Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2023 - 2 Tests

[Velocity]

Fantastic knock by Shafique, has to be up there of playing the best fourth innings knocks ever in a winning cause. Espacially taking into account Galle typically meant to be a nightmare for the batsmen in the fourth innings anyway. Interested to see how Shafique goes in SENA. Great chase overall

 

[CerealKiller]

Brilliance with the bat, and the ball in the first innings, made up for the wrong team selection and tactics. Next Test is at the same venue. Drop Salman and one of Hasan/Naseem, bring in Nauman Ali and Fawad Alam.

 

[CerealKiller]

 

[Aislabie]

Beginning to think Abdullah Shafique might be quite good at cricket

The particularly wild thing is that that was only his ninth first-class match as well

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Well done Pakistan. 344/6 run chase is quite good.

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

Beginning to think Abdullah Shafique might be quite good at cricket

Not his only talent tho

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Not his only talent tho

Sounds better than this guy

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Not his only talent tho

Awarapan .

 

[SMMODS]

So, it's clear now Pak vs Aus at lords final.

 

[Ahmad94]

Great game from Pakistan - to win in the 4th innings on a turner shows a lot of promise from a reformed Pakistan side. This Babar-led side seems to play better cricket and let's not forget that we batted more than 100 overs in the 4th innings at a rate of 2.7 ish. Extremely impressive stuff.

Having said that there are definitely areas of improvement to be made - letting the tail wag in the first innings and the lack of contributions from the middle order are real worrying since - not sure about the choice of playing 3 seamers in Galle.

My line-up for the 2nd Test:

1. Abdullah Shafique
2. Shan Masood (definitely a far better batsman than Imam - although not happy with the way Sri Lanka got him out in the 2nd Innings)
3. Azhar Ali (I would love to drop him but there is nowhere he is going in the climate)
4. Babar Azam
5. Agha Salman (would prefer Fawad Alam but Sri Lanka does have a lot of left-hand spinners hitting the rough plus he has only played one game so don't want to drop him)
6. Mohammad Rizwan
7. Mohammad Nawaz
8. Hasan Ali
9. Yasir Shah
10. Shaheen Shah Afridi
11. Nauman Ali

3 spinners (1 leggie, 2 SLO and 1 offy) plus Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali (was considering replacing with Faheem to add batting depth but Faheem isn't good enough to lead the attack with Shaheen).

 

[CerealKiller]

Osman Samiuddin back to provide competition to Andrew Fidel Fernando @Bevab

Pinch yourself, Pakistan; Abdullah Shafique is a real, living, breathing opener

For a country infamous for its opening woes, Shafique doesn't just feel like the right answer, but an entire exam being aced

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[Rehan_24]

Pakistan played really well. Kudos to Abdullah Shafiq. Wonder where is Shan Masood and Fawad Alam. The Pakistani Squad wasn't too strong as far as the batting line was concerned. Hasan Ali should be dropped, Naseem is the future, He is very young and he needs more experience. The more he will play, the more he will get better.

Babar Azam is proving time and again that he is the best batsman in the World at the moment. Playing with tail and scoring a century reminded me the days of Inzamam.

 

[ahmedleo414]

looks like Shaheen might be injured

 

[CerealKiller]

Hasan Ali should be dropped

Would’ve agreed before the Test, but he bowled well, had an economy under 2. He should be retained, especially because Shaheen should be rested, even if he isn’t injured.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

This is a serious Pakistan team and the fact that it's young bodes well. I just feel they lack a world class spinner but this is Pakistan. Someone will pop out from somewhere and become the best of his generation from nowhere!