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.

Pakistan squad for West Indies series lacking bowling depth

The PCB has announced the Pakistan squad for this month's series against the West Indies.

Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Danish Kaneria, Samiullah Niazi, Yasir Hameed, Shahid Nazir, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul, Shoaib Malik.

Notable Exceptions
Mohammad Sami and Rana Naveed are not in the squad. Perhaps not so surprising given their lackluster form in England and in the Champions trophy.

Shahid Afridi is not in the test squad. Hallelujah!

Salman Butt has been dropped again. Yasir Hameed is back in the thick of things and will probably be fighting for a place if Imran Farhat, Hafeez or Malik fail.

I am surprised at the exclusion of Asim Kamal. It would have been nice to have his steadying presence in the team. I assume the choice was between Faisal Iqbal and Asim and since Faisal has been in the squad recently, and has pretty much done nothing untoward, he has been the selection. I think he should be in the final lineup.

Openers
By selecting 3 specialist openers (Farhat, Hafeez, Hameed) and with the makeshift opener (Malik) around, it is clear that Pakistan has not settled into steady openers. Quite a sad dilemma, putting pressure on the Y's and Inzy.

Toothless and inexperienced bowling
Abdur Rehman, Danish Kaneria, Samiullah Niazi, Shahid Nazir, and Umar Gul are the only specialist bowlers in the squad. Rehman will again sit out this test series though his selection is interesting. He was chosen for the Sri Lanka series, and did not play a game. Depending on the ground, I assume they might go for 2 spinners and 2 pacemen, as they used to do when Saqlain and Mushtaq were playing.

In any case, bowling is definitely our weak point. Who would have thought Shahid Nazir and Umar Gul would be our new ball bowlers. Niazi might not get a game if we play 2 spinners. Razzak will be playing, so he will take the role of the 3rd seamer in those conditions.

Batting
The batting will be our strength. Y's are having an incredible couple of years. Inzi is due for some runs however.

Shabbir Ahmed could possibly make a comeback

Shabbir Ahmed was banned last December for being reported twice within 12 months. How good was he? In my opinion he was better than Sami, Razzak, Arafat. But not quite in the same league as Mohammad Asif and Shoaib. I would rank his skills close to Umar Gul, who I respect highly. Using my reasoning, I suppose, it would be fair to say we need him desperately to lead our attack!

His return next month from his year-long ban could not have come at a better time. With Pakistan's 2 front line bowlers banned, he could really plug that gap that exists in Pakistan's toothless fast bowling reserves.

His statistics are impressive. In the past few years, Pakistani fast bowlers have relied more on line and length and lateral movement (Gul, Asif, Shabbir) and less on raw pace (Sami, Shoaib). He is a tall guy. Taller than 6 feet, and has a dangly action. He can extract plenty of bounce from pitches. I would estimate that he is a mix between Harmy and McGrath, though excelling in neither bounce nor line and length. He's done well, however, getting 51 wickets from his 10 test matches. I was definitely a fan and I am hopeful he can play for the country, perhaps even as soon as the South Africa tour which precedes the World Cup.

From SABCNews.com

"Obviously when you lose two key bowlers like Shoaib and Asif it does affect the team," Saleem Altaf, the director cricket operations, said via telephone from India. "Which is why we will be sending Shabbir to Australia on November 20 for biomechanics tests on his bowling action?"

Shabbir has been reported three times for his action, which can be reviewed again once the ban ends next month, Altaf added.

"We have done a lot of work on Shabbir's action this year and there is definite improvement. Hopefully, he will also clear the biomechanical tests under the supervision of experts in Australia," Altaf said. "If he is available with a modified action for the tour of South Africa and the World Cup it would be a big boost for the team," he added.

I sincerely hope they actually did work on his action over the past year. If they did, that is pretty good management by the PCB to insure that Shabbir is healthy and legal when he returns. He was worth the investment, and I hope he doesn't get called for throwing again. He could be a handful on South African and West Indian pitches.