Pakistan announce 16-man squad for first Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi

Kroll · Feb 3, 2020

angrypathan said:
Because the new spinner might actually succeed

) Indeed, we don't want to upset the applecart now do we.

King_Kohli · Feb 3, 2020

who is backup wicket keeper?

King_Kohli · Feb 3, 2020

Abbas has no pace at all.
He became a medium pacer, they should pick young pacer rather than Abbas

Kaddy · Feb 3, 2020

This squad was pretty much expected from Misbah but atleast some of the selections could have been better.
First one is Imam-ul-haq, who i think is not ready for test cricket yet because for a test opener, his defence is still weak. Although he played a good innings on his debut against Ireland where he along with Babar saved Pakistan from embarrassment but since then his performances in test matches have been very ordinary. I think he needs to play two more sessions of domestic cricket. For now Sami Aslam deserves to be the third opener.
Second one is Imran khan Senior, his recent performances in domestic and against Australia have been very poor plus the guy will be officially 33 in six months so he has no long term future. Usman Shinwari, who is better and younger, should be given more chances.
Another issue is Faheem Ashraf who is selected as an all-rounder but his batting is almost non-existent. I don't know why he doesn't work hard and focus on his batting. The way Mickey Arthur backed him, he should have become a very good all-rounder by now but he is still a club level batsman.

Selection of Bilal Asif is debatable but the fact is we need an off spinner and for that he and Sajid khan were the only choices. Being a senior he got the chance though Sajid looked more impressive and i hope he will for Pakistan in near future.

Rest of the players, as mentioned before were expected and it's obvious that Misbah doesn't want to take any risk because if Pakistan losses against Bangladesh, there will be a serious backlash from the fans and especially from some media channels, which are already against him since he has dropped Sarfraz Ahmed.

cricketAXEpert · Feb 3, 2020

shah_1 said:
Faheem is playing at 7. Didn't you see team 1 line up in the practise match?

Faheem will only play as the 4th pacer, in case Misbah decides on a 4 pronged pace attack. In that case he will play as an allrounder. It is unlikely Misbah will go for 4 man pace attack (but did go for it in Pindi. Vs srilanka)

The only other scenario is 2 spinner + 2 pacers with a fifth bowling Allrounder (Faheem Ashraf)