Asia Cup 2010 - Sri Lanka

[LongLegs?]

Shoaib Akhtar recalled for Asia Cup | Pakistan Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

Squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Salman Butt (vice-capt), Imran Farhat, Shahzaib Hasan, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Asad Shafiq, Umar Amin, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Shoaib Akhtar, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman.

Reserves: Fawad Alam, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Zulfiqar Babar.

Akthar recalled, and first call-ups for Amin and Shafiq. Interestingly, no Fawad Alam...

 

[deathrevenge9]

Shoaib Akhtar recalled for Asia Cup | Pakistan Cricket News | Cricinfo.com



Akthar recalled, and first call-ups for Amin and Shafiq. Interestingly, no Fawad Alam...

Nice to see Akhtar & Shahzib back.That's good to see .
As far as Alam is concerned,he doesn't deserve to be in the squad.The 15 men in the squad are better than him.

 

[AkshayS]

^Now Pakistan not gonna win this one, I think they are looking pretty weak.

 

[BKB1991]

I really dont understand why the PCB cant figure out Alam or not. Surely he is one of the better players in Pakistan as his stats suggest. He is not an aggresive player in nature, but one that rotates the strike. And that is an area where we dont have much depth. Two openers other than Butt also mean Akmal is in the middle order. Akhtar's rearrival is understandable to say the least, but dropping Alam is not. PCB need to make up his mind whether to keep him in their plans or not. Farhat and Shazaib are not good opener choices. I really dont like either of them, and I dont really see them doing well. Umar Amin is a talented player. Hopefully we give him an extended run. We should go with this:

Salman Butt
Shazaib Hasan/Imran Farhat
Kamran Akmal
Shoaib Malik
Umar Akmal
Shahid Afridi
Umar Amin
Mohammad Aamir
Mohammad Asif
Saeed Ajmal
Shoaib Akthar

 

[LongLegs?]

Nice to see Akhtar & Shahzib back.That's good to see .
As far as Alam is concerned,he doesn't deserve to be in the squad.The 15 men in the squad are better than him.

You've got to be kidding me. Fawad Alam is one of your better players. He did well even in Australia and was one of the players who looked good. Alam is young and very talented. And he hasn't done much wrong on the international stage.

 

[sami ullah khan]

Imran Farhat Are you kidding us PCB? Imran Farhat is crap. He has been tried and tested for a decade. He is not world class material at least in ODIs. We have had enough of the two Imrans.:
As usual Kamran Akmal despite the dark clouds of match fixing allegation hovering over his head, gets selected and there is no other keeper in the squad to push him to improve his pathetic glove work. I am very disappointed. He will again be picked up for English tour. I still remember his match losing wicket keeping in our last tour to England. Screw you PCB . Screw you

 

[khalek]

WTF, Fawad Alam has been dropped????????? He is one of the most talented youngsters in Pakistan atm with a very cool head and he is a brilliant fielder as well.

 

[sami ullah khan]

Fawad Alam did not do anything exceptional to be honest during his stint with the team. I have not seen his talent with bat or ball. He is unarguably a very good fielder but that alone can't be the basis for selection. He has to produce the goods with bat and ball.

 

[khalek]

Fawad Alam did not do anything exceptional to be honest during his stint with the team. I have not seen his talent with bat or ball. He is unarguably a very good fielder but that alone can't be the basis for selection. He has to produce the goods with bat and ball.

Still I think players like him need to be backed up more and should be given more opportunities otherwise I don't think they can become good players. I am shocked to hear you don't see any talent in him, yes I agree that sometimes he gets a bit bogged down but he's one of the very few youngsters (or the only one) to be averaging over 50 in FC cricket in Pakistan.

And his last ODI innings was a 50 against Australia, some T20 crap in the middle has probably made the selectors forget about it :sarcasm

 

[deathrevenge9]

^Now Pakistan not gonna win this one, I think they are looking pretty weak.

We shall see :sarcasm.

Imran Farhat Are you kidding us PCB? Imran Farhat is crap.Screw you

Fawad Alam did not do anything exceptional to be honest during his stint with the team. I have not seen his talent with bat or ball. He is unarguably a very good fielder but that alone can't be the basis for selection. He has to produce the goods with bat and ball.

 

[BKB1991]

Fawad Alam did not do anything exceptional to be honest during his stint with the team. I have not seen his talent with bat or ball. He is unarguably a very good fielder but that alone can't be the basis for selection. He has to produce the goods with bat and ball.

I agree that Fawad Alam is not "talented" in the cricketing sense, but he has got the knack of rotating the strike. In a Pakistani lineup filled with Stroke players you expect him to be the one like Butt, to hold the innings together.

PCB can surely drop him, but why the change of heart suddenly? I mean he was one of the better batsmen in the series against Australia where our might batsmen (Younis, Yousef, Malik etc) failed immensely. More than one occasion he had to rebuild the innings.

Probably the reason is that he hasnt really made an impact in his stay. Umar Akmal was given limited chances and he stood up tall (against Lanka) Alam on the other hand has got starts but hasnt really converted them into match-winning knocks yet. Still I would like to have him in the squad, especially when you see Farhat there.

 

[LongLegs?]

I agree that Fawad Alam is not "talented" in the cricketing sense, but he has got the knack of rotating the strike. In a Pakistani lineup filled with Stroke players you expect him to be the one like Butt, to hold the innings together.

Ha! I was just telling someone on MSN the exact same thing! Not to mention, Alam has never got extended runs in the squad, but other players do, despite failing. He keeps coming in and out, and his average in ODIs is 40 through 15 innings. Not that bad at all. And, his determination against Australia really impressed me. Without MoYo, Alam is the sort of player that could make the difference between Pakistan collapsing and Pakistan providing a good base for finishers like Afridi.

Alam averages 56 in FC Cricket(iirc), and somewhere in the 40s in List A, and there aren't a lot of Pakistani batsmen who've done that, especially as young as Alam. There's a reason why Alam's been able to do that, and he's got the chops for international cricket. He's young, and yes, maybe hasn't been prolific, but a lot of young players need some time to mature. I can understand some players being discarded, but Alam? No way. Hasn't even had a fair run in the team. His stints in the first team have always been in short spells.

 

[playkid12]

I wonder how fast Shoaib Akhtar is now.

 

[icyman]

Bangladesh for victory. India and Pakistan are by far the most unpredictable teams in World Cricket. Pinning hopes upon either is hazardous

Ban v Srl in the final

 

[AkshayS]

^I don't like that type of jokes.