The Cricket Society II

But expect him to open the bowling and bat at no 8 for the rest of the WC

No, no, expect him to bat at no 8 and then bowl in the death overs for the rest of the tournament. When you have a captain that can't distinguish between his lunch and the cricket ball, it makes sense that you bowl the world's best death bowler out in the 40th over, and then decide to bowl your 75 miles per hour part timer at the death, as happened in the New Zealand match.

Pakistan cricket is so depressing

Yes, I committed suicide after Michael Hussey's freakish annihilation of Ajmal in the T20 world cup, as well as many, many, many other times in the last three years.

Harbhajan isn't an allrounder, he is just a bowler. An average of just under 34 is worse than Afridi, who, for 10-12 years of his career (out of 15), was a batsman and part time bowler.

Apart from that, I totally agree with everything you've said, apart from 'our reserve bowlers ...' etc. India's bowling line up is a little under-rated, Zaheer Khan is phenomenal and Sehwag, Yusuf, Yuvraj and Sachin are good part timers. It's their second/third fast bowlers that are the prhttp://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=30311731oblem, Nehra is awful and Munaf is too.

Give Junaid a game against Zimbabwe. We should drop Kamran and bring a batsman in to replace Shehzad, leaving Umar to keep, and then bring an extra bowler in. Play both Wahab and Junaid against Zimbabwe, and pick between the two against Australia.

Harbhajan isn't an allrounder, he is just a bowler. An average of just under 34 is worse than Afridi, who, for 10-12 years of his career (out of 15), was a batsman and part time bowler.

Apart from that, I totally agree with everything you've said, apart from 'our reserve bowlers ...' etc. India's bowling line up is a little under-rated, Zaheer Khan is phenomenal and Sehwag, Yusuf, Yuvraj and Sachin are good part timers. It's their second/third fast bowlers that are the problem, Nehra is awful and Munaf is too.

Give Junaid a game against Zimbabwe. We should drop Kamran and bring a batsman in to replace Shehzad, leaving Umar to keep, and then bring an extra bowler in. Play both Wahab and Junaid against Zimbabwe, and pick between the two against Australia.

In my opinion, Shehzad should be given one more chance in order to prove himself because he showed a lot of potential in the NZ series. Kamran should definitely be dropped for Asad Shafiq and Shoaib for Wahab or Junaid.

I'am very unsure about Razzaq at the moment, I think he should be pushed up the order but perhaps not dropped just yet- admittedly I would be thinking differently if he hadn't scored that 60 odd against NZ.

yeahh I know harbajhan is just a bowler, just didn't get it across very well :P And Afridi is definitely a very handy bowler especially on these pitches, he doesn't really do much with the ball in terms of movement but it's just his variation and accuracy that is sublime.
I guess Zaheer Khan is a handy bowler but if you wanna loook in terms of averages then Gul again is slightly better. And think about the kind of totals India's batsmen post, it takes a lot of pressure off zaheer khan whereas gul a lot of the time, which was the case against New Zealand, is bowling to defend mediocre totals. Both incredible death bowlers though, Gul is slightly better in this department as well 'cause of his lethal yorkers and accuracy. IMO, if Zaheer Khan was Pakistani he would be nowhere near international selection.
Not really much tinkering that can be done with Indian bowling department because there's no real quality other than Zaheer Khan. I'd be questioning why a cricket-loving country of over 1 billion people can't produce a quality bowler like the way Pakistan are able to do so consistently.
Totally agree with you again in terms of dropping Kammy and Shehzad as well as bringing in Riaz and Junaid who given the time probably would be better bowlers than Zaheer Khan. We should be able to play both against Australia providing we drop Akhtar who's been bowling slower than Gul and with obviously far less accuracy.
Definitely fancying Australia to win the WC more every game, they have quality all the way down especially now with Mike Hussey back, the batting is almost as good as India's and the bowling is miles better. Only problem I can see though is they're a quality spinner short. Steve Smith is decent but his batting's better than his bowling.

In terms of averages, Gul is the best in the world at what he does, namely bowling at the death, so it's unfair to compare Zaheer to that. Zaheer is good at what he does, which is make an average Indian attack look remotely good at times.

Zaheer Khan would get into the Pakistani team at this moment in time. However, if you were to look at the banned bowlers and the other bowlers who have been denied (ie, Shabbir Ahmed), then neither would be close.

Gul
Amir
Asif
Zaheer

Shoaib/Wahab

Shehzad has been largely poor. He was in the team for 2/3 games in the T20 WC 2009, but he failed and was dropped. Upon his return, he's just looked like a stroke player to me. He doesn't seem to have any understanding of when to knuckle down and keep his wicket or when to attack attack attack.

Shoaib either has a good day or a bad day. It's a 50/50 thing. I'd say persist with him for the Australia match, but give both Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz a run out in the Zimbabwe game, and then, based on Junaid's performance, pick one of them for the game against Australia.

This is the thing about Razzaq, just when you think, drop him, he comes out with a good innings under high pressure. The 100 against SA was a prime example of this, along with a similar game last year, where he slammed 44 off 20 and took quite a few wickets (I think this was against England). Evidently, he has the potential to bat well, and I think now is his chance to prove it. Put him at number three, hope the openers put on 50, and get him batting. Let him show to us that he has the potential to be a key player for us, because at the moment, his bowling is smacked around, and his batting is too low down the order to do anything.

Hmm.. with the exception of Shoaib, Akmal and Rehman who in my opinion MUST be dropped, Razzaq and Shehzad are more difficult. I reckon Wahab, Shafiq, Ajmal should come in for the Zimbabwe games but Razzaq and Shehzad should be given another opportunity.

Kenya did pretty good

Snide on Obuya, he deserved to get 100.

What I meant was Zaheer Khan would never have had the opportunity to be picked in the first place, hence he would not be top quality bowler he is now. It's only because of India's lack of bowling options that he has been picked and developed into the top player that he now is. If he was as good as he is now and was in fact Pakistani then I would definitely pick him, but that goes without saying anyway.
Shoaib's been an excellent player over the years but as is the case with most out and out pace bowlers, there's gonna be some degree of inconsistency which is displayed perfectly by Akhtar and Tait.
I would rank him a little higher than that as he has been a better bowler than Zaheer without a doubt. He averages a whole 3/4 better in ODIs and about 6 better in test cricket and they've both had decent-lengthed careers. Also a lot of the time Akhtar's been rescuing low Pakistani totals.
I think Wahab can still develop plenty yet as he's not played much international cricket. Same applies to Junaid who I think is probably a slightly better bowler than Wahab.

Seriously though, where is this guy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YIcyEdrFm0

Kenya did pretty good

Snide on Obuya, he deserved to get 100.

He did but that other guy didn't even try to push for a single!

Just a question I've got regarding Pakistan here so anyone that can help would be good.
Right now Pakistan are 4th in the group with 6 points in 4 matches with a NRR of +0.760. Should beat Zimbabwe which would give them 8 points in 5 matches right?
Just wondering we could actually end up top can't we if we absolutely mash Zimbabwe?

We certainly can but if Zimbabwe pull of an upset against us and they win with a relatively healthy NRR against Kenya and we lost by a relatively healthy amount to Australia we could be out

We certainly can but if Zimbabwe pull of an upset against us and they win with a relatively healthy NRR against Kenya and we lost by a relatively healthy amount to Australia we could be out

My dad was saying that on a Pakistani news station it was being reported that Shoaib/Umar Akmal will be replaced by Riaz/Shafiq respectively for tomorrow's game. TBH, I'd really like to see Junaid Khan given a go tomorrow, why not? He's got to be better than Riaz, who is abit inconsistent like his slinger buddy Johnson. Give Shehzad another go aswell, maybe he needs a little arm round his shoulder to see what's making him play so cautiously. And hence Afridi has said it's maybe they are playing cautiously as they unsure whether to attack and to see off the new ball. You've got to let players go with their attacking instincts, their natural game.