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Imam-ul-Haq, Faheem Ashraf to debut against Ireland - Pakistan pick same team that played Northants

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Abdullah719

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Sarfaraz Ahmed has announced that Pakistan will be unchanged for the Test against Ireland. The same team that faced Northamptonshire will play.

Azhar Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Abbas, Rahat Ali.

Surprised to see no Hasan Ali, but someone had to make way for the phenom. :rahat


Presser quotes:

"Everybody is fit"

"We have decided on the team combination, we will be playing the same team we played against Northamptonshire"

"It's a great achievement for Ireland to be playing Tests, congrats from myself and on behalf of the Pakistan team. More cricketers will play cricket in Ireland due to this"

"The last practice match was good, everyone did well and now we're ready for the Test"

"It's a big honour for me and my team to be playing in this historic Test, the first Test in Ireland. Everyone will be watching and we're prepared to take part in this great match"

"We played a game against Kent and tried both Sami and Imam, the team management felt that Imam was playing better so we decided to go with Imam"

"Yasir is an experienced bowler and we'll miss him but Shadab bowled well in the warm-up and took 10 wickets, hopefully he will bowl well in the Test matches as well"
 
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Hasan Ali not playing is odd but I suppose giving him a rest before the England series is a must too. Rahat is hardly a deserving option though.
 
How the hell did Amir make it ahead of Hasan? Will be funny if he goes wicketless against the minnows. :))
 
One of Faheem or Rahat should've made way, unless Hasan has fitness issues.

Don't like the idea of Faheem in the Test XI - offering nothing with bat or ball.
 
Abdul said:
How the hell did Amir make it ahead of Hasan? Will be funny if he goes wicketless against the minnows. :))
Click to expand...

I don't think that Amir is playing over Hasan in the sense that they think Amir warrants a place over Hasan. It's probably giving Amir one more chance to perform before dropping him for the English series.
 
Wait a minute we were told that Hasan is sure shot of playing and that is why he didn't participate in the last practice match.
 
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Why would you drop your best bowler in an away Test match where conditions will not be in your favor?

Surprising decision.
 
Unless they plan to rotate the seamers around meaning he could play in place of Amir or Rahat or Abbas against England.
 
They're resting Hassan Ali.

XI posted in OP is solid. No excuses if Ireland manage to win against this XI.

PS: Amir will play everything in England. Can't be dropped.
 
Rahat over Hassan is craziness.

Poor decision by MA and Sarfaraz. Otherwise the team looks good to me.

- Imam has done his bit to justify a place in playing XI

- Amir is in the team because he is Amir the prodigy everyone believes (I hope he does something substantial in the next 3 Tests vs IRE and ENG)

- Hassan should have been there in place of Rahat (or Faheem). Remember Hassan can wack a few 20-25 runs too which i doubt Rahat can even dream of doing

Overall it is a decent playing XI minus the Rahat hiccup.
 
Looks like Amir getting one last chance on a green "mamba" and Hasan Ali being rested for the England test series.
 
I see it as Hasan Ali as being first choice fast bowler for the England series and the test against Irish is for Faheem, Amir, Abbas and Rahat to fight for the remaing 2 (or 3) places...
 
troodon said:
Why would you drop your best bowler in an away Test match where conditions will not be in your favor?

Surprising decision.
Click to expand...

Yes why should they drop GOAT :rahat can't understand why are posters complaining about his inclusion.
 
I don't think Hassan was dropped. They are probably trying to test the other 3 bowlers and pick the best 2 to play with Hassan in England.

Remember this team is for Ireland test and is good enough to beat Ireland.
 
This could only happen if your captain is an idiot and allows this to happen....oh wait pakistan already .......

Take Ireland lightly at your peril in these conditions.
 
Not that surprising Hasan wouldn't play. As soon as we were going with five bowlers, Mickey's going to pick Fahim because of his batting. Not that I have much hope for it. Which is why I'd prefer a proper bat over Fahim.

Out of the four bowlers, Hasan has the least experience so is left out. It's the safe decision. Mickey tries to get the best out of the ones already with experience, it's only after they do badly that he moves on.

There are benefits of this system, it makes it easier to pick players (rather than evaluating). Players are less likely to feel their place is threatened. And we know for sure players fail rather thinking whether they wouldn't or not (even if it's say an 80% chance it wouldn't work out). Part of the reason Mickey does this as I said before, he doesn't know Pakistani domestic very well, and trusts more what he sees on the pitch/how they actually hold up in internationals before making a decision. It's Inzi who has the eye for talent, picking and choosing players in the squad. Mickey usually systematically goes through the squad giving people chances when others fail.

Sometimes however you've got to deviate from that strategy. A second spinner against SL was the right decision, yet he went with three pacers twice in a row because the second spinner had no experience.

I think the five bowler strategy is born out of the fact that the pacers aren't looking incredible, hence we are scared of our bowling doing well. Batting with Pakistan is often expected to fail, but when the bowling fails people really panic because that's what we rely on. Hence if picking an extra bowler can prevent that even if it makes our batting even worse, it'll be done. If our pacers were looking good, especially are supposed spearhead in Amir, I doubt we'd have gone for five bowlers.

I don't even really expect Fahim to bowl much. He'll be kept as a safety net to bring out if the rest are failing. A bit like his role in ODIs really. He isn't trusted much with the ball in ODIs, and I feel he'll be trusted even less in tests.
 
Well surprisingly trundler abbas is playing but babbar sher hasan.If not for fitness issues pathetic decision by management.
 
Perfect XI, I actually predicted this one apart from one - Micky is backing his Pom instinct and picked Abbas over Hasan, which some one like Imran won't have ever done. Abbas might slap on my face with a 7 wicket game - it's Ireland after all, that too in their 1st Test; but PAK shouldn't drop Hasan for a 120K pacer.

Hope, Irish curator keeps some grass, otherwise this guy Abbas :( ......... but, again, it's against Ireland, shouldn't forecast anything.
 
Probably resting Hasan Ali before the England series. Not every player has to play every match, India rested pretty much half of their squad when they played Zimbabwe and here we are freaking out because one player is missing.

Pakistani fans are no different to Pakistani selectors,
 
El Generico said:
Probably resting Hasan Ali before the England series. Not every player has to play every match, India rested pretty much half of their squad when they played Zimbabwe and here we are freaking out because one player is missing.

Pakistani fans are no different to Pakistani selectors,
Click to expand...

India are the number 1 team, we are number 7 or 8.
 
I don’t think it’s a case of hassan being rested. If he was going to play the first game against England then he would be playing against Ireland and rested in the warm up game in between.

The problem we have is that Abbas and Rahat were decent in the warm ups so can’t be dropped. It should have been Hassan over Amir but Amir is Amir so again can’t be dropped. In fairness to Amir, he will give us some control despite being out of form. I just hope he starts finding his length and form.

The others would have to have a poor game against Ireland and him a decent return in the warm up game for him to play against England.
 
I guess they've opted for the safety valve of 2 all-rounders in Shadab and Faheem in case the top order collapses.
 
There's a lot of shrilling on this thread over one player while we play our first game *checks notes* against Ireland.

The batting is more likely to embarrass rather than the bowling.
 
Saj said:
I guess they've opted for the safety valve of 2 all-rounders in Shadab and Faheem in case the top order collapses.
Click to expand...

two all-rounders in the team is quite bold and good, especially if the investment in them is long term, not tactical.
Most folks seem to be complaining about Hasan vs Rahat. I would have gone with Rahat as he swings the ball.
 
I’ll tell you my interpretation, which people can take or leave.

Mickey permanently felt a bowler down when Misbah picked 6 batters and 4 bowlers.

Mickey’s preference - see his book - is 5 batters, 2 all-rounders and 3 Specialist bowlers.

Mohammad Amir showed in Australia that he can be a good Test Number 9.

Which means that Mickey has vacancies for 2 all-rounders.

He has told Hasan Ali again and again that he needs to work on his batting, and then the Number 7 or 8 slot can be his.

But Hasan persists in playing dumb, reckless Shahid Afridi type cameos and surviving 10 balls, when Arthur needs his Number 8 to bat for 15 overs.

So I’m guessing that Mickey is sending Hasan Ali a pointed message - you won’t have a Test career until you work on your batting defence.
 
To build on my last point...:

Let’s say Pakistan closes Day 1 in a Test at 300-5 from 90 overs.

The surviving batsman and the two all-rounders need to bat the whole morning session on Day 2 to take 300-5 to 390-7.

Mickey has seen Pakistan’s tendency to convert 260-5 into 310 all out. And he is trying to let Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali become genuine Test Numbers 7 and 8.
 
Building again on the all-rounders point.

Mickey has seen Yasir Shah average 45 with the ball outside Asia.

I think he has realised that Shadab Khan can do that - but bat for 3 hours and 60 runs in every Test too!
 
Junaids said:
I’ll tell you my interpretation, which people can take or leave.

Mickey permanently felt a bowler down when Misbah picked 6 batters and 4 bowlers.

Mickey’s preference - see his book - is 5 batters, 2 all-rounders and 3 Specialist bowlers.

Mohammad Amir showed in Australia that he can be a good Test Number 9.

Which means that Mickey has vacancies for 2 all-rounders.

He has told Hasan Ali again and again that he needs to work on his batting, and then the Number 7 or 8 slot can be his.

But Hasan persists in playing dumb, reckless Shahid Afridi type cameos and surviving 10 balls, when Arthur needs his Number 8 to bat for 15 overs.

So I’m guessing that Mickey is sending Hasan Ali a pointed message - you won’t have a Test career until you work on your batting defence.
Click to expand...

So rahat and Abbas batting is better then hasan's.
 
Khan12 said:
So rahat and Abbas batting is better then hasan's.
Click to expand...
No, but they are picked as Specialist bowers at 10 and 11, and they are taller than Hasan Ali. He’s too short to be a Specialist Test quick bowler - the shortest for over 80 years.
 
Junaids said:
To build on my last point...:

Let’s say Pakistan closes Day 1 in a Test at 300-5 from 90 overs.

The surviving batsman and the two all-rounders need to bat the whole morning session on Day 2 to take 300-5 to 390-7.

Mickey has seen Pakistan’s tendency to convert 260-5 into 310 all out. And he is trying to let Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali become genuine Test Numbers 7 and 8.
Click to expand...

They'll be lucky to get 20 overs in man lol.

Match properly starts Day 3
 
Junaids said:
No, but they are picked as Specialist bowers at 10 and 11, and they are taller than Hasan Ali. He’s too short to be a Specialist Test quick bowler - the shortest for over 80 years.
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter how short he is. He's still better option and a better bowler then them .
 
Hassan Ali should have played instead of Rahat or Abbas. Should still be able to defeat the Irish.
 
Hassan needs test match experience. He should have played. Abbas or Rahat should have made way.
 
Brave selection with only 5 front-line batsmen, puts a real onus on the likes of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq to score big.
 
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