Shoaib Malik - a poor choice for test captain - Bring back Younis

Well, the good news is that Salman Butt isn't the captain. Butt, naturally would be disappointed. After hearing his name as a possible choice in the media for a couple of weeks, he must have thought to himself, "Well, maybe I can get a game or two now, if they make me captain!" Well, that's not to be. Don't worry Salman, Imran Nazir will soon be out of the team, and you will make a comeback, score a 100, then a 50, then a string of zeros. But, that's not the point of this post.

Good thing Yousuf isn't the captain. Now is not the time to give the responsibility to another devoutly religious man with a beard till his knees. We need focus, we need direction and we don't need distraction from mullas or the tableeghi. We needed change and change is what we have gotten. Shoaib Malik is now the captain, and this blogger is pleased from the point of view of ODI's, but certainly not with tests.

This chap has 16 test matches under his belt, is by no means, a a test player, or a certainty in the squad and is now the test captain? Rubbish. Test match cricket is truly what cricket is all about and if the PCB have any sense of responsibility, they would do their utmost to convince Younis Khan to become the test captain. That would be ideal in my opinion. Shoaib Malik as ODI captain, and Younis as test, with neither playing playing in the other format, so there is no conflict. Shoaib doesn't deserve to be in the test team, while Younis is possibly, the worst 1 down player, Pakistan has ever produced.

Why is Salman Butt a choice for captain?

It's amusing to read news reports claiming Shoaib Malik and Salman Butt are the front runners to take over the captaincy mantle. I assume the decision, which will be taken real soon, will probably be with regards to both the test and ODI teams.

If it is truly for both squads, then its ridiculous because Salman Butt is not even in the bloody squad. On the other hand, Shoaib Malik has played less than 20 test matches. I just hope they're talking about the ODI team...

Though Butt being an option clearly proves that my opener rotation policy is in full effect at the PCB.

On the bright side, I'm glad Younis Khan is thinking about retiring from ODI's. Good riddance.

The PCB are a bunch of fools and will probably bungle this up. Anyway, at this crucial juncture in Pakistani cricket, being as its all a joke anyway, I'd like to raise my hand and officially announce my candidacy for the Pakistan team captain.

Well, if nothing else, would it be possible to scribble my name in between Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar when the next opener rotation round comes about?

Future jobs for Pakistani cricketers...

Not sure who to give credit to for these images. Geo TV I guess? I got this forward from my dad this morning...

Postmortem: Pakistan vs West Indies - Blame the batting, not Rana

Depressing game for Pakistani fans but an exciting victory for the West Indians. Again, I wouldn't be so ticked off if Pakistan had played better. A good game means both sides go back feeling pleased at the performance. But we had the game, and threw it away. The glaring holes in our squad are really beginning to come through. I knew the warm up games over Canada and South Africa didn't mean much and seems like we changed our strategy once again. We are missing Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar like no other.

It's easy for everyone to blame Rana Naveed for the loss. But he was just a part of it, and several players were to blame. So lets not Rana bash excessively and exclusively. Lets also put our bowling aside for a moment, and talk about the selection for the moment.

Though selecting Kaneria might have seemed like a stroke of genius to some, I am not convinced that he should even be part of the squad. I made my reservations to his inclusion quite clear in the past, but have since, been resigned to the fact, that what is done, is done. He is in the squad, will probably play till Afridi is back, and that's the world cup for him. A useless selection.

Kamran Abassi touched upon the second point with regards to this squad. If any of the batsmen gets injured, who the hell will take their place? Yasir Arafat? So weak...

Now Pakistan tried something new today and they must be given credit for it. They chose 4 specialist bowlers, including a spinner, and put faith in their batsmen. It is a good strategy and a sound one. Agreed, 2 of the bowlers were pretty crappy today, but the fact of the matter is, 240 was not unreachable. The batsmen are the ones who should be the ones scoring the bloody runs. Regardless of the bowling, the pitch was still good enough for 240 and they screwed it up.

We ALREADY know our bowling is weak. Which is why we bowl first. Our batting is SUPPOSED to be our strong point. Who was truly shocked that Rana and Kaneria got whipped? Not me. However, I was surprised that the meager pressure of a mere 240 runs completely fingered Nazir, Hafeez and Younis. I can understand a good delivery bamboozling them, and some tight bowling frustrating them. But I have no sympathy for retarded shots. Which brings us to...

Batting

Imran Nazir's time is up. I have joked about the rotation policy in the past, but this dude is a fucking idiot. He is far worse than Imran Farhat, and that is pretty insulting. Someone needs to bumjack him in the dressing room, so he can get injured, so that we can complain and whine to the ICC and send for Salman Butt. We could even help him fake an injury. It's been done before and I am sure there is an SOP lying there somewhere with the manager.

I can't complain about Hafeez. He did as well as he could, but the bugger needs to calm down and take it easy. He needs to stay for 10 overs at least, get his usual 49 runs and then bloody get out. What is the point of having openers who don't even get a bit of the shine off the new ball? What is wrong with the openers? Are they all on crack? Can they only slash and swing?

Our great one-down batsmen, Younis Khan, gets the most blame. Even more than Rana actually. What in the world was he doing? Did you see that shot? What the fuck? Ahh! I was okay with him being in the squad for a while, but dude, after this world cup is over, omarlovescricket is continuing its campaign to get rid of YK from the ODI team.

Yousuf got out to a frigging good delivery. What can one do? Inzi was unlucky with the decision. I think it was going over the wicket. Fuck what Hawkeye says!

Akmal is a choot. I hope Billu.net writes something up about this. I was about to throw my coffee into the aquarium when I saw him get out first ball.

Bowling

Rana is just about as good (or bad) as anyone else who can replace him. My argument is as follows. Can Sami, or Arafat, or even Azhar do a better job than Rana? I think the only advantage is that Arafat and Azhar can bat. Replacing Rana is not going to do the trick. Rana is out of form, but his potential as a bowler is far greater than the rest of them. I think Sami is decent, but even he is very expensive. Apart from Umar Gul, our bowling is bloody toothless in this World Cup, and we must remain resigned to the fact that Rana may just be as good as any other clown on the squad. We have no other choice people!

One could pad up the batting by selecting Arafat or Azhar, but that doesn't improve the bowling at all. Plus it releases the pressure on the batting. The top 6 batsman need to know that one of them HAS to score a bloody 70 or higher. They need to know that after Akmal (arguably before), there is no one else who can bat. Having a batting lineup stretching up till Mars is not the way we will win our games. We have to develop our bowling, give our specialist bowlers a chance to get into their rhythm, and lay the responsibility of scoring runs on the top order.

This squad is pretty weak and the gaps in our strategy are becoming a lot more apparent. Don't be too surprised if we're upset in the next couple of games.

Life without Younis, Yousuf, Inzamam...

With a 2-0 lead, we should be thanking our lucky stars that the series can't be lost! Tomorrows game, though not inconsequential, is going to be quite amusing, and unpredictable from Pakistan's point of view. If Razzak is made captain, it will be due to his seniority and nothing else. He hasn't exactly got the leadership credentials. Shoaib Malik, who has captained his domestic team in many games, would probably be my choice.

I have some concerns, however, about tomorrow's game against the West Indies. Not only is there no clearly defined leader left in the camp, but there are characters on the team that are louder than most. Afridi, if he plays, is not one to keep his opinions to himself. He has 200+ games, and quite rightly so, considers himself as a senior player. In fact, Afridi probably has the most leadership qualities that one desires in a captain....yet he is barely making this squad.

Cricket, more than other sports, needs a captain that everyone can turn to. I just hope the game doesn't turn out to be a free for all. Then again, its only 1 game. But I like to worry...

Anyway...

Regardless of captaincy, pressure will be on the batsmen to perform. There will come a time when Younis, Yousuf and Inzi will not longer be playing, and these fellows will have to start shouldering the burden. This is as good a time as any to see how good the Pakistani batting bench strength is.

Afridi and Younis Khan should be dropped from the ODI team - Someone needs to say it!

More about this later. I already wrote about Younis Khan....I implied that he needs to be dropped.

Afridi has held our team back for way too long now. I never liked him initially. I liked him a bit in the India series last year.

Its insane to see the support he has. I can see how its hard to drop him. But are bowlers really scared of him? His average has slowly been declining. Its not even that great. More about this later. I shall do my research. I know most people are suprirsed at the amount of stats I put up here!
Anyway, Afridi sucks as a batsman, and is not a very good bowler, and needs to replaced by a solid middle order batsman.

Younis Khan should not be in the ODI team. He has not impressed us for 6 years. Why should he do so now? Make someone else the captain and after Inzy retires, make Younis the Test captain.

Who's with me!?

Does Younis Khan deserve to be in the ODI team?

This article has spent a long time in the making. I started writing it just before the England series. I waited till the series concluded as my conclusions and the statistics had changed somewhat.

Now that Younis Khan has been made the captain of the Pakistan team for the Champions Trophy (for the second time), it is an appropriate time to finish this article. Younis Khan is in the news, so I though I should ask some more questions about him.

TESTS

As we are on the same page, I am going to say it right off the bat. Younis is a sure-shot selection for the test team with an average touching 50, including 12 centuries and 15 50's. That number of centuries, 12 certainly does not do justive to his penchant for big runs, so I shall break it down even farther. He has 5 150+ scores:

153 - WI in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah
267 - 3rd Test v Ind in Ind 2004/05 at Bangalore
199 - 1st Test v Ind in Pak 2005/06 at Lahore
194 - 2nd Test v Ind in Pak 2005/06 at Faisalabad
173 - 3rd Test v Eng in Eng 2006 at Leeds

2 additional centuries almost made it on this list (149* and 147).

Interestingly the 149* was a 2nd innings score against New Zealand with Moin Khan declaring before Younis reached the next milestone. We won the game by 299 runs however...

The conclusion:

Younis Khan is undoubtedly one of the best one down test batsman currently playing today. He is in sublime form. 4 of the big scores above 150+ runs have come in the last two years. In fact, In 8 test matches in the 2006 calendar year, his test average is 61.64, with 3 centuries and 4 50's. He is ranked 4th in the world in tests.

Prior to this sudden PCB crisis, Younis was and had been marked to take over captaincy from Inzamam, probably soon after the 2007 world cup. I like the guy, I think he's inspiring and is a good leader. On account of all these things, plus his stellar batting and seniority in the team, he will make a great Test captain.

Osman Samiuddin writes...

For some time now, Younis Khan has been regarded, unofficially, as the heir apparent. In an interview with Wisden Asia Cricket after the 2003 World Cup, Rashid Latif earmarked Younis, off the record, as the man he was to groom as his successor. And in an interview with Cricinfo in November, Shaharyar Khan was also complimentary about his leadership skills, and Imran Khan has since publicly backed him as captain. Rahul Dravid, who seems as good a judge of character as any, is reportedly very impressed by him.

But..

ODI's

One day international's are a completely different story however. It's been long thought that Younis has the Sehwag virus. Sehwag's test average is 52.12 while his ODI average is 31.75.

Does Younis share the same curse?

....well. Yeah!

After 130 ODI innings prior to the England series, Younis had 1 century to his name and 24 half-centuries with an average of 31.72.

That century, incidently came against mighty Hong Kong at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground during the Asia Cup 2004. Interestingly Younis didn't even win the Man of the Match for that game! Shoaib Malik got it for his 4 wickets plus his own century.

A breakdown of his games against opponents doesn't really show much to support him. The table speaks for itself.
Younis has often said that he has played for the team. I do not have the will power to go through every one of those ODI games and figure out what the circumstances were but I don't know if I can give him the benefit of doubt. I just don't think he has what it takes to play ODI's. He says feels most comfortable at the one down position. Lets look at that then.

Looking at the table above, I don't know if "the batting for the team" argument can go so far. If one is a specialist batsman in an ODI team, then one must deliver at some point and maintain consistency. He has had 35 innings at the one down position, a position with a lot of responsiblity. A position that he enjoys and one that he wants. Yet he has definitely not done so well over the past 7 years.

Is it the pressure perhaps? Maybe he was brought in too early in the innings, or too late? I checked Ricky Ponting's record. It has a similar distribution of innings per position. Over the course of a career, we can assume the perssure situation for these two players is similar.

But here is the important graph.
In 2006, he averages 47.92.

So perhaps he has finally found his groove?

Come to your own conclusions about how Younis Khan has been handled. His best year has certainly been this one. I remember being shocked when he became the vice-captain. I didn't know a thing about him then, but his ODI record certainly didn't impress me. I knew he barely made it into the test team then. Even while scouring through cricinfo's articles referring to him, I found a lot of talk about his test batting, but not much commentary about his ODI batting. I am sure there is a list on cricinfo comparing test and odi batting averages amongst current players. I didn't find it though.

Anyway, his ODI record, without a doubt, is dismal record for player who is so talented and has the capability to deliver. The PCB has stuck with him all this time for ODI's and I suppose I will too. His 2006 average and his performances compared to everyone else, certainly does indicate that he has found his niche in the batting order and as a vice-captain.

After all the drama that he's been involved in, all eyes will certainly be on him this Champion's Trophy.

Thanks to Howstat for the graphs. And cricinfo for the images.

Younis back as Captain, Shaharyar Khan resigns. Just another day for the Pakistan cricket team

Just another impetous decision by a Pakistani cricketer...who reverses it back within a couple of days.

Why is there so much unnecessary drama?

Afridi retires from test cricket after a succesful series in India claiming that heis burnt out. The entire nation is in shock.

Now Younis gets angry at something, resigns from the captaincy.

The next day the chairman resigns. Good! I like that move. I have been waiting for his ouster for months now. I thought he handled Hairgate terribly. I did support him in the past. I really liked him before. And here..

However, I think he hasn't done enough for the progress of cricket. For example, the ICC schedule has us playing such few test matches and ODI's while the BCCI is having India play the most in international cricket. Pakistan the is the 2nd most powerful cricketing nation (by marketing) in the world. I think he should have used this as a useful leveraging tool just like India does.

Younis resigns. Yousuf back at the helm

What the hell happened?

Here we go again. This is just sad. I have no clue why Younis blew up like this. I really did not see this coming. Is it really such a big deal that Younis waits till Inzamam retire befores he takes over captaincy?

I have some questions which I hope to find answers for.

Why did he get pissed off?
Why didn't they try to calm things down before announcing Yousuf as captain?
Why not Shoaib Malik and Vice captain? I thought he was the next in line for ODI captaincy.
If he is the captain, then why didn't they (PCB) consult him in making team selection decision?

I like Younis a lot. And judging by past follies, I am certain the PCB did something wrong. There is pretty much no players and personnel management in that organization. Whether one is a captain for a day, a weekend or an entire series, he needs to be respected as such and needs to be referred to.

I am sure that the PCB did everything without consulting Younis and without making him feel like he part of the equation.

For a while, Younis's position in the team, for the Champions Trophy as well as subsequent assignments were in doubt. It has been learnt that during the meeting a few officials were in favour of removing Younis from the team altogether. The idea of a disciplinary committee to investigate his actions and subsequent punishment - including his removal from the team - had been mooted

Who in the world do they think they are at the PCB? Are they seriously thinking of getting rid of a player of Younis Khan's calibre? Yes,indiscipline is one thing, and should be accountable, but here is a guy who has given his mind, body and soul for his country. If he has a problem, then the PCB should help him out and resolve the issue rather than play God and decide his future and have a power orgasm over this situation.

Having been groomed as a potential successor for two years now, the chances of Younis becoming captain in the short-term are, according to one PCB official, "extremely dim."

I will be so pissed if he doesn't get captaincy. You stupid clowns at the PCB are the biggest dumasses I have ever heard of.