Considering the disastrous batting performance by the Pakistani batters, and especially the seniors like Azhar, Shafiq and Sarfraz himself, it is probably time to try new things. We as fans are now tired of seeing these collapses again and again, we need some balance in the middle and the captain also has to show some maturity in his batting.
Is captaining, keeping and batting a huge task? if so, why not trying rizwan as your keeper and let sarfraz bat in the top 5 without the pressure of keeping, and let him just concentrate on his batting and captaincy only.
Rizwan had some good success recently especially with the A team and surely it is worthy trying him against a good opposition. He has been rated very highly for a long time now, it is time to give him good exposure.
Just to talk about this series, I would also like if the management and captains show some guts to drop Shafiq. He has been in the team for a very long time, but hasn't been able to won us many matches. Surely You do not expect this from your "Technically most sound batsman" in the team.
Azhar also has been up and down from the past one year, and only few innings saved his average this year, otherwise he has failed miserably. I think it is really time to take some tough decisions and make these guys understand that their place is not permanent.
Youngsters like Imam (who has been criticised a lot), babar and Shan have given us some home, and they have to be backed, there will be failures but we have to back them. We have backed people like Asad Shafiq who has increased his average only in one or two years, why not these guys?
In the next match, my ideal XI would be: Shan, Imam, Haris, Babar, Sarfraz (wk), Rizwan, Faheem, Amir, Yasir, Abbas, Shaheen.
Knowing that the management will never compromise on sarfraz the keeper, I kept him as the keeper.
On the long run, we should probably forget about fawad alam now, and invest in young people performing in domestic. Fawad had a really unlucky career and surely deserved better, but it is now time to not create more Fawad Alams in domestic. Usman Salahuddin has been dropped after one match only, and one between Saad Ali or Saud Shakeel.
This below would be my ideal 15 men squad:
Shan, Imam, Haris, Babar, Sarfraz, Rizwan, Faheem, Amir, Yasir, Abbas, Shaheen, Usman Salahuddin, Saad Ali/Saud Shakeel, Kashif Bhatti, Sadaf Hussain.
If Azhar, doesn't perform in this series he must be dropped, we have given too many chances. It is now time to give value to the domestic performers and youngsters.
