Tough warmup game in store for the Windies

The Patron's XI team taking on the Windies in their warm up game is pretty tough on paper. The batting, led by Asim Kamal, is experienced while the bowling is reasonable but not that hot; perhaps indicitive of the lack of bowling bench strength after the banning of Shoaib and Asif.

Discard Sami will surely be playing to make a point or two. Though I doubt he will have much of an impact, which is not what his number one supporter, Imran Khan, would like to hear.

From the PCB website...

1. Salman Butt
2. Yasir Hameed
3. Bazid Khan
4. Shahid Yousuf
5. Misbah-ul-Haq
6. Asim Kamal (Captain)
7. Sarfraz Ahmed (Wicketkeeper)
8. Abdur Rehman
9. Mohammad Sami
10. Akhtar Ayub
11. Najaf Shah
12. Shahid Nazir
13. Tahir Khan

I have limited information on some of these players, but its always interesting to follow the teams of these fringe players. Not only could some of them be our future, but it gives valuable match practice to our second best lineup against an international side. Bazid Khan, Shahid Yousuf, and Misbah-ul-Haq score quite heavily on the domestic scene. They have been around for a while now, and hopefully will remain in contention when Inzi and Mohammad Yousuf retire. They have been in the outskirts for a while now. I wonder how and why Faisal Iqbal got ahead of them?

Asim Kamal, being the captain, will play the game, though I feel he should have been in the Pakistan squad. So will Abdur Rehman, Yasir Hameed and Shahid Nazir. These 3 bowlers have been selected for the first two test matches and will be keen to cement their place, come the first test match.

It's a pretty tough unit and the Windies should have their hands full. I doubt there will be a result, as I am not really sure how a two day game works, but I will be keeping my eye on this game.