Kaneria's selection a bunch of balls

Why the fuck has Danish Kaneria been selected into the World Cup squad over Abdur Rehman? Agreed, a spinner probably wouldn't have played anyway, but his selection has come out of the blue.

Rehman played just 1 ODI in 2007. He was up and coming and was very impressive against the West Indies. Yes, he gave 27 runs in 2 overs against the South Africans, but every one of our bowlers got bumjacked in that game. There was NO reason to drop him.

This is just stupid. Why are we taking players who we think may be good but have hardly played the format. Kaneria has not even been a part of our ODI squad in this South African series...or the West Indies...Or part of the maybe 10 series before that!

He played 1 ODI in 2006 (0 wickets), and 5 ODI's in 2005 (3 wickets). I think we've all established that we need an attacking or a restrictive spinner in ODI's. Kaneria is nowhere near that requirement. The reason he is our sole test spinner is because he has become a stock bowler. He needs at least 30 overs to take his 5 wickets plus he always gives away about a 100+ runs. Read my blogging colleagues post on Kaneria for older, yet still quite apt opinion on Kaneria.

One would assume that players who have fucking played the ODI format in the last 6 months at least should be in the running, right?. Kaneria has played 16 ODI's in his life with an average of 49.17. So he gets a wicket every 50 runs. Okay....A lot better than Rana Naveed these days, but still! I am not discounting the fact that he may not be a great ODI spinner. 16 ODI's, though its plenty of matches, it wasn't a consistent enough run. What irks me is how suddenly everyone who has played an ODI can suddenly come into the picture. The PCB is evidently panicking now. I would wait a couple of days before Wasim Akram gets a recall. Hell, I wouldn't mind since I am sure he's better than Iftikhar Rao and Rana Naveed at the moment. Anyway I'm digressing...

Rehman's average in his early days is a shade under 20 (which is brilliant), including an amazing series against the Windies back home. I saw him play and I am really disappointed for him.

We have no choice when it comes to our pacemen, but if anything, go for consistency in squad selection for the spinners. We used to have a brilliant spin attack in ODI's and were really successfully then. On many occasions, both Saqlain and Mushtaq would play the same ODI's. Saqlain was, in fact, one of the fastest bowlers to ever get to a 100 ODI wickets. Those were great days! Why is Pakistan so fucking scared to play specialist spinners? Now that our fast bowlers are losing their limbs and muscles left right and center, the PCB should been bold and the team management should have had a change of strategy. Instead of playing shitty fast bowlers who are not in form, play a couple of spinners, who ARE in form. Rehman should have been in this ODI squad. This is bullshit. The PCB better have some reasons for this, but I am sure the don't. Choots...

Cross-posted at Cricket.Bloggers.Pk

Debutant Abdur Rehman impressive

I couldn't even find a picture of Abdur Rehman on CricInfo or the internet, but one thing is for sure, he was quite impressive on his debut against the Windies. He has a lot of control and more importantly, he bowled to his field. Inzamam understandably kept his long-off and long-on fielders near the ropes. It was the middle overs, and as a spinner was making his debut, there was no telling how nervous he might be or if the Windies would attack him. Safe bet in the end.

Turns out Rehman did well, and in hindsight Inzi should have probably brought in the men to mid on and mid off, to attack the batsmen more. Rehman gives the ball a quick whirl, has enough loop and is a very attacking left arm bowler. Very similar to Panesar in my opinion. He played with a packed off-side field and bowled on off and just outside off so that those fielders would come into play. The right handers found him troubling. Samuels, for one thing, kept misreading his turn and was eventually out to one that brought Younis Khan at first slip into action. The ball rose up on him while Samuels drove towards cover.

Dwayne Smith was LBW to a perfect arm-ball. Still too early to say, but I like what I see so far. It would be interesting to see if he can be continue to be wicket-taking and containing at the same time. 2-20 on debut is something he would probably be very happy with. I'd like to see him play the rest of the games as well. He may be a really good candidate for our World Cup plans. If all goes well, there is the chance that Pakistan may return to those successful days in the 90's when we played specialist spinners in ODI's (Saqlain and Mushtaq). I'd be up for that and Rehman could very well be our man.