Misbahs defensive field will cost us here....

Great to see hafeez score 22.. Should have raised his bat at 20... His opening slot is secured for the Saffers series

Problem is Pak has to make do with batsmen like Hafiz. They are not producing quality batsmen atm.

I'm sure Dale Steyn is thinking that's an easy wicket per innings when he faces Hafeez again.

I don't expect him to be dropped at all

Azhar Ali is following Hafeez's footsteps but scores even less and faces more balls

if series like this dnt get the selectors making wholeale changes in the batting line up then nothing will, weakest test bowling attack by a long way and our batsment are still struggling

United,

we know with almost 100% certainity that not alot will change. Keep in mind that IMRAN FARHAT was selected for this tour, but pulled out for personal reasons... they'll bring him back for a start.

Logic says that openers should be nassir jamshid and taufeeq umar - dont understand why they dont give them a run of games.... For me hafeez should be dropped in all formats of the game... his arrogance (of wanting to open in both formats) is mind blowing.... needs to take a break imo

A14,
who should replace who in the current line up according to you?
Also back up your opinion with stat or reason.

Kharse,

Don’t have the time to dwell into stats and facts for the time being. But with the Pakistani tests side relatively inecpericned anyway, I don’t think stats (for players with less than 20 tests ) really have that 100% certainty to them, so its more a gut-feeling and common sense angle I’m coming from…. Based on that my 11 VS SAFFERS would be:

Nasir
Taufeeq
Younis
Misbah
Shafiq /Hafeez if you need a 5th bowler in UAE
Umar Akmal
Adnan Akmal
Gul/wahab
Junaid
Ajjy
Rehman

** if things don’t work out, I’d open up with Azhar, he always comes in to bat first 5 overs anyway and adjust accordingly.

Amir will not be happy that you have axed his hero Azhar Ali I'd still give Azhar one more chance and my team will be:

Taufeeq
Manzoor
Ali
Khan
Misbah
U Akmal
A Akmal
Gul/Irfan
Ajmal
Rehman
Junaid

Only problem with your team is you have 4 bowlers.. Ideally need an all-rounder in there. We have been soo good at producing all-rounders in the past, but lately they have faded aswell as openers and pace bowlers

Just as manzoor hears kash has selected him for Saffers series, he gets himself run out

Poor guy was looking half decent too.

We start the morning with a Pakistan tradition now which is 4 maidens

Misbah's S/R 25

73 overs and we have only scored 164

So Misbah tuk tuks all the way to the 2nd new ball and then 2nd ball he gets out

Genious.

He really is an idiot isn't he kash... The guys is absolutely clueless as they come. Loves making a fool outta himself.

I knew that was going to happen... Tuck tucks and then wets his nappy when they take the new ball

He hasn’t capitalised at all. He’s been in for donkies years and didn’t bother rotating strike. As a result, he’s taken up time but without anything of value to show for it….. Because of the lack of runs, he’s added pressure and exposed Shafiq now. When Shafiq doesn’t perform, we hear pak fans saying our youngsters aren’t good enough…………. Happens in the odis as well as tests, misbah puts others under pressure because of his sleepy attitude and slug-like approach.

I’d love to hear from the misbah cronies and allies defending his innings here…. This guy is single handily destroying Pakistani cricket on the field by his selfishness and mental approach.

no one is going to defend that garbage, if he plays $hite it should be called that way, funny how no one comments on the innings where hes still standing at the end but wait untill he produces garbage before they all pounce

if shafiq is pressured by a zimbabwe bowling attack then he doesnt deserve a place in the side, the openers have been garbage aswell this whole series but everyone waits until misbah has a rubbish innings

Kaz you need to stop looking at the cricinfo Misbah page and his stats. On the paper they are good albeit with a number of not outs to his record but what you forget is that his approach is all too wrong.

Batting is all about run scoring and putting the opposite side under pressure. You spread the field and rotate the strike. He refuses to do this unless its a poor delivery. Having a strike rate under 30 against Zimbabwe is unacceptable. There is no demons in this wicket, he is just a lazy batsman.

By batting slow on his end he then puts pressure on the other end as someone else will have to move the scoreboard along and this does result in wickets. Most of the times Misbah gets away with it due to our bowling where we can defend below par scores but when we are chasing that's when his game plan fails miserably.

I dnt give a carp about his stats, the whole batting line is just not very good, dnt make excuses for our rubbish batsmen by blaming misbah for their faults.

As ive said in the past he doesnt open so the 1st 3 batsmen cant use the excuse that misbah has put them under pressure, if anything they way our top order collapses on such a regular basis its them that put someone like misbah under pressure to hold an innings together, you ever thought about that

The top 3 don't fail all the time. In the world cup semi final we had decent opening stand before the Misbah tuk tuk method took us out of the game.

How many times in one day cricket do we score 300 or close to 300 when Misbah has batted for long? I can't think of many times. If Misbah is allowed to bat the chance of 300 is over no matter what Afridi or Umar Akmal do.

42 or 43 i guess is a decent stand for our openers

And there goes Shafiq – just as predicted!
United – its not a matter of Shafiq being pressurised by zimbabwe bowlers, it’s common sense to assume with a new ball and the urgency of scoreboard runs needed, he will be pressurised – root cause of this is misbahs approach.
Misbah has shown (usually at the end of innings) that he can bat and rotate strike.. however, he simply refuses to do this at test level or odi unless we need a run-rate of over 15 an over… his mental approach is all wrong…. He’s 40 years old – same age range as the likes of yousuf, inzi and younis… is it any wonder they didn’t select him when these guys were at their prime??? He’s not fit to lace their boots.

you havent answered what reason the openers have for their constant failures? no one seems to want to blame anyone but misbah

and shafiq wasent really doing much himself today, strike rate on a par with misbah's, was bound to happen, as you can see i didnt defend misbah innings today it was awfull

Openers;

Manzoor- not really seen much of him. Newbie
Hafeez- more arrogance and attitude than ability. Shouldn't be in the team, let alone opening.
Azhar Ali- surely this guy is related to misbah in one way or another.