen Usman play BUT have heard plenty. He is a right hand middle order batsmen. His favourite player is Mohammad Yousuf which says something about his style perhaps. He played a match winning knock in the One Day National Bank Division 2 Final where he scored an unbeaten half century and scored a boundary of the final delivery when 3 runs were required and Mohammad Irfan was bowling for KRL. He played a heroic knock under pressure which made him grow in popularity. He has not played a domestic Twenty20 match before of any nature. He was the leading run scorer in the 2010/11 QEA trophy Division 2 by a clear distance. He averaged 51 including 4 centuries in 9 matches. He plays his cricket for Lahore based teams. He is not related to the former chief selector in case you are wondering.
Sadaf Hussain is a promising left arm fast bowler can swing the ball both ways. He has a very steady approach to the crease & his pace is not really alarming. His stats are ridiculously good. I doubt he will play though. You cannot really play 3 front line left arm pacers in the same team. Junaid has been waiting longer and should get the nod ahead of him. Wahab is the strike bowler so will obviously play as well. You have to feel for Aizaz Cheema though. After all the hard work when the opportunity comes he finds himself injured and replaced. Life can be tough on some people! I think Sohail Khan should have been named in the team when doctors declared Mr Cheema unfit. He is a right arm option and was named in the reserves squad along with Zulfiqar Babar etc.
ReplyDeleteMohammad Hafeez scores 101 and retires. The professor who is captaining the side today shines. Shehzad made 49. 14 runs for Hammad Azam. PK are 266/6 with Umar Akmal on 30* in the 47th over and he is now joined by new wicket keeper Mohammad Salman.
ReplyDeleteUmar Akmal now on 53*. Pakistan are 282/8 in the 50th over. Tanvir Ahmed gets a golden duck.
ReplyDeleteTaufiq Umar made 44 from 67 deliveries including 3 boundary 4s. Ahmed Shehzad smacked 3 sixes during his 56 ball innings. Mohamamd Hafeez batted for just 93 balls for his 101* including 10 fours and two sixes.
ReplyDeleteUA concluded on 57*. VC XI have 288 to win from 50 overs. We will resume in 30 mins or so. Pakistan's bowling options in this match include: Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz, Tanvir Ahmed, Abdur Rehman, Mohammad Hafeez & Hammad Azam. WI need a rpo of 5.76. Should be interesting to see how the bowlers perform in the second half particularly, Junaid Khan. Well batted Hafeez, Umar and Shehzad. They were the key highlights.
ReplyDeleteMaaz
ReplyDeleteWho is telecasting this match or where are u getting the updates from.
WICB were providing regular updates about the game via official twitter account as were a few sports correspondents who had connections with people at the ground. I was following the match progress there. Abdur Rehman captured 4 wickets and bowled beautifully. I think the scorecard will be uploaded in the next 24 hours. Disappointing to see absolutely no coverage for these type of fixtures on either cricinfo or the PCB website. I was hoping there would have been some radio commentary but unfortunately there was none what so ever. Anyway the visitors won by 68 runs in the end. The opposition concluded on 219/8 in their chase of 288. A good outing for many players and a good start to the tour. Hafeez must have enjoyed the captaincy experience. Possible future candidate in the making. I reckon he will lead in the 2015 CWC.
ReplyDeleteI am backing 3 key men: Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal & Saeed Ajmal to come good tomorrow & blow away the Windies. It will be unreasonable to mount too much pressure on the newcomers like Hammad Azam & Junaid Khan straight away as they are on debut and will be a tad nervous inevitably, but don't at all be surprised if they make a bold statements & have an impressive start to their international cricketing careers. They certainly have the talent & backing to do wonders. Let them enjoy themselves & the whole first experience! If Hammad can play a quick fire cameo and maybe take a wicket or too he has done well whereas for Junaid it will be all about a good set of figures and hopefully being amongst the wickets. Rehman took 4-27 in the warm up match which kind of pushes for his inclusion in the starting line up. I reckon they might go in with 3 spinners +Hafeez. Spin will be key. Conditions in the West Indies have changed significantly over the years. The pitches will be more conducive and assistive for the slower men. They are bound to do well. If Pakistan bat first they will win the match with the team composition they possess. Overall, the match will be determined by Pakistan's batting against the West Indies bowling. Pakistan are firm favourites & West Indies best hope is only bowling out the men in green cheaply. If the visitors get runs on the board the game is firmly in their court considering the West Indies are without some key names in the batting line up and the projected team they are set to go in with lacks depth. Selection, form and strategy plays a key part in this version of the game. I reckon one of the youngsters will get the MOM award which will be a fitting occasion. I reckon it will be Umar Akmal/Shehzad/Junaid/Hammad or maybe the new wicket keeper!
ReplyDelete