Zimbabwe vs Pakistan | 2nd ODI | Bulawayo | July 16, 2018 | Pre-Match Thread

[hadi123]

Keep the same team. Can experiment later on in the series. Hopefully Zimbabwe provide us a bigger challenge as in the long term, these thrashing won't help us.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

I expect us to smash them again.

Only changes I'd make is Shadab and Faheem should be rested.Junaid and Yasir can be played instead.

 

[Syed1]

Play Junaid in place of Amir... I wish Shaheen was there so we could have rested Hasan as well.


Lack of new bats in the squad is also worrying we should have been using this series to try out some new bats.

 

[Itachi]

Probably one of the most useless series of all time.

 

[shaikhanasm]

Junaid for Amir
Yasir for Shadab
Haris in for Faheem/Malik

Fakhar
Imam
Babar
Haris
Sarfraz
Asif
Faheem or Malik (depends on wanting to strengthen batting or bowling)
Yasir
Hasan Ali
Usman
Junaid

Not playing Haris is criminal.

 

[saeed5646]

Probably one of the most useless series of all time.

Cannot blame pakistan cricket team and coach.it is pcb fault who have arrange pathetic future tour program .this is our only second odi series this year and next 2 month are vacant so this is last chance to get it right the combination for asia cup.

 

[Shutdown Corner]

Why on earth is this a 5 game series???

I don't think Zimbabwe will cross 150 in any game this series given their first string side rarely posts 200. Not sure what gains PAK can make from this series.

 

[Itachi]

Cannot blame pakistan cricket team and coach.it is pcb fault who have arrange pathetic future tour program .this is our only second odi series this year and next 2 month are vacant so this is last chance to get it right the combination for asia cup.

I will too blame the schedule. May be PCB not in a position to dictate the terms like bcci but the conditions are certainly not that worst where Pakistan has to play Zimbabwe for a 5 match odi series.

 

[aloo paratha]

I expect us to smash them again.

Only changes I'd make is Shadab and Faheem should be rested.Junaid and Yasir can be played instead.

Faheem has no reason to rest. Man needs to go out there and at least prove he can bat against Zimbabwe.

 

[Ahson8]

Please call up Shaheen man. What is the point of this series if you’re not gonna play youngsters ?

 

[ExplicitAI]

If Junaid does come in for Amir then I got a feeling he'll get more wickets than him in quick time.

 

[Asif321]

want to see Junaid playing in place of Amir

 

[Justcrazy]

yasir should be tried , along with Junaid and Harris.

 

[saeed5646]

I will too blame the schedule. May be PCB not in a position to dictate the terms like bcci but the conditions are certainly not that worst where Pakistan has to play Zimbabwe for a 5 match odi series.

Well something is better than nothing i bet pcb did not know zim will be in a such a crisis that there main player will pull out of series.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Faheem has no reason to rest. Man needs to go out there and at least prove he can bat against Zimbabwe.

He's been playing non stop for quite a while.Deserves a bit of a break.

 

[ads101]

I don't see Haris getting back his place now with Imam's performance. Can you really drop a guy who has 2 centuries, average of 70 at a SR over 82 and on top of that just 22 years old? It's difficult even if it's worry whether he can play quick or not. Not sure people would have campaigned to drop Haris if he'd performed like Imam regardless of hitting (which Haris doesn't do much either).

Think the side should be

1. Fakhar
2. Imam
3. Babar
4. Sarfraz
5. Malik
6. Asif
7. Faheem
8. Shadab
9. Hasan
10. Yasir
11. Shinwari

We should try out 2nd spinner I feel, see if we can possibly play 2 spinners like India are doing in England. Rest Amir, and let Shinwari and Faheem get practice. Won't necessarily tell us much, but we're going to have to make a decision on who takes the third bowling slot, so it makes sense shinwari, Fahim and Yasir all bowling so we can compare. And Fahim needs to bat up the order. In fact if we get to a good start, leave Sarfraz and Malik down the order and send up Asif and Fahim early, give them an opportunity.

 

[sam_ahm]

Zimbabwe should sort out their internal issues before playing cricket. They have no right to waste everyone's time like this.

ICC should look into these things, either ensure they field their full strength team (injuries aside ofcourse) or just suspend them until they sort out their issues.

 

[coy0607]

no change

I'd play the entire series with the same 11 - have no interest in watching any of the TTFs on the bench

 

[aloo paratha]

He's been playing non stop for quite a while.Deserves a bit of a break.

No he doesn't. We can't be giving him a free ride. He is yet to give one good batting performance.

 

[babajee]

No he doesn't. We can't be giving him a free ride. He is yet to give one good batting performance.

He has in tests.

 

[MenInG]

Pakistan Team practice session at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

Don't understand the scheduling at all.

No match over the weekend. How and Why?

 

[Sean143]

Harris in for Fakhar
Yasir in for Hasan
Junaid in for Amir

We have a problem for the opening slot so let Harris and Imam fight it out for the rest of the series.

 

[mak36]

Don't understand the scheduling at all.

No match over the weekend. How and Why?

Probably because of the WC final.

 

[mak36]

Shame Shaheen is not in the squad.

Would like Yasir to be given a go and see how he bowls with Shadab.

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

Probably because of the WC final.

There's a wimbeldon final scheduled too.

Timezones aren't the same even.

 

[DeadBall]

There's a wimbeldon final scheduled too.

Timezones aren't the same even.

Don't think Wimbledon final would have made a difference, definitely WC final. Although the match would have been over (or almost over) by the time it started.

 

[Markhor]

Win the toss and bat first again. Even if its weakened opposition, it'll be good for our batsmen to boost their confidence and set themselves targets. We should look to considerably reduce dot ball consumption and aim for 350 scores.

Sadly with Zimbabwe now missing 8 frontline players we are going to learn little from this series.

 

[idrizzy]

What was the point of selecting such a strong ODI squad? It's Zimbabwe. I get that you want a few guys to play some cricket but that what the T20s were for. One of the squads should've been a team full of reserves or at least more names of guys who deserve a chance/looking to the future.

An opportunity missed.

 

[mak36]

What was the point of selecting such a strong ODI squad? It's Zimbabwe. I get that you want a few guys to play some cricket but that what the T20s were for. One of the squads should've been a team full of reserves or at least more names of guys who deserve a chance/looking to the future.

An opportunity missed.

Last played ODIs in January- that's six months ago.

 

[idrizzy]

Last played ODIs in January- that's six months ago.

But the guys who played T20s shouldn't really be playing these ODIs since they got some practice in them. I mean this Zim team is much worse than our bench side.

 

[mak36]

But the guys who played T20s shouldn't really be playing these ODIs since they got some practice in them. I mean this Zim team is much worse than our bench side.

ODIs aren't the same T20s though. Just look at how Australia played the first few ODIs vs England. It looked like they had completely forgotten how to construct an innings across 50 overs.

Should there be squad rotation? Yes. Should they have included more fringe players in the squad? Yes. But that doesn't mean we rest the main team completely. We don't play enough cricket to justify that.

Also as another poster mentioned:

I think the team management are building a tempo for the Asia Cup and subsequent important series. As Mickey Arthur has learnt from the past, you give these players 6 weeks of rest, and they come back in such a bad shape that it takes them a month to get back in full flow

 

[Baigel]

Looks like Haris has enjoyed a few to many gallons of water

 

[idrizzy]

ODIs aren't the same T20s though. Just look at how Australia played the first few ODIs vs England. It looked like they had completely forgotten how to construct an innings across 50 overs.

Should there be squad rotation? Yes. Should they have included more fringe players in the squad? Yes. But that doesn't mean we rest the main team completely. We don't play enough cricket to justify that.

Also as another poster mentioned:

Fair enough. I would've played a better side if we vsed a better team, but because it's Zimbabwe it would have been a lot better if we played youth. Like I said, our B team would be more competitive for our Pak A side than this Zimbabwe.

 

[TeamPak95]

Man... 5 ODIs way too much.

 

[giri26]

Another whopping coming up for the hosts. This series is a mismatch.

 

[yasir]

Don't understand the scheduling at all.

No match over the weekend. How and Why?

Yeah, I don't get it, why this match was not scheduled a day earlier??