Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan 2009

[Gunner786]

hope to see talha or aamer in the test squad.

no need to groom them as all our legendary pacers were all thrown into the deep end first thing

 

[ZexyZahid]

The Test squad is named and there are Tanvir, Afridi and Jamshed aren't selected. There are five uncapped players in the team.

Here is the squad:

Younis Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor, Ahmed Shahzad, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Asim Kamal, Fawad Alam, Yasir Arafat, Danish Kaneria, Kamran Akmal (wk), Umar Gul, Mohammad Talha, Sohail Khan.

Pakistan recall Asim Kamal for first Test
Cricinfo - Pakistan recall Asim Kamal for first Test

Ahmed Shahzad actually just hit a century against Sri Lanka.

Centuries from Azhar and Shehzad frustrate Lankans
Cricinfo - Centuries from Azhar and Shehzad frustrate Lankans

 

[Gunner786]

same guy who thrashed pollock,ntiti around the park a couple of years ago when he was 16.
good thing that his talent is gonna be used asap

 

[Insomniac]

Disappointed at the inclusion of Iqbal and no Jamshed.

All in all, a good squad - putting 5 debutants in will ensure SOMEONE will debut in this series

 

[Dare]

good to see Pakistan going young but there will be allot of questions about this team. The middle order is suspect but than again so is any other spot on the team with so much youth and inexperience on the team.

good to see Yasir Arafat in the team, he has been performing for a long time now in domestic cricket.

 

[Slowcoach]

I hope Fawad Alam is in the XI for the first test, he has done everything asked of him at first class and ODI level. A left hander in the middle order will be useful in a team of mostly right handed players. If he is not overawed by the occasion he will have time to play himself in without the pressure of having to score quickly like he has had to in ODIs batting at number 7. I don't know if his bowling will have much impact, but it has to be better than the Salman Butt/Yasir Hameed farce against India a couple of years ago.

 

[Gunner786]

just 1 hour away
hope talha is selected

 

[Gunner786]

the worst start to your career a batsman can have,
1st ball duck to paraniveeta(did i spell it right?)

 

[Dare]

cant wait until the ball gets old and Gul starts reversing it. The last time West Indies were in Pakistan he was reversing the ball like Wasim and Waqar. Broke Sarwans toe.

 

[age of the fall]

DAmn, gutted Paranavitana got out. I really like him in ICC

 

[Insomniac]

Poor session for Pakistan, and the umpires. I felt Sangakkara was PLUMB out, and would easily have been overturned on referral.

Jayawardene looked like he was struggling against Arafat, so I would bring him back in after lunch, and hopefully we can get him early.

Sohail Khan too expensive for my liking, and we really needed Sangakkara out - thanks to umpire Davis's mistake, Sangakkara will probably make a 200... or more.

 

[Slowcoach]

Steve Davis is a dreadful umpire, he has been giving plumb lbws not out when teams touring Australia have appealed for years, and always with that stupid "ooooh that was close" grin on his face. Really he is saying "ooooh, that was out, but you aren't Australian".

Then when Australians appeal he fires batsmen out lbw from thick inside edges, he truly is an idiot.

Too many umpires take into account who the batsman is, and who the bowler is when making a decision, it is time all umpires are sacked and we use video replays for ALL decisions.

I don't care about this "human element" crap, either we get umpires who get more than 50% of decisions right, or we sack them all.

They are getting 50% of the close ones right, which means they are just guessing, they are totally useless.

I admit I am more peeved than usual because a decision has gone against Pakistan, but it doesn't change the fact that Steve Davis is a useless umpire, how can someone that bad be considered an "elite" umpire?

And don't get me started on the two Darrell's, not only are they incompetent, they are also arrogant. Darrell Harper once gave a visiting batsman out lbw to McGill when the ball was missing off stump by a foot, I kid you not, and he even did it with a smart ass grin on his face while pretending he was a robot who always gave the batsman out.

 

[Insomniac]

It really did annoy me that we had this incompetent person standing alongside Simon Taufel. He's not even fit enough to lick Taufel's shoes.

Although I don't think Davis is "racist" or biased - I just think hes incompetent.

 

[Slowcoach]

I agree that Davis is not racist or intentionally biased, his problem is he always favours the team he expects to win or the player with the bigger reputation. It is as if he is thinking "How can this no name Yasir Arafat have possibly dismissed the great Sangakkara? Not out."

Slowcoach added 3 Minutes and 59 Seconds later...

Good to see Kaneria on now, I was wondering what Malik was doing bowling then, but he was just bowling an over so Kaneria could swap ends.

I was going to make a wise crack about Malik bowling more overs in this innings than he did in his entire term as captain, and that maybe Younis Khan was punishing him for underbowling himself.

 

[Insomniac]

I think we need to bring Arafat back on - Jayawardene was struggling against him (ok, hes struggled against almost every bowler so far)