It's time to start winning Tests again! Starting from our home

[Hawkeye]

Top Test teams today are invincible at their home. If you want to be competitive, you first have to make your home grounds a fortress.

The fortress that we had built was breached. We got whitewashed at our home by Sri Lanka.

We dropped to #7 rankings.

It's time to undo that and take revenge!

The upcoming Test series vs. Sri Lanka is super important. They have got a full strength, strong squad. We have a young and inexperienced bowling attack.

Can we do something different this time and start winning home Tests again?

Spinning tracks and going with at least two specialist spinners will be critical to our success.

 

[Abdullah]

Can't take anything for granted with misbah.

All things being equal our young batters have shown signs in the past on the tours to SA and Aus Shan Babar imam Rizwan) and hopefully Azhar and Asad should join the party at home, so I expect runs to be scored.

Key will be taking 20 wickets. I see misbah sticking with ifti chacha which is pointless given the series we have coming up the excuse will be you can't give people only two games which is correct if the original decision is not a howler . Yasir at 8 at home is fine but we need a finger spinner and 2 quicks also. In an ideal world ifti would be replaced by shadab to bat at 7

 

[Abdullah]

The 2 quicks should be Abbas and shaheen. No need to go begging to amir and wahab.

 

[Abdullah]

Imam
Shan
Haris
Babar
Shafiq
Rizwan
Shadab
Yasir
Zafar
Shaheen
Abbas

Give nAseem another game when we rotate out a quick. Include faheem in the squad as we need to develop a fast bowling allrounder

 

[Abdullah]

When is the squad selected

 

[Omer2002]

Abbas will do nothing...looking at strong srilankan squad i dont think we have a chance

 

[Hawkeye]

The 2 quicks should be Abbas and shaheen. No need to go begging to amir and wahab.

Abbas? No thanks.

Shaheen and Naseem if he's fit.

 

[Omer2002]

Hundred percent agree with hawkeye

 

[Abdullah]

And Hawkeye I know you want to undermine Mickey with this thread, because we lost at home to SL and NZ.

Yes mickey made a mistake Vs SL by playing 1 spinner, but he corrected that in the NZ series.

Remember we only lost those series despite the selection issues ( no spinner Vs SL and Bilal Vs NZ ) because we couldn't chase 135 and 170 In the first game in each series - that has nothing to do with the bowling selection.

I have much more faith in Shan over Hafeez, rizwan over sarfaraz, shadab/ifti over Bilal to say the batting will look much stronger this time around, along with Babar's improvement

I do expect us to not cock the batting up this time, so it all depends on which 5 bowlers he plays.

 

[Sidilicious]

Abbas will do nothing...looking at strong srilankan squad i dont think we have a chance

The guy might have failed in Aus, but he knows what to do in UAE.

You guys need to stick to the proven formula at home.
If I were a Pakistani selector, my bowling would be Abbas, Shaheen, Yasir, an off spinner. The fifth bowler should be a spin AR like Shadab.

That leaves place for 5 batsmen plus WK.

Babar, Azhar Ali, Harris, Imam Ul Haq and the WK. The final spot would be between a young player who has done well in domestic or Asad Shafiq.

 

[Omer2002]

i dont think they will risk going with a 5 man bowling strategy for sure..defo 2 pacers and 2 spinners..but i think srilankans have better spinners than us which can go against us

 

[Mesozoic]

I don't think the series against Sri Lanka is as easy as people are making it out to be.

On paper, they have a stronger batting lineup than Pakistan (esp against spin). I back them to atleast draw the series 1-1.

 

[Sidilicious]

i dont think they will risk going with a 5 man bowling strategy for sure..defo 2 pacers and 2 spinners..but i think srilankans have better spinners than us which can go against us

Yeah, that’s not too far either. Possibly playing 6 batsmen + WK + Shadab + Yasir + Shaheen + Abbas is not bad either. But you run the risk of bowling Yasir to the ground.

IMHO, this would give you the best chance to groom a young spinner and a batsman.

If Yasir and Azhar can play like they have played in the UAE in the past, you will be ok.

 

[ikky47]

Yeah, that’s not too far either. Possibly playing 6 batsmen + WK + Shadab + Yasir + Shaheen + Abbas is not bad either. But you run the risk of bowling Yasir to the ground.

IMHO, this would give you the best chance to groom a young spinner and a batsman.

If Yasir and Azhar can play like they have played in the UAE in the past, you will be ok.

The test matches will be taking place in Pakistan so the conditions will be a bit of an unknown factor. Matches will take place at Pindi and Karachi and the last test match at Karachi was a flatbed.

 

[Greenstorm]

We are not going to win anything under loser Misbah.

 

[Shoaibbtt]

The guy might have failed in Aus, but he knows what to do in UAE.

You guys need to stick to the proven formula at home.
If I were a Pakistani selector, my bowling would be Abbas, Shaheen, Yasir, an off spinner. The fifth bowler should be a spin AR like Shadab.

That leaves place for 5 batsmen plus WK.

Babar, Azhar Ali, Harris, Imam Ul Haq and the WK. The final spot would be between a young player who has done well in domestic or Asad Shafiq.

Nauman Ali or Zafar Gohar did well with the ball this season.

 

[Plumb]

OR... Its time to come to reality and know that SL will also thrash pakistan

Yes I am confident that SL will beat us.

 

[Hawkeye]

The guy might have failed in Aus, but he knows what to do in UAE.

You guys need to stick to the proven formula at home.
If I were a Pakistani selector, my bowling would be Abbas, Shaheen, Yasir, an off spinner. The fifth bowler should be a spin AR like Shadab.

That leaves place for 5 batsmen plus WK.

Babar, Azhar Ali, Harris, Imam Ul Haq and the WK. The final spot would be between a young player who has done well in domestic or Asad Shafiq.

Brother, that debut series had a novelty factor.

If he has gone wicket less in two consecutive series on much more bowler friendly wickets, then what makes you think he'll do well on flat Pak pitches? With 120kph pace.

It's not going to be the UAE either.

 

[SensiblePakFan]

Probably a drawn series giving how batting friendly our pitches have been recently.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Good luck to Pakistan. Sri Lanka are the better test team I suppose but playing at home should mean advantage Pakistan. Toss will determine the outcome so Pakistan need luck to win this series.

 

[Hawkeye]

Probably a drawn series giving how batting friendly our pitches have been recently.

That will be an upgrade compared to how our team did against them last time - a whitewash.

I'm very excited and nervous at the same time how the pitches will turn out to be.

 

[SensiblePakFan]

That will be an upgrade compared to how our team did against them last time - a whitewash.

I'm very excited and nervous at the same time how the pitches will turn out to be.

Same, cant wait for test cricket on home soil again.

 

[octavian]

If you are expecting to win with Misbah at the helm, you are in for a world of pain.

Sri Lanka C team whitewashed us at home in T20. Whitewashes in Autralia followed as expected. T

There is no reason to believe that Misbah's leadership will yield results any different than it always has.

 

[Bhaijaan]

My dear friend [MENTION=134608]Hawkeye[/MENTION],

Trust me you will win at home..Yasir Shah will be the difference maker.

Please don't look too deep into these defeats.

Bhaijaan

 

[Kroll]

Azhar should be dropped as he's a non performer. Asad should get booted - been a passenger and free loader for far too long and give another bat a chance.

The likes of Zafar Gohar should have been developed by now but might have to rely on Yasir who's on his last legs. Fast bowling stocks are depleted but Shinwari would probably be a better choice than IK snr and any of the kids that are randomly thrown in.

 

[Relic]

I don't think the series against Sri Lanka is as easy as people are making it out to be.

On paper, they have a stronger batting lineup than Pakistan (esp against spin). I back them to atleast draw the series 1-1.

Nah.
Sri Lanka's batting were demolished by the Aussies even though their bowling lineup wasn't as strong as this one.

 

[Hawkeye]

[MENTION=100]octavian[/MENTION]

I think you're forgetting that we whitewashed SL in the ODIs - the format that matters.

In home Tests, we won't be going in clueless at least, with no strategy and tactics, which led to our downfall in the premier format.

 

[Hawkeye]

My dear friend [MENTION=134608]Hawkeye[/MENTION],

Trust me you will win at home..Yasir Shah will be the difference maker.

Please don't look too deep into these defeats.

Bhaijaan

Yes brother.

We'll do it with daleri and janbaazi this time!

 

[B_Positive]

make rank turners and play 2 spinners along with Iftikher, Abbas and Shaheen. In batting bring in Abid Ali in place of Imam. Rest all will play good at home.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Yes brother.

We'll do it with daleri and janbaazi this time!

Things will come.

Not playing in the comfort of the real home for a decade took its toll.

But when people have their heart in the right place things always fall in line.

 

[jiduguravindra]

make rank turners and play 2 spinners along with Iftikher, Abbas and Shaheen. In batting bring in Abid Ali in place of Imam. Rest all will play good at home.

If they make rank turners, SL will definitely win the series.sl has superior spin bowlers quality wise, better prepare light greenish pitch and back abbas, ssa to do the work.

 

[Pete Rose]

I think it’s gonna be great that we hope to win matches against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh so that captain and Managment don’t get fired. We’ll select a squad which will have no bearing on what is required to win I. England.

 

[Mesozoic]

Nah.
Sri Lanka's batting were demolished by the Aussies even though their bowling lineup wasn't as strong as this one.

Huge difference in facing Aussie bowlers in Australia and Pakistani bowlers in the subcontinent.

 

[Mercurial]

For that you have to drop Azhar, Asad and Shan. Stick with Haris. Bring Fawad back. Select batsmen having FC batting averages of above 40.

 

[Relic]

Huge difference in facing Aussie bowlers in Australia and Pakistani bowlers in the subcontinent.

So you think Pakistani bowlers in the Subcontinent are bad?
That's a lol thing to say

My point was that even Pakistan scored 300+ against these bowlers whereas Sri Lanka got bowled out for 150

 

[Mesozoic]

So you think Pakistani bowlers in the Subcontinent are bad?
That's a lol thing to say

No. Sri Lankan batsman are that good in the subcontinent.

 

[jnaveen1980]

If they make rank turners, SL will definitely win the series.sl has superior spin bowlers quality wise, better prepare light greenish pitch and back abbas, ssa to do the work.

What? Suranga made merry with Indian side, Australian side, SA on a slightly helpful pitch. Their seam attack should not be under-estimated.

 

[Hyperion66]

It will take an overwhelming effort from Pak to defeat SL even at home, SL is clearly a superior side and it shows in the ranking too.

 

[Shazzam]

We are not gonna win. Misbah needs three years to decide he can’t do this job.

 

[Hawkeye]

It will take an overwhelming effort from Pak to defeat SL even at home, SL is clearly a superior side and it shows in the ranking too.

Gonna be super tough indeed. This SL side is no joke.

I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

 

[Hyperion66]

Gonna be super tough indeed. This SL side is no joke.

I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

I am sure Misbah wouldn't repeat the blunders of Mickey, even then it will be tough.

 

[reversehook]

until and unless the players dont turn themselves into athletes, you will never see a change in fortunes, right now we just have players... the mindset, the lifestyle the culture all has to change for winning and staying atop...