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Will Saud Shakeel, Abdullah Shafique and Tayyab Tahir get a chance to play in the ODI series against Afghanistan?

mominsaigol

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Let's be honest, we're all sick of Pakistan always going for the same 11, and with the Asia cup around the corner going in with a 17 man squad, it'll be unfair if one of these 3 gets dropped without even getting a game, especially if Mr chief selector decides to take faheem ashraf into the Asia cup.

I would personally rest fakhar and try Abdullah, rest chacha and try tayyab and rest usama and try saud.

5 bowlers are more then enough for Afghanistan batting lol.
 
The #4 spot needs to be sorted. Rizwan hasn’t made it his own. Should try saud and shafique there.

And if Rizwan isn’t at 4 probably better to play Haris at 6 or 7 in a finisher role.
 
Why would we do that ? Makes no sense.

The batters who will be playing AC, WC need more practice
 
Why would we do that ? Makes no sense.

The batters who will be playing AC, WC need more practice
Why even have them in the squad then? To be water boys? This Afghanistan series is perfect to test these guys out before we head to the Asia cup.
 
Sauf Shakeel or Abdullah Shafique should be permanent at number 4 in place of Salman Agha in the XI.
Our batting is not long enough and in matches Where we will loose Babar early we need one of these two.
 
For 2nd ODI I would like to see some of the following changes into the XI.

1. Rest Imam and open with Rizwan
2. Slot Saud/Tayyab at 4
3. Rest Shaheen play Mohd Wasim

Should we win the 2nd ODI too, we should then try the remaining players in the 3rd game.
 
Rizwan is going to bat at 4, not even an incompetent selection committee can remove him from that spot.

Players who have batted at 4 for Pakistan since 2020 -

Screenshot 2023-08-23 154240.png
We can't make big changes during a World Cup year. No other player has batted at 4 enough times for us to be flexible with that position.

I can't imagine throwing a newbie like Saud straight into the firing line by making him bat at 4 without any prior experience.
 
umm no.

Pakistan played very little odis for the past 2 years. They need to give more match practice to the main guys. They need to play their main guys that they will be playing in the world cup and asia cup.

Salman agha and Saud can rotate, but the rest need match practise. You start giving your bench practice than what about the main guys who lack one day games practice.

abdullah will most probably not even play the world cup. Tayyab Tahir can only be given a chance during a dead rubber game or in a game where they decide to play an extra batter.
 
Let's be honest, we're all sick of Pakistan always going for the same 11, and with the Asia cup around the corner going in with a 17 man squad, it'll be unfair if one of these 3 gets dropped without even getting a game, especially if Mr chief selector decides to take faheem ashraf into the Asia cup.

I would personally rest fakhar and try Abdullah, rest chacha and try tayyab and rest usama and try saud.

5 bowlers are more then enough for Afghanistan batting lol.
it wont be unfair, cause those guys are not the starting members but bench warmers. Even during the world cup those guys will be on the reserve list.

You cant rest fakhar because fakhar needs odi match practise. Iftikhar is coming back and will play the world cup. This team hasnt played much odis over the years so they will play as a group and correct their short comings.

Usama also needs one day practise. Saud can only come in if they want to rest agha.
 
umm no.

Pakistan played very little odis for the past 2 years. They need to give more match practice to the main guys. They need to play their main guys that they will be playing in the world cup and asia cup.

Salman agha and Saud can rotate, but the rest need match practise. You start giving your bench practice than what about the main guys who lack one day games practice.

abdullah will most probably not even play the world cup. Tayyab Tahir can only be given a chance during a dead rubber game or in a game where they decide to play an extra batbatter
You need a winning combo of 15 players. Not just 11, what if a player is unfit for one match?

You need a match winner to replace him. The whole bench strength should be tested and Afghanistan series is the perfect series to do so, as Asia cup and World Cup will require a winning combination to be played only.

If this was the Asia cup or World Cup I would agree with you. Don't rest fakhar but you need to make sure tayyab, Saud and Abdullah play. Otherwise just drop them if their not considered as important players that will win the world cup for you.
 
Have you heard about injuries?
So we wait for a player to get injured? And then suddenly expect them to compete on the big world cup stage?

This is not the Asia cup or the world cup, Afghanistan series is the perfect series to test our bench strength and decide on a winning combination.

Pakistan have sorted out their bowling and their top order.

We still need to sort out our middle order and we have 4 middle order batsmen in our squad that need to be tested. Abdullah, Haris, Saud and tayyab.

Only player that deserves to be a water boy is faheem ashraf
 
Abdullah should bat at 3 and Babar should bat at 4 - but I know that will never happen..
 
Abdullah should bat at 3 and Babar should bat at 4 - but I know that will never happen..
I disagree with babar at no 4. Imo after openers your best player should play at no 3, and the best player of spin should play at no 4.

I personally feel saud is our best player of spin considering his performance during the test series.

Babar isn't good against spin, however he does dominate fast bowling and hence no 3 is a good position for him.

Abdullah I want as our backup Opener and our future Opener once fakhar is gone since fakhar is in his 30's and Abdullah is only 23.
 
Not sure how is Abdullah considered a 4. Not sure how is he considered for Odis at all.

As much as I admire Saud's game vs spin in tests, I just don't feel he is cut out for Odis. He made a solid 50 vs England on debut but even in that innings you could see it's not his format. Wouldn't mind if he gets his fair chance to prove though.

Tahir isn't a great talent or anything but he can do a job for us and is actually suited to 4 position. So he will be my 1st pick for 4 position next game.
 
Not sure how is Abdullah considered a 4. Not sure how is he considered for Odis at all.

As much as I admire Saud's game vs spin in tests, I just don't feel he is cut out for Odis. He made a solid 50 vs England on debut but even in that innings you could see it's not his format. Wouldn't mind if he gets his fair chance to prove though.

Tahir isn't a great talent or anything but he can do a job for us and is actually suited to 4 position. So he will be my 1st pick for 4 position next game.
To be fair to saud, Pakistan was playing him lower down the order and he was constantly losing partners so he couldn't exactly accelerate.

Someone who can anchor the innings, score at a reasonable pace at no 4 and get you that 50 to 100 runs is more important.

Accumulators who can hit the occasional boundary are more needed in odi then power hitters. Pakistan isn't England who can afford to do that.

The only issue I see, is that saud can suffer from the same thing Imam suffers, and that's the fact that imam often gets out by over 40, or he simply bogs down the Innings due to lack of power hitting which is sorely needed in the last 10 overs.
 
I think we sometimes have short memories as fans. Pakistan constantly chopped and changed leading up to the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. We were still tinkering with the lineups midway through the tournaments ! And what was the end result ?

It's actually welcome there's now a core of 7-8 players that pick themselves.

I strongly disagree with the notion the results in the AFG series and Asia Cup are irrelevant. A team's W/L ratio between World Cups is a key indicator of success according to CricViz. People always talk up the miraculous nature of the 1992 win but often forget Pakistan's ODI team won tournament after tournament in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were in the habit of winning which breeds confidence you can comeback from any situation. And so it proved. In 2015 and 2019 we had terrible losing runs going into the event.

It's true however we've problems in our middle-order. It's not even a lack of options as Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Agha Salman and Abdullah Shafique (I don't think his current List A record is a proper reflection of his abilities) are all worthy contenders.

Management could've picked any one of those names for the 1st ODI with sound justification. I didn't oppose with the pick of Agha Salman whose ODI record is good so far - averaging 43 at 101 SR. My own view, and granted I haven't seen enough of him, is Tayyab Tahir should be next in line. We've heard much talk about The Pakistan Way, this aggressive brand of cricket. He fits that mould with a List A SR of 90 which is higher than Saud's 83.
 
I think we sometimes have short memories as fans. Pakistan constantly chopped and changed leading up to the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. We were still tinkering with the lineups midway through the tournaments ! And what was the end result ?

It's actually welcome there's now a core of 7-8 players that pick themselves.

I strongly disagree with the notion the results in the AFG series and Asia Cup are irrelevant. A team's W/L ratio between World Cups is a key indicator of success according to CricViz. People always talk up the miraculous nature of the 1992 win but often forget Pakistan's ODI team won tournament after tournament in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were in the habit of winning which breeds confidence you can comeback from any situation. And so it proved. In 2015 and 2019 we had terrible losing runs going into the event.

It's true however we've problems in our middle-order. It's not even a lack of options as Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Agha Salman and Abdullah Shafique (I don't think his current List A record is a proper reflection of his abilities) are all worthy contenders.

Management could've picked any one of those names for the 1st ODI with sound justification. I didn't oppose with the pick of Agha Salman whose ODI record is good so far - averaging 43 at 101 SR. My own view, and granted I haven't seen enough of him, is Tayyab Tahir should be next in line. We've heard much talk about The Pakistan Way, this aggressive brand of cricket. He fits that mould with a List A SR of 90 which is higher than Saud's 83.
Saud Shakeel has the ability to dominate the spinners and as we saw in previous games, most of our players got trapped by spinners.. So why not give a chance to a player who has already performed well against the spinners on the same soil.
 
Winning tempo is important. I would rest Rauf, Shaheen & Naseem in at least one of the next 2 ODIs

Somebody needs to make a call for the number 4 spot as Rizwan is not the man.
 
I think we sometimes have short memories as fans. Pakistan constantly chopped and changed leading up to the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. We were still tinkering with the lineups midway through the tournaments ! And what was the end result ?

It's actually welcome there's now a core of 7-8 players that pick themselves.

I strongly disagree with the notion the results in the AFG series and Asia Cup are irrelevant. A team's W/L ratio between World Cups is a key indicator of success according to CricViz. People always talk up the miraculous nature of the 1992 win but often forget Pakistan's ODI team won tournament after tournament in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were in the habit of winning which breeds confidence you can comeback from any situation. And so it proved. In 2015 and 2019 we had terrible losing runs going into the event.

It's true however we've problems in our middle-order. It's not even a lack of options as Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Agha Salman and Abdullah Shafique (I don't think his current List A record is a proper reflection of his abilities) are all worthy contenders.

Management could've picked any one of those names for the 1st ODI with sound justification. I didn't oppose with the pick of Agha Salman whose ODI record is good so far - averaging 43 at 101 SR. My own view, and granted I haven't seen enough of him, is Tayyab Tahir should be next in line. We've heard much talk about The Pakistan Way, this aggressive brand of cricket. He fits that mould with a List A SR of 90 which is higher than Saud's 83.
Saud isn't going for Asia cup, while tayyab is, saud is the most deserving to get his chance to prove what he can do. Saud is the ost deserving to be tried and tested.
 
I don’t understand why Rizwan batting at 4 is being treated (taking a line from the professor) like a sacred cow!

He has done nothing great at that position to evoke the “oooooh we must not change this” sentiment. Why can’t we just be play him like most keepers at no6 or 7. We need to stop this makeshift nonsense in our teams.

Across formats we have openers batting in the middle order, middle order batting as openers and now having someone like Rizwan who let’s face it is a no7, bat at the crucial position at no4.

The reality is Rizwan and Babar just want to pad stats and collect their sponsor bonuses for milestones. It is very difficult to hit an odi century from below no4, and that is the only reason Rizwan is throwing his toys out of his pram about not wanting to bat lower than 4.

Our whole team is based around these two selfish players’ milestones and our naive fans are lapping it up. Wake up people.
 
I don’t understand why Rizwan batting at 4 is being treated (taking a line from the professor) like a sacred cow!

He has done nothing great at that position to evoke the “oooooh we must not change this” sentiment. Why can’t we just be play him like most keepers at no6 or 7. We need to stop this makeshift nonsense in our teams.

Across formats we have openers batting in the middle order, middle order batting as openers and now having someone like Rizwan who let’s face it is a no7, bat at the crucial position at no4.

The reality is Rizwan and Babar just want to pad stats and collect their sponsor bonuses for milestones. It is very difficult to hit an odi century from below no4, and that is the only reason Rizwan is throwing his toys out of his pram about not wanting to bat lower than 4.

Our whole team is based around these two selfish players’ milestones and our naive fans are lapping it up. Wake up people.
While I agree with you on what you're saying about Rizwan. Rizwan is not a no 7. He can't hit willingly and he was horrible when he use to bat no 6 or 7 early in his career.

Boosting him to opening in t20 gave him a solid start. Based of the analysis in the New Zealand series, Rizwan performs best at no 5, where he scored 2 back to back 50's and went not out in both innings.

No 5 is his ideal position.
 
So we wait for a player to get injured? And then suddenly expect them to compete on the big world cup stage?

This is not the Asia cup or the world cup, Afghanistan series is the perfect series to test our bench strength and decide on a winning combination.

Pakistan have sorted out their bowling and their top order.

We still need to sort out our middle order and we have 4 middle order batsmen in our squad that need to be tested. Abdullah, Haris, Saud and tayyab.

Only player that deserves to be a water boy is faheem ashraf
They can be tested in the Asia cup and the last match.Only players who can be tested in the middle order is Saud or Tayyab.Haris lower order batter and Abdullah is better suited to opening.
 
Pakistan should now try a different combination and some of the bowlers need rest.

Imaam
Fakhar
Babar Azam
Tayyab Tahir
Rizwan
Agha Salman
Shadab
Usama Mir (needs to perform in the last game)
Wasim Jnr
Fahim Ashraf
Shaheen Afridi

Naseem Shah looked exhausted after bowling his last spell needs to be rested.

One of Tayyab Tahir or Saud should be picked and I will go with Tayyab

Not a fan of Fahim but I will give him an opportunity.
 
Pakistan should now try a different combination and some of the bowlers need rest.

Imaam
Fakhar
Babar Azam
Tayyab Tahir
Rizwan
Agha Salman
Shadab
Usama Mir (needs to perform in the last game)
Wasim Jnr
Fahim Ashraf
Shaheen Afridi

Naseem Shah looked exhausted after bowling his last spell needs to be rested.

One of Tayyab Tahir or Saud should be picked and I will go with Tayyab

Not a fan of Fahim but I will give him an opportunity.
Tayyab failed against Afghanistan due to spin. He's an amazing and attacking player of fast though.

Important player but saud is better.
 
Saud Shakeel was picked just for the Afghanistan series but he probably won’t get a game🤦🏻‍♂️

To all the posters saying that we’ve not played enough ODI’s so we shouldn’t drop the first choice xi, excluding Imam, our batsmen have been playing multiple leagues all over the world, that’s enough match practice for them to be ready for the WC, and if that’s not enough then they’ve also got the Asia Cup.

This was the perfect opportunity to rest the likes of Ifthikar, Rizwan, and Fakhar. We could’ve played Saud, Tayyab and Harris in their place.
 
Saud Shakeel was picked just for the Afghanistan series but he probably won’t get a game🤦🏻‍♂️

To all the posters saying that we’ve not played enough ODI’s so we shouldn’t drop the first choice xi, excluding Imam, our batsmen have been playing multiple leagues all over the world, that’s enough match practice for them to be ready for the WC, and if that’s not enough then they’ve also got the Asia Cup.

This was the perfect opportunity to rest the likes of Ifthikar, Rizwan, and Fakhar. We could’ve played Saud, Tayyab and Harris in their place.
i think they all will get a chance tomorrow.
 
i think they all will get a chance tomorrow.
Only because it’s a dead rubber, had we lost yesterday it would’ve been a different story.

if any of our first choice batsmen gets injured, we’re screwed. Our bench needs game time, they can’t go into a major tournament having only played a couple of ODI’s.
 
With the number One ODI ranking in sight, wonder if Pak management will have the guts to change a winning combination for the final game?
 
Tayyab failed against Afghanistan due to spin. He's an amazing and attacking player of fast though.

Important player but saud is better.
Tayyab is a spin basher. Average against pace. Afghanistan has the world's best white ball spin attack so it's not a surprise he failed against them In his debut series.
 
Tayyab is a spin basher. Average against pace. Afghanistan has the world's best white ball spin attack so it's not a surprise he failed against them In his debut series.
From what I've seen he isn't. Tayyab isn't bad at spin but he's not good either. However anytime pace was bowled to him in the Afghanistan series he would casually hit the boundary, his stroke play against fast is some of the most fluent I've ever spin.
 
I wonder why Pakistan is against cultivating new talent? And focusing on finalising a middle order when you got 4 middle order batsmen just bench warming for no reason.

When has not cultivating new talent ever worked? Sri lanka paid a huge price by having jaysuria, sangakara, dilshan, tharanga, mahela and Matthews occupy their spots for nearly 2 decades, never adjusting to change lol.
 
From what I've seen he isn't. Tayyab isn't bad at spin but he's not good either. However anytime pace was bowled to him in the Afghanistan series he would casually hit the boundary, his stroke play against fast is some of the most fluent I've ever spin.
In his hundred against India for the emerging side, he hit 12/4s and 4/6s, out of all them there was one 4 of a pacer. I wouldn't call that being strong against pace. He also gave a simple chance of the pacers when he was in the 50s.
He loves spin bowling
 
Honestly speaking, I'm not particularly impressed with Tayyab Tahir. When he bats, it often gives the feeling that he's about to be dismissed. His technique lacks solidity. In the middle order, Abdullah or Saud might perform better.
 
Tayyab failed against Afghanistan due to spin. He's an amazing and attacking player of fast though.

Important player but saud is better.
I was surprised how much he struggled against spin because hes good player of spin . Technically Saud is better but I like Tayyab he's got power so he can defend and attack.
 
Tayyab, Abdullah and Haris are the 3 players who haven't featured in any of the 3 ODIs against Afghanistan.
 
Tayyab, Abdullah and Haris are the 3 players who haven't featured in any of the 3 ODIs against Afghanistan.

Haris should have come in, in place of Rizwan today.
 
If Saud Shakeel is not in the Asia cup squad then what is he doing in the XI for the third ODI vs Afghanistan. M Haris should have been picked.
 
The thing is Pakistan should try Saud, tahir and haris, but unfortunately what they’ll do is try and give another opportunity for rizwan and babar to make more meaningless milestones.

This is what our team is all about nowadays. Nothing else matters.
 
Saud starts with a 4

Courtesy of @Ali T

9TF7y8j.jpg
 
Why is tayyab a travelling reserve now? I'm happy saud is now in, but what did tayyab do? He didn't even get a game when both saud, Abdullah and tayyab should have played all 3 games?

Chacha and faheem need to be travelling reserves. Its sad that our pakistani awaam thinks that chacha performing in 2 matches for NZ and faheem bowling the same line and length on a pitch which favoured him, even though after 30th over he got smacked, now suddenly deserve to be in the playing 11.

Worse their comparing chacha to Butler and faheem to James Anderson and Glenn mcgrath.

But consistent players like imam, shadab, Babar who get you 300 totals and wickets are selfish, overrated and must be dropped 😂.
 
Why is tayyab a travelling reserve now? I'm happy saud is now in, but what did tayyab do? He didn't even get a game when both saud, Abdullah and tayyab should have played all 3 games?

Chacha and faheem need to be travelling reserves. Its sad that our pakistani awaam thinks that chacha performing in 2 matches for NZ and faheem bowling the same line and length on a pitch which favoured him, even though after 30th over he got smacked, now suddenly deserve to be in the playing 11.

Worse their comparing chacha to Butler and faheem to James Anderson and Glenn mcgrath.

But consistent players like imam, shadab, Babar who get you 300 totals and wickets are selfish, overrated and must be dropped 😂.
I believe Iftikhar can definitely excel here. He has gained confidence at the right time, and he has demonstrated multiple times that he can influence the outcome of the game whenever needed.
 
Babar Azam tends to adopt a somewhat defensive approach when it comes to making changes in playing 11. He always seems hesitant to make any alterations and it's unclear why he isn't offering opportunities to Abdullah and Saud.
 
Babar Azam tends to adopt a somewhat defensive approach when it comes to making changes in playing 11. He always seems hesitant to make any alterations and it's unclear why he isn't offering opportunities to Abdullah and Saud.
To be comptely fair to babar, I somewhat understand his viewpoint.

Fakhar, Imam have been opening together since 2018, he doesn't want to change a formula that has worked for 5 years.

If fakhar is onsong both fakhar and imam compliment each other really well. They run well, Fakhar gradually accelerates all the way to 100+ strike rate and imam consistently goes in his merry way. So these boys ain't going anywhere.

Rizwan is better at batting and keeping then haris, and rizwan wants to play at no 4. Despite not making that position his own, the only place Abdullah and saud can really benefit is the Top 1 to 4 position and the top 4 is kind of settled.

Agha, ifti and nawaz give babar that extra bowling option so babar might be hesitant to replace.

Imo babar just needs 4 pacers + 2 spinners and that's it really. Rizwan is causing problems by not being flexible, and the mindset is probably the higher rizwan bats the better it is considering he's been good as a t20 Opener.
 
So will Saud find a place in Pakistan's World Cup squad?
 
The problem with Pakistan is they never try anyone (or give them ample opportunity when they do pick them) when they have a chance E.g Vs Afghanistan or the Nepal match.

Then when they are about to crash out of a tournament they finally make the call. Like bringing Haris in vs SA in the last World Cup. They were very lucky that Haris came off in that game and then the next couple of games including the semi final.

I.e they won’t try to change until it’s too late and then hope to fluke the trial and error in the middle of an ICC tournament.
 
The problem with Pakistan is they never try anyone (or give them ample opportunity when they do pick them) when they have a chance E.g Vs Afghanistan or the Nepal match.

Then when they are about to crash out of a tournament they finally make the call. Like bringing Haris in vs SA in the last World Cup. They were very lucky that Haris came off in that game and then the next couple of games including the semi final.

I.e they won’t try to change until it’s too late and then hope to fluke the trial and error in the middle of an ICC tournament.
I mean tbf, sarfraz did and changed alot. He immediately discarded Ahmed shehzad, gave abid Ali and fakhar opening slots amd was even trying to discard imam lol.

He instantly played babar at no 3, Babar was playing ar no 6 before sarfraz came into captaincy.

Amd everyone thinks sarfraz is selfish for shifting himself up and down the order, sometimes at no 4, other times even below hasan Ali, don't get how that's selfish, would you rather have rizwan no 4 tantrums?

Personally as a player I don't rate sarfraz that high, I think he's a decent bat that's all, but his psl victory followed by CT victory wasn't a fluke. He led the team well.

Even in 2019, besides that freak West indies defeat, we would have made the SF otherwise because we literally beat NZ and England lol.

Thing about sarfraz's captaincy was that he was quick to try players and he never stuck by a formula. He kept switching bowlers up. Just watch his warm up game in 2019 and compare babar's warm up game today.

Babar is still doing this stupid bowl by the formula book, Usama literally got 2 wickets, so the ideal scenario would be to bowl nawaz and shadab or chacha, yes their all trash bowlers but atleast the spin strategy seems to be working. What does babar do?

He bowls waseem again because it's time for waseem to bowl in his blueprint formula head 😂😂.

Misbah was nepotistic, clearly favouring his buddies but he was one heck of captain in terms of restricting teams to chase totals due to his excellent field setting, game awareness and bowler rotation.

Sarfraz was the best of both worlds by switching things up at every corner. Imad waseem would be a perfect candidate to lead following sarfi.

Babar is somehow even worse then misbah ong, Nepotistic but unlike misbah he's also clueless.
 
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