The following lineup is quite likely for the first Test against England but the middle and lower middle-order has a question mark.
Shan Masood
Abid Ali
Azhar Ali
Babar Azam
Asad Shafiq
Mohammad Rizwan
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Shaheen Shah Afridi
Mohammad Abbas
Naseem Shah
The clamour is for the inclusion of Fawad Alam as the sixth batsman in the side, pushing Rizwan down to 7. Another option if Iftikhar Ahmed and he may actually get the nod due to his perceived utility with the ball as well.
The other option is to play Faheem Ashraf and/or Shadab Khan. Either one of them could play with Wahab Riaz or Yasir Shah at #8. Or both could play as was the case in overseas Tests during the end of the Mickey Arthur era.
What do you think about the team composition?
OK, there are several things which really need to be discussed here, before Misbah goes on to Autopilot and repeats his recurrent mistakes.
1. YASIR SHAH IN ENGLAND, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH AFRICA
This is Yasir's full career record - including his supposedly successful tour of England in 2016.
Played: 12 Tests
Bowled: 513 overs
Wickets: 32
Average: 63.50
Economy Rate: 3.96
Strike rate: 96.1
This record is a disgrace. And any serious consideration of continuing to select him is outrageous.
2. IT'S NOT ABOUT 5 BOWLERS - IT'S ABOUT 4 QUICKS
Even Yasir Shah has a terrible record outside Asia. As I just showed, he has 32 wickets in 12 Tests at an average of 63.50.
Pretty much any pace bowling option is superior in SENA conditions.
Specifically, Faheem Ashraf has 11 wickets in 4 Tests at an average of 26.09 outside Asia. And his economy rate is better at 3.18 (Yasir was 3.96) and his strike rate is literally twice as good at 49.00 (Yasir is 96.1).
But let's be frank here.
The Dukes ball is doing less than usual this summer without saliva available. The West Indies quicks took 1 wicket on Day 1 at Old Trafford.
Pakistan are going to be reliant upon the pace and bounce of Shaheen and the pace of Naseem Shah (and I suspect Haris Rauf will be far more effective than Mohammad Abbas).
But to maintain that pace the 3 strike quicks require a fourth quick (and a part-time spinner) to share the load so that they can bowl short, sharp spells. We saw in South Africa 18 months ago that when Faheem and Shadab were excluded from the first two Tests in favour of Yasir Shah the end result was that Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Abbas were overbowled and lost their edge.
3. IFTIKHAR IS NOT AN OPTION
Iftikhar may score a few runs against the old ball without saliva, but his bowling is going to be a complete liability at international level.
This is a man with 1 wicket in 3 Tests at an average of 141, and a Strike rate of 188!!!!!!
4. WHEN YOUR BATTING IS THIS BAD, YOU CAN'T PICK FOUR NUMBER 11'S
We all know how bad Pakistan's batting is.
When Misbah was the skipper he invested everything in Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq as the Next Generation, and allowed those two plus himself and Younis to hog the entire middle-order.
And when Younis and Misbah retired we learned what we knew all along - Azhar and Shafiq aren't good enough to lead the batting.
Rather like the West Indies, Pakistan need to get at least as many runs out of Numbers 6-10 as they get out of Numbers 1-5, because the top order is rubbish.
Playing a seventh batsman is not the answer - it weakens the bowling too much, by increasing the workload on Shaheen and Naseem.
So all-rounders like Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf are required - men who can do their share of bowling as support bowlers but also score some runs.
