The same Pakistan has produced Babar, Fakhar, Rizwan, Shaheen since 2016. If Pakistan has “no talent” as you and many other claim, then did these players come from Uganda?
Pakistan’s biggest problem is the word “talent”. Pakistan has neither more nor less talent, it’s the development of players that matter. We don’t have clear pathways. Domestic performers are overlooked, and/or not given enough chances and dropped before they come good. Players who do well in domestic are more likely to perform internationally. Look at Fawad Alam who was deprived for so many years. Usman Salahuddin, Hammad Azam and Saud walk into our test team but we are looking for “talent”!
Hussain Talat, Khusdil, Saud have done well in domestic and need international opportunities to develop and become world class players. That can’t happen if you’re gonna keep bringing back Malik who is a TTF.
Perhaps you were around in early 2000s based on your comment. Shoib Malik and Hafeez sucked bigged time in their first 50 games. In fact Shoib Malik started out as spin bowler and developed his batting over 5-7 years in the Pakistan team.
Hafeez was averaging like 18 for first his for 30-40 ODI games.
Fakhar, Babar, Rizwan. Those are three players. Who comes after that? If Pakistan has so many "good players" and "domestic performers" like you mention, where are the performances from these so-called "good players"? In our playing XI, we have about 5 opening batsmen (Hafeez, Babar, Rizwan, Fakhar, Haider), so where are these so-called domestic performers? Are they just hiding somewhere?
Iftikhar Ahmed - Given ample opportunities, apart from the innings in Australia he failed to do anything. Even his T20 credentials don't suggest that he has any experience in the hitting department.
Khushdil Shah - Need I say more than him being a leg-side hack. He couldn't get Zimbabwe's bowlers away when they bowled on the off-side, and you think he'll survive against someone like Bumrah?
Hussain Talat - Arguably what a lot of our fans describe as "talented", but what did we see, the repeated inability to play spin properly.
Haider Ali - Another in the long list of leg-side hacks, anything on leg-stump is his sign to go back to the pavilion. Not fit for international cricket.
Asif Ali - Our prized hitter who has a strike rate in the 120s. If this were the 1980s, that strike rate would be acceptable for a hard-hitting batsman, but I've seen Misbah play faster knocks in test cricket than Asif in limited overs.
No disrespect to any of the players, they all tried their best to make ends meet but they couldn't.
Additionally, if you read my post, you would have understood what I meant but I shall repeat myself nonetheless:
Do we have 5-7 years before the next World Cup? The obvious answer, no we do not. We barely have about 6 months to go.
You can keep bringing Malik and Hafeez's stats up in their first 50 innings but it won't justify your point neither will it justify the context of this thread being
the upcoming T20 World Cup. If I were talking about giving players chances to grow and develop, your point would be valid but try to look at it from the context of the T20 World Cup as opposed to developing these talentless players.
Secondly, bringing in domestic players not selected for the test team doesn't help your point either, it only makes your argument more confusing.
If there are so many domestic performers in the T20 circuit, it would have been so easy for you to name some of them, instead, you name the players who weren't selected in test cricket.
If you were following the SAF series, you would have understood what became our undoing. The inability to play spin. Ironically, we're the only Asian side that can't even play off-spin properly, much less any other type of spin. Shamsi was stat-padding against our incompetent middle-order batsmen, none of whom learned anything from each of the innings they played on that tour.
Furthermore, one can even check PSL statistics to see that only Haider trumped Malik in terms of runs and a strike rate, but when it came to playing
spin, he flopped against Shamsi yet again. He's probably Shamsi's bunny now, just a walking wicket.
From a bowling perspective as well, neither of the players above apart from Iftikhar contribute with the ball. Malik can be a reliable bowling option of one or two overs are needed given how frequently our express pacers are being bashed around the park. He has bowled on the international scene and hasn't been that horrible, so it wouldn't be a bad call from that perspective as well.
Furthermore, and perhaps the most glaring piece of information, Malik is a world-class player of spin. You can ask experts, past players, and even analysts, and the stats back it up. Malik is world-class against spin, and that's where our team is failing consistently right now.
Malik deserves a chance ahead of the likes of Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Hussain Talat, and Khushdil Shah.
There is one player whose selection I did call for, in case you didn't read that part. It was Sohaib Maqsood.
He should be given a chance out of sympathy given how poorly everyone else brought in for that role performed.
No hard feelings.
