Fawad Alam in preliminary test squad

Well, it is good to hear that Fawad Alam is being included in the test squad. I hope this translates into a selection. Fawad has played well domestically for the past few years with limited international opportunities. He has also shown a penchant for batting higher up in the order, and with the absence of Mohammad Yousuf, that is an area where help could be needed. It may be worthwhile giving him a try at the 2 or 3 down positions. one wonders if he has been unable to reach his potential as we have been consistently batting him at #7 to 9. Good luck Fawad.

Pakistan's first Twenty20 foray in Kenya

Oops! I made a mistake. Pakistan's first Twenty20 match was against South Africa in February, which they lost by ten wickets. My apologies.

Intriguing times in the world of Twenty20 cricket for Pakistan. After never having played international Twenty20 cricket, Pakistan entered a "Quadrangular" in Kenya, where they were able to lose their Twenty20 virginity, and for the first time assess Shoaib Malik as captain of Pakistan.

Pakistan's performance was pretty good, even though the opposition was Kenya, Bangladesh and Uganda. As expected, Bangladesh was the only team that gave them strenuous opposition, yet they were able to pull through with a fairly definitive victory in that match.

I have not been able to find any video coverage of the match on the net so far, but I will keep looking. From the Cricinfo bulletins, along with the statistics available, it looks like Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan acquitted themselves fairly well with the bat, while the spinners did fairly well with the ball. As expected, the pacers came in for a reasonable amount of stick, with Akhtar and Asif being walloped around somewhat. What is even more interesting, is that Younis Khan took 3 wickets against Uganda when he bowled. A budding Sachin?

My favourite prospect Fawad Alam, however, didn't really get a lot of chances, and only seemed to acquit himself with the ball, giving away 15 runs in his four overs in the match against Kenya. I wish he was given more opportunities, but it looks like they want to try Yasir Arafat in the all-rounder position, with Shahid Afridi already in the squad. Lets hope Fawad Alam gets a shot in the upcoming cup.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Yousuf and Razzaq Dropped

Well, what was suspected has indeed come to pass. The PCB announced the selected squad for the upcoming Twenty20 Cup in South Africa, and as reported in various papers both Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq were indeed dropped. If dropping Abdul Razzaq means that Fawad Alam is to be given a try, along with Yasir Arafat then that is not necessarily a bad thing. It may also provide Abdul Razzaq the impetus to approach his cricket with more hunger and desire than he has shown in the past few years.

What is surprising, and what I earlier called lunacy, is the dropping of Yousuf. Kamran Abbasi on Cricinfo says: "His batting powers more than compensate for any fielding shortcomings. I'm baffled, he's shocked, and the selectors already sound confused." Osman Samiuddin likened the whole fiasco to logic having gone for a six. He makes a very valid claim that even the PCB has no clue why they have done what they did. Their claim that they did it to try out new blood falls apart, when they selected a 33 year old, someone who is 2 years older than Yousuf, as his replacement. Their claim falls apart when Yousuf is truly the greatest batsman in Pakistan today.

Omar Haq, on the other hand, makes a valid point that Misbah-ul-Haq has been scoring in Twenty20 at over 50, and given his experience in multiple Twenty20 games in the domestic circuit, it is the perfect venue to let him try to resurrect his international career. As happy as I am to have OH back in the blogging world, I must say I do disagree with him here. I definitely agree with KA that any shortcomings on Yousuf's part can be addressed by his batting prowess. This is yet another shenanigan by Nasim Ashraf and his cronies. I truly had higher hopes from this selection committee.

Fawad Alam: Can't Fear Failure!

Well, it wasn't a debut to remember. He didn't bowl, got a run-out in, and went out for a first ball duck. And it doesn't even seem he did anything worth taking a picture of! But oh well, there will be more opportunities, as long as the fickle world of Pakistani selectors doesn't set in.

Update: OH comments on the issue. I think I owe him thanks for not trying to rub it in ;)

Fawad Alam to make ODI debut

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it is going to happen today. Fawad Alam will begin his international career by being given a start in the final ODI in Abu Dhabi. Hopefully he will be brought in for Abdul Razzaq, otherwise OH is going to be really upset!

Fawad Alam! Welcome to the Squad!

Its been about a week since the news broke, but I couldn't resist saying I told you so, specially after Omar, all but ordered that I write a post about Fawad Alam's selection to the upcoming series with Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi.

For my previous posts, click on the link. In short, Fawad Alam is an off-spinning, opening all-rounder who has done exceedingly well in all forms of cricket he has participated in over the last few years. U-17, U-19 and even on the domestic circuit. Given his electrifying performances over the past year, and in the Twenty20 Cup recently held domestically, it was high team he was given a shot. I hope that his selection won't be cosmetic only, but will result in him being given a start on the squad.

I can see Omar's consternation at the selection of an umpteen number of all-rounders to the squad, but I hope that Fawad Alam is given a shot as an opener, more along the line of a Chris Gayle who bats high in the order, and bowls as a spinner. I would perhaps liken Fawad Alam more to Shoaib Malik than to Abdul Razzaq, as they appear to be almost the identical player. Good fielder, off-spinning batsmen with an unlimited future. Lets see how things work out. For now, all congrats to Fawad Alam!

Fawad Alam moving on up

This space has been a fan of Fawad Alam for some time now. It appears that he is starting to get his chances at the international level. Along with a whole slew of players from the winning U-19 team just a year ago, it appears that Fawad Alam is being given a chance, being named captain of the Academy squad about to tour Bangladesh. Best of luck to him and the rest of the boys.

PS No new pictures of Fawad Alam in action to add here.

Fawad Alam continues to impress

Young Fawad Alam continues to impress in first class domestic cricket in Pakistan. In a superlative performance in the National One-Day championship, not only did he take 5-53 against a strong Rawalpindi team, he also then went on to score 127 off 88 balls. Why this kid is not in the national squad, I just don't know.

Technorati Tags: pakistan, cricket, fawad alam

Who is Fawad Alam?

A fellow blogger asked me who this Fawad Alam (detailed stats on PCB) is, who I have been harping about.

In a previous post, about 6 weeks ago, I had posted a link to an article in The News which summarized and biographized the young cricketer from Karachi. Here is the link again, along with a video I found on YouTube about the young cricketer. He was truly the star of the Twenty20 Cup, and just on the basis of that, it should have been good enough to give him a go for the West Indies ODIs or South African ODIs.

No shock and awe, only implosion!

When Pakistan announced their ODI squad for South Africa, most of us were quiet surprised, and perhaps even hopeful. Kamran Abbasi, writing in his blog on CricInfo, thought that this strategy of bringing in Abdul Razzaq, Imran Nazir and Shahid Afridi would pay dividends, by giving the Pakistani batting attack a form of "shock and awe". Well, after the only Twenty20 match against South Africa, I think there was more implosion rather than shock and awe for the Pakistani squad, losing the match by ten wickets. Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Hafeez were the only batsmen that even looked like they were even close to settling in, reaching the 20s, and what about the shock and awe squad?

Abdul Razzaq: 10, Shahid Afridi 7, Imran Nazir: 5. Definitely seems more like implosion folks. Shahid Afridi in this situation, as much of a fan of his I am, needs to be on a short leash. If he does not come good in the next one or two ODIs, I think he should be sent back to Pakistan, and that is definitely when Fawad Alam needs a call up. I hate to sound like a broken record, but that kid looks special to me. Hopefully Pakistan do better in the ODIs than they did in the Twenty20 match.

Is this the squad?

Five changes to the Test squad. Danish Kaneria, Shahid Nazir, Faisal Iqbal and Asim Kamal are definitely coming back, while it appears that patience has run out with Imran Farhat as well, or as according to this report, Kamran Akmal might be coming back from South Africa. Wasim Bari has brought back Abdul Razzaq, Shabbir Ahmed and Abdur Rehman as expected, but the recall of Shahid Afridi is a positive step and hopefully it will pay dividends. What I find intriguing, is the selection of Imran Nazir to the squad.

For the last four months, Pakistan has been remarkably patient with the opening combination of Imran Farhat and Mohammad Hafeez, albeit with limited success in South Africa. Given this situation, one would have thought that there might be thought to either returning to Salman Butt, who has been performing well in domestic cricket, or perhaps going a different route altogether. Imran Nazir has been burning up domestic cricket for the past few seasons, scoring at around 45 a click, and I have no beef with him. It would have been interesting to see Fawad Alam being given a shot, specially given his performances this past while. Well, I hope Imran Nazir does well, we need a young batsman to finally come through.

Probable XI (or Ahmer's XI!): Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Nazir or Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Rana Naved, Mohammad Asif, Abdur Rehman

Technorati Tags: pakistan, cricket, imran nazir, fawad alam, shahid afridi, salman butt

Shabbir and Razzaq heading to South Africa?

With Shoaib Akhtar heading back, and Umar Gul and Shoaib Malik still injured, it appears that Abdul Razzaq and Shabbir Ahmed have been asked to be prepared to head to South Africa if the team so decides. Could be welcome help for the team in the third test, but they should really think about giving Fawad Alam a go here, whose performances in first class cricket keep going from strength to strength.

PCB's strange selection policies

The PCB is up to its shenanigans again. As they named their World Cup preliminary squad, so few of their selections actually make much sense.

Inzamam, Younis, Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq are all certainties to go, bar injury. Thats 9 out of the 14 positions, with 5 remaining to be picked from 21. Hafeez is probably certain to also go, with Imran Farhat or Salman Butt to also tag along for batting cover. That still leaves Shahid Afridi, Faisal Iqbal and Yasir Hameed as batsmen who could go, along with Mohammad Sami, Rana Naved and Abdul Rehman being left to fight for the extra bowling spots. Given this situation, would it have killed the PCB to atleast name someone like Fawad Alam or Shahid Yousuf to the preliminary squad? They have performed so well in domestic cricket, and have displayed consistency and maturity. Why still cling to naming people like Imran Nazir, Bazid Khan, Misbah ul Haq and Hasan Raza, when everyone knows that they have as much chance of being selected to the team, with all being fit and well, as me. Strangeness never ends.

Technorati Tags: pakistan cricket board, pakistan, cricket, selectors, world cup, fawad alam

More props for Fawad Alam

A day after I wondered why Imran Nazir had been called for the training camp, while Fawad Alam had been left out, The News does a special on the young player and highlights his many achievements over the past few years. Someone explain to me why this kid doesn't deserve a call-up.

Technorati Tags: pakistan, cricket, pakistan cricket board, fawad alam

Inconsistent Selection again by the PCB

Interesting to see. One definitely would have thought that if this idea worked, wouldn't the geniuses at the PCB and Bob Woolmer would have thought of this during the English or the Australian tours in the past few years. But whatever gives them the mental edge I guess.

The upside down, inconsistent selection policies of the PCB continue however. After naming an expanded squad for the upcoming South African tour and the World Cup, the selectors now set up a strange situation where three players, not included in the expanded squad, have been asked to come to the camps. This includes Bazid Khan, Mohammad Khalil and Imran Nazir. After 20-odd players already present in the expanded squad, somehow I don't think more players is the key to success. Further, I am not sure to whom the messages are intended with calling these three players? Its not like any one of the batsmen, like Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Asim Kamal or Faisal Iqbal have any degree of certainty regarding their selection or place in the squad. Mohammad Hafeez has performed too well in the last few months to be treated in this way. Also, if performance in the Twenty20 Cup was a criteria for call-up to the training camp, Fawad Alam has had highly touted performances, and indeed more than just one, which is what Imran Nazir had. Fawad, also had the most wickets to go with the most runs during the tournament, and further has averaged over 50 for the last two seasons in first class cricket, with a bowling average in the mid 20's. If there was consistency, shouldn't that be a criteria for selection?

And Mohammad Khalil? He wasn't used for extended periods in England, where even when used his performance was sub-par. And now, there are atleast seven other pacers ahead of him in the pecking order.


The PCB really does need to pick its horses, with the World Cup just three months away. The players need to have some certainty regarding their place in the squad. This kind of selection policy is not going to do anyone any favours.

Technorati Tags: pakistan cricket board, selectors, world cup, fawad alam