What will Pakistan's batting lineup be for the first World Cup match against West Indies?

[Hasan123]

So we have heard in recent days that Sarfraz will bat at 5, whilst Hafeez will bat at 4. Seems unlikely Haris will start the WC, as he isn’t a number 5 batter.

We already know the top 3 will be


Imam/Abid
Fakhar
Babar


The question is now who will bat at 6, it seems to me to a shootout between Asif Ali and Malik. 7 and 8 is between Faheem, Imad, and Shadab when he returns. There is no point in crying about who should have been selected or what the team should be with the players we have. Pakistan have an idea, so let’s debate what they should do with the remaining places.

Who would you bat at 6,7,and 8 for the 1st game against West Indies?

Discuss [MENTION=133760]Abdullah719[/MENTION] [MENTION=147314]topspin[/MENTION] [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION]

 

[Abdullah719]

Sarfaraz in his presser today said Malik will be at 6.

 

[Hasan123]

Sarfaraz in his presser today said Malik will be at 6.

So it’s between Faheem , Shadab, and Imad for 7 and 8?

Is Asif Ali even going to get a chance against England LOL?

 

[Khan12]

So it’s between Faheem , Shadab, and Imad for 7 and 8?

Is Asif Ali even going to get a chance against England LOL?

Asif Ali would Malik will get injured after the 3rd odi somehow. So our best batsmen against Australia will be sitting on the bench.

 

[Hasan123]

Asif Ali would Malik will get injured after the 3rd odi somehow. So our best batsmen against Australia will be sitting on the bench.

Malik may do better at 6 in English conditions but he is in awful form and should not have been in the squad at all.

 

[amvbfm]

Hafeez is just not good enough for 4. Ideally Haris should be 4 and Hafeez at 6. Sarfaraz should float depending on the situation. But we all know that's not happening. It will be the usual Hafeez, Sarfaraz and Malik middle order.

 

[NauV]

Imam
Fakhar
Babar
Haris
Sarfaraz/Hafeez
Sarfaraz/Hafeez
Imad
Shadab (If fit) - if not, we're in trouble . . cuz there's no one else who can bowl and bat if needed . .

 

[barah_admi]

Imam
Fakhar
Babar
Hafeez
Malik
Sarfraz

This is what the top six will look like.

 

[Ronaldo7]

Imam
Fakhar
Babar
Hafeez
Sarfaraz
Malik

 

[hadi123]

Depends on who performs good vs Eng

 

[PakSarZameen]

Terrible decision to play Malik at 6, I would rather have Hafeez at 6 and Malik at 4.

Hafeez is excellent hitting out and we saw Malik scoring 77 against England at number 4.

 

[Seamer]

1. Fakhar
2. Imam
3. Babar
4. Hafeez
5. Sarfaraz
6. Malik
7. Imad Wasim
8. Faheem Ashraf
9. Hassan Ali
10. Shaheen Afridi
11. Hasnain

 

[aloo paratha]

A lot is dependent on how players do vs England.

 

[topspin]

So we have heard in recent days that Sarfraz will bat at 5, whilst Hafeez will bat at 4. Seems unlikely Haris will start the WC, as he isn’t a number 5 batter.

We already know the top 3 will be

Imam/Abid
Fakhar
Babar


The question is now who will bat at 6, it seems to me to a shootout between Asif Ali and Malik. 7 and 8 is between Faheem, Imad, and Shadab when he returns. There is no point in crying about who should have been selected or what the team should be with the players we have. Pakistan have an idea, so let’s debate what they should do with the remaining places.

Who would you bat at 6,7,and 8 for the 1st game against West Indies?

Discuss [MENTION=133760]Abdullah719[/MENTION] [MENTION=147314]topspin[/MENTION] [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION]

It seems the top 6 has already been decided and the options selected between 4 and 6 couldn’t possibly be any worse with over the hill seniors galore! Malik and Sarfraz shouldn’t be anywhere near the squad, let alone make the first XI, but unfortunately no matter how badly the latter behaves on the field and performs with fitness + with the bat, he continues to remain untouchable, courtesy of an incompetent cricket board.

I would have have had Haris at 4, Hafeez at 5, followed by Imad and Asif to occupy 6 or 7 in accordance the match situation. Sarfraz’s batting is seriously toothless and shouldn’t bat any higher than 8.

We can get 20 overs of spin from Imad, Haris and Hafeez, so need for any other spinners. I say that because Shadab’s bowling isn’t good enough to play the specialist spinner role and whilst Faheem has been economical, he doesn’t have the penetration to take wickets against decent batsmen. Not to forget his batting is woeful to say the least. Against the better sides, I think his bowling will get carted around as well in my view. To date he has enjoyed his fair share of bashing lower sides with the ball.

If this WC was a few years ago I would play Shoaib Malik over Asif Ali against India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan because of the spin potency in their bowling attacks, however he doesn’t crush spinners the way he used too. This was all too apparent during the recent ODI series in SA because he’s well and truly past his sell by date.

 

[GreenKhan]

I think a lot is dependant on the England series . They can start with Hafeez at 4, and Malik at 6 and get there fixation with “ the seniors “ over before the first match against West Indies .

I’m pretty sure these two are not going to become world beaters in those games. Malik will probably average about 20 and get dropped . He also got dropped in the 2016 series against England until he came back in the last match . Hafeez might still do ok, but he really needs to be batting at 6.

There is also Asif Ali. He might do well on these surfaces and he plays a blistering knock or two then we never know .

I do believe

Fakhar
Imam
Babar
Harris
Sarfaraz

Will be our top 5 come 31st May . Unless Hafeez and Malik perform in the England series like they have never done before in there 20 year careers.

 

[Markhor]

I cannot fathom this latest brainwave from the team management.

Playing Sarfraz at 5 is not an issue, he averages 53 there and I've called for him to stick to that position instead of floating all over the place.

But we've already TRIED Shoaib Malik at 6 on our last England ODI tour in 2016 and he bombed. He doesn't have the powergame against pace for the role. Hafeez is still a clean striker of the ball and would do a better job there.

 

[Taaya]

How is Haris Sohail omitted from the lineup? This is shocking and catastrophic in my eyes, I'm not sure why its not provoking a bigger reaction on here. He is our 2nd best batsman after Babar. Simply shocking.

 

[gazza619]

How is Haris Sohail omitted from the lineup? This is shocking and catastrophic in my eyes, I'm not sure why its not provoking a bigger reaction on here. He is our 2nd best batsman after Babar. Simply shocking.

Totally with you on that one. Haris should be in the 11

 

[bilawal666]

1. Imam
2. Fakhar
3. Babar
4. Haris
5. Sarfraz
6. Malik
7. Faheem
8. Imad
9. Shadab
10. Hasan
11. Shaheen

 

[saeedhk]

1. Imam
2. Fakhar
3. Babar
4. Haris
5. Sarfraz
6. Malik
7. Faheem
8. Imad
9. Shadab
10. Hasan
11. Shaheen

Useless Faheem shouldn’t be in the team. Hafeez is ten times better than this guy.

 

[Sunny_majoka]

Terrible decision to play Malik at 6, I would rather have Hafeez at 6 and Malik at 4.

Hafeez is excellent hitting out and we saw Malik scoring 77 against England at number 4.

Hafeez don't want to play at 6. And Malik isn't good enough to play at 4. So ideally both should be kicked out from the squad and Harris at 4 and Asif at 6

 

[Mueez]

How about Asif Ali at number four?

Worth a try in the England series...

 

[Ami]

Dont think it matters what we think...if everything goes to plan against Eng in 5 match series...we gonna start up like this against W Indies...

Fakhar
Imam
Babar
Hafeez
Sarfaraz
Malik
Imad
Faheem
Shadab
Hassan
Afridi

 

[Maliq_Mudasir]

Fakhar
Imam
Babar
Hafeez
Sarfraz
Malik
Asif Ali
Imad
Hasan
Amir
Shaheen

 

[Sunny_majoka]

Dont think it matters what we think...if everything goes to plan against Eng in 5 match series...we gonna start up like this against W Indies...

Fakhar
Imam
Babar
Hafeez
Sarfaraz
Malik
Imad
Faheem
Shadab
Hassan
Afridi

this

 

[Shafi]

Unless Shadab recovers Yasir will play in the World Cup and WI batsmen will murder him. Our batting has too many weakness and bowling is also average. Most likely an easy win for WI.

 

[amvbfm]

Dont think it matters what we think...if everything goes to plan against Eng in 5 match series...we gonna start up like this against W Indies...

Fakhar
Imam
Babar
Hafeez
Sarfaraz
Malik
Imad
Faheem
Shadab
Hassan
Afridi

Highly likely but a sure recipe for disaster. We can only afford to play one of Malik or Hafeez and only one from Imad and Faheem.

Playing this team weakens both the batting and the bowling. Faheem and Imad are simply not good enough to be selected on the basis of only their batting or bowling so we can only play one of them at a time.

The ideal solution would be to replace Malik with Haris and one of Imad/Faheem with a specialist seamer. Personally i would replace Faheem (despite the fact that Imad is less effective as a bowler) as Imad seems to be the only powerhitter (relatively speaking) we have at the moment and that is more important than what Faheem brings to the table.

 

[fuzail]

How is Haris Sohail omitted from the lineup? This is shocking and catastrophic in my eyes, I'm not sure why its not provoking a bigger reaction on here. He is our 2nd best batsman after Babar. Simply shocking.

Only because of parchis like hafeez and malik

 

[Ilustcricket]

1. Fakhar
2. Imam
3. Babar
4. Hafeez
5. Sarfaraz
6. Malik
7. Imad Wasim
8. Faheem Ashraf
9. Hassan Ali
10. Shaheen Afridi
11. Hasnain

Pretty much this team will play except instead of Hasnain I think Amir will play as they want to test him. They may even play Hasnain and Amir both and leave Hassan out as he is already a given starter.

If it was up to me I would play:

1) Fakhar
2) Babar
3) Haris
4) Sarfaraz
5) Malik
6) Hafeez (finisher)
7) Imad
8) Faheem
9) Amir
10) Shaheen
11) Hasnain

I would rest Hassan Ali and test who will be the better bowler between Hasnain and Amir for the WC.