What would your strategy be for the remaining 3 ODIs vs England?

[TalhaSyed]

For me this would be my approach:

- Give Fakhar 1 more game, Imam 2 more games & Abid all 3 games. At the end of the series chose either Imam or Abid to stay in England for the World Cup and drop the other player

- Give Babar rest and rotate the number 3 and 4 slot between Hafeez, Malik and Harris. Before the WC starts you should be absolutely sure in your mind who your 1st, 2nd and 3rd option is out of these 3 batsmen. I would give all 3 of them 2 games each.

- Make sure Asif and Faheem play all 3 games. At the end of the series chose one of them to stay in England for the World Cup and drop the other player

- Make sure Amir plays all 3 remaining games and is firing on all cylinders before the WC

- Rotate the other 4 pacers (Shaheen, Hasnain, Hasan & Junaid) giving them all match practice. Even entertain the option of dropping Yasir from a game or 2 since if Shadab gets fit inshallah, Yasir will not play the WC so you may as well give your other bowlers match practice, whilst Imad, Harris, Malik & Hafeez can fulfil the spin bowling requirements

In the end your WC squad will be:.

Abid or Imam
Fakhar
Babar
Hafeez
Harris
Malik
Sarfraz
Asif or Faheem
Imad
Shadab
Amir
Hassan
Shaheen
Junaid
Hasnain

That gives you 2 possible team combinations for the WC:

Option 1

Babar
Fakhar
Malik
Haris/Hafeez
Sarfraz
Asif
Imad
Shadab
Hassan
Amir/Junaid
Shaheen/Hasnain

With Abid or Imam on the bench incase required

Option 2

Abid or Imam
Fakhar
Babar
Haris/Malik/Hafeez
Sarfraz
Asif
Imad
Shadab
Hassan
Amir/Junaid
Shaheen/Hasnain

What would your approach be for the remaining 3 ODIs?

 

[Stewie]

Try Hasnain, amir and junaid and Get Hafeez and Haris and malik to bowl
So we can assess if they can be used i the World Cup. Improve death bowling.

In terms of battting.. don’t think anything More can be done .. it will always be up n down.

 

[TalhaSyed]

Apologies I just realised that in the team options posted within the OP I kind of assumed that Asif would outperform Faheem & the latter would end up getting dropped #UnconsciousBias

 

[Zhasan]

Imam-ul-Haq has to be dropped for Abid Ali and Haris has to make way for Hafeez. Faheem has to go in place of any Pakistan pacer with a heart beat.

 

[mon858]

People are deluded to think that imam il haq will be dropped from playing x1 let alone dropped from the 15. As much as I would like to see him dropped. Open with Babar and Haris at 3 Hafeez at 4, I know they won't do it unless maybe he has 3 consecutive major failures.

We should drop Yaser for rest of games. No way he can get into world cup 15. It has to be shadab when recovered or we have to play 4 Pacers or 3 Pacers and use 2 to 3 part timers for 5th bowler which worst case can go for 9 an over just like Yaser but at least will be proper batsmen.

After todays game Asif will likely be added to the 15, most likely at expense of Abid and not Imam, but then we are risking no backup keeper if sarfaraz had minor injury which meant resting him for 1 or 2 games vs replacing him in squad with new keeper for rest of world cup. One would have to take that chance as no way I see our selectors dropping Malik for Asif though that would be my preferred option.

What I expect them to do is continue playing Asif, give some game time to Malik and Hafeez, game time to Amir, Junaid and Hasnain, and resting Faheem, Hasan, Shaheen and Yaser mostly. Abid Ali wont get a game unless Sarfraz has a niggle or Imam has some injury. Or just maybe if Imam had 4 bad games they may play Abid Ali in last game.

 

[FastBowlingAllrounder]

Imam is unlikely to go so will probably play all WC matches.

Just rotate him for Abid in the next few matches to try Abid too.

Give Amir a chance in all games to decide he will play, all management is saying he can go to WC but he hasn't played a single game. Need to give both Asif and Faheem two games each to decide who will play WC and who will go home. Play Yasir in all games so everyone can see he needs to be dropped.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

It may be "unfamiliar territory" but PAK bowling attack needs to bowl restrictively if given similar wickets. Don't allow English batsmen pace to work with and force them to generate power and reach out for their shots. The batting is doing as well as it possibly could. 373 + has been chased down very few times in ODI history . Also Pakistan need to bold and bat first on such flat wickets.

 

[samiakh]

We need pace with the new ball. Give it to Hasan or bring in Shinwari!!! Also learn how to bowl wide yorkers at the death.

 

[Energy]

Batting is locked. There is little point in playing Abid when you need Fakhar and Imam to have maximum exposure.

Same goes for Haris - if he is not part of the playing XI when Hafeez is back then he needs to be dropped and Hafeez needs to come in. They will still play Asif over Malik until Asif fails in these couple of games, which he will.

For the bowling it should be straightforward. Imad and three pacers. Amir, Shaheen and Hasan. Junaid and Hasnain can play the final couple of games but Amir needs to play all three matches now.

 

[Hitman]

Anyone with a proper working brain would not select Yasir Shah further in ODI cricket.

 

[Hitman]

And what's up with this policy among so many fans of bowling first after winning the toss? I don't get it. Be brave, bat first after you win the toss. Imagine if Pakistan put up that score yesterday while batting first after winning the toss. Don't be afraid of your not so great batting line up. Trust them and make them responsible for putting up a good total batting first. I'm sure they can.

 

[nitrous]

Pak should win the toss and bat first.

They should bat as if they are chasing 320-340 when they bat first.

This mean they have to play aggressive from the start.

But then knowing their meek mentality, they will be happy to get 275-290.