Well Pakistan are rapidly descending into farce and everyone is going to wonder whether what they're seeing is real or paid for.
Why oh why oh why do Pakistan insist on playing an out of form keeper at the top of the order?!?!? Not sure this is Yousuf's format and why is Afridi STILL batting down the order?!?!?! England may have won comfortably, set new T20I records blah, blah, blah, but they seem to be doing their best not to with selections etc.
Again I have to ask the selectors what the f**k is Luke Wright doing in the side?!?!? Didn't bat, didn't bowl, might as well have sat on the sidelines and watched 10 men beat Pakistan instead of standing out in the middle watching. Frankly I hope this isn't a taste of things to come, a complete waste of cricket and we can only hope Pakistan wake up and start playing cricket or they might as well go home. Maybe they are too distracted in fairness, but they're supposed to be professionals. We may well sell out the remaining matches, but the crowd may be robbed if this continues. One Test in four was a contest, one match out of six. Fair enough through stupidity of the few they have been denied two of their bowlers, but that's no excuse for the batsmen.
As for England for the ODIs, I'd ditch Wright without question. Bresnan probably too, 20 overs is his format. Bresnan averages 39.89 with the ball in ODIs, and also I'd dump Yardy which may seem harsh but he isn't a big wicket taking bowler. The most career wickets Yardy has taken in any format is 99 in domestic one dayers, that over 161 matches. He's taken 7 at 36.00 in T20Is, although domestically he has taken 45 in 64 matches at 26.53 with a pretty good SR and ER for the format. The focus should be on wicket taking in ODIs, it is the way to create pressure and win games. The less wickets you take, the less chance there is you'll win.
No doubt England will focus on big hitting potential blah, blah, blah, and retain the underperformers for the one or two times they deliver the goods in 10-15 ODIs. I sincerely hope England don't persist with the same keeper openers, it may pay dividends against Pakistan, but frankly it doesn't strike me that they'll cut it long term. I'd rather play Strauss into form in the ODIs, although you could argue a case for sending him back to the counties to find form ahead of the Ashes.
If Bell is now fully fit, I think I saw his name somewhere as playing cricket so I'm assuming he's back and playing, then I might recall him. Not everyone's cup of tea, a lot will knock him any which way they can. If he scores runs it will be either too slow or only when the pressure's off etc etc, when he doesn't score runs it will be open season for Bell bashing. He averages 36.67 in 81 ODIs at an SR of 72.67 which may not be a run a ball, but 36-37 runs is better in my book than 15 runs off 15 balls - there are 300+ to face in an ODI innings, not just 120. And it isn't that slow anyway, for the extra 10-15 SR some might manage I'd take the extra 5-10 runs Bell offers. All too often England get to around 100 then lose 2-3 wickets and lose their way, some of the better totals are built from a solid platform with 7 or 8 an over scored off the last 10-15 overs.
