The Pakistan Cricket Board, on Thursday, announced the national squads for next month’s tour of Sri Lanka. Three separate teams were announced for all three formats of the game, with Mohammad Hafeez being appointed captain for the Twenty20 squad in place of Misbah-ul-Haq.
Besides the change at the helm of the T20 squad, a few surprise recalls were handed out to players previously discarded from the national side. These included Mohammad Sami, Imran Farhat, Tanvir Ahmed, Faisal Iqbal, Sohail Tanvir, Khalid Latif and Yasir Arafat.
Some uncapped players have also been selected for the different parts of the tour, including Haris Sohail, Raza Hasan, Shakeel Ansar, Rahat Ali, Ayub Dogar and Afaq Raheem.
The selection has been met with a varying reaction from the cricket fans. While some have hailed the replacement of Misbah by Hafeez, others have said Shahid Afridi should have been given the reins. The opportunities provided to domestic performers have been welcomed, especially in the Twenty20 squad where players like Shakeel Ansar and Haris Sohail stood out in recent tournaments.
The most controversial decision, however, has been that of the recalls.
Which players deserved another chance to perform for the national side?
Who should have been dropped?
Which of the new faces are the best prospects for Pakistan?
Is Mohammad Hafeez the right choice to lead Pakistan in the future?
Dawn.com invites its readers to express their views and debate the team selection…
i appreciate the setup of recalling players with impressive domestic performance recently but fresh blood must have been preferred as pakistan team mainly consisits of players aging above 30. Although it’s a good decision to pull out captaincy from misbah as we need to prepare a future captain (for one day cricket) yet selecting hafeez may not be admirred because we need fresh energetic skipper to lead from the front.
all the decisions, taken are very good…and the selection like this will give the team a bright and successful future.
what the heck is this … are they building a team for the past or for future? recalling tested & tried utter failures such as Arafat, Faisal and that waste of human breath Farhat? Just when it felt that finally PCB was heading in the right direction under the leadership of new chairman, the facade already came apart!
Hafeez was best choice and they did that.
Why Imran Farhat again ??
Mohd.Yousuf should be taken back in the team , Afridi will be a good captain.It is the duty of the Bccp to keep the players in the right frame of mind . The team should be selected on merit no miracles are expected from the selectors basically good cricketers with sustainable track should form the team .
Giving a chance to players based on their performance in the domestic circuit seems like the right thing to do.
Where is Abdur Razzaq ? he has won so many One Days for Pakistan and suddenly such a great all rounder is gone and nobody cares ?
Because Abdul Razaq has no brains. And at some point in time all the great cricketers have to be replaced. He is past his prime. His bowling has gone down the drain and he bats responsbily once every 10 innings. I cant forget and forgive Razzaq for getting out so many times because of his clumsy running. He is a waste. They should nurture Hamad Azam and Yasir ARafat instead, both of whom seem like better minds then Razzaq.
PCB decision makers owe their jobs to Misbah. Instead of saying thanks to Misbah they gave him a boot. Under Misbah’s leadership cricket came back to Pakistan strong. PCB should be ashamed of playing politics or just being silly to bring Hafeez as Captain for T20. We should have allowed Misbah to lead as Captain for the entire Sri Lanka tour there was no harm in it. Let guy do his job instead of bring change.
I totally agree with your comment. The new selection team has been PURCHEED. Misbah should have given support but they did the opposite. The recalls are pathetic, we just have to suffer now watching them on field, what a waste of time. God help Pakistani Cricket.
I personally don’t mind the inclusion of Mohammad Sami but the inclusion of Faisal Iqbal and Imran Farhat is beyond belief.
I don’t know whether Hafeez has any captaincy record at any reasonable level, like A team international events or so?
because one can’t judge just by looking at some one.
Mohd Yousuf (Youhana) should have been recalled…there is still time…DO THE RIGHT THING PCB. Faisel Iqbal and Sami are a waste.
Agree.
Right choice if PCB is thinking of preparing a new captain in forseeable future; however recalls made point othewise so my take would be it’s still a continuation of directionless policy from PCB……..
The recalls are like proving that we have a dearth of Cricket talent in the country. All these recalls are spent force.
Its good to have youngsters in the team, but why Hammad Azam isnt in the ODI squad? Sami is waste in all three formats no expectations from him, so as for Imran Farhat. Imran Nazir can be considered for ODI/ T20. Good to see three different wicket keepers for all the formats. Its to see Hafeez as a leader, hope that he wont make the old mistakes that Afridi did in the past.
Sami deserves a recall and no one else in that list deserves it. The only hope for Imran Farhat is that the
Taliban can take him…
The selectors have done their job by picking-up the best possible team in the three formats of the game. Now it is up to the players to prove their real talents and mettle on the field by giving their best performance thus justifying their selection.
As far as the merits and demerits of selection are concerned, it is futile to talk about them because whatever we feel, think or say, is not going to make any effect on the three teams which are already been selected. Nevertheless, it was the right time to replace Misbah-ul-Haq from the T20 squad because no matter how good a player and skipper he might be, the time and age is not on his side.
Let’s see if the new skipper can lead from the front and galvanize the whole team under his able command and captaincy or not? Best of luck to the ‘green-shirts’ in their up-coming series against Sri Lanka under some very hot and humid playing conditions.
Lot of safarshis are back. Sami , Farhat, Arafat, tanveer,Iqbal and latif don’t deserve to be in the team, Awais did pretty well against England, not in the team. Hafeez won’t be in the team for very long, his performance is inconsistent. I think Umar Akmal should lead Pakistan in 20/20. All the older guys including Afridi need to rest.
It seems there is a lobby in pcb who hates afridi who would have been the ideal candidate to lead for t20 & one day cricket.Also great injustice has been done to razzaq,imran nazir & rana naveed.
How could they not include IMRAN NAZIR!!!!!!!!
Imran Farhat yet again…… Perhaps as a right hand batsman this time.
Yes why Farhat have been recalled yet again ?
I personally think Imran Farhat doesn’t have enough talent to be recalled so many times. Also, although Shahid Afridi is more experienced in holding captaincy, Hafeez is a perfect blend of Afridi and Misbah in terms of aggression and defensiveness. He can be a great captain provided the others that have been recalled perform.
Sami is such a waste. Not a quality bowler. calling Faisal back is not an encouraging decision. yeah hafeez deserves to lead.
OK Mr Lodhi.. interesting comments about Mohammad Sami…. what made you think he is not a quality bowler ? He can still bowl faster than anyone in the squad… he was never given enough chance to play..
everyone has his ups and downs my friend.
Mr. Omar: You must not be watching Pakistan cricket. This guy has played 35 tests and 83 odis and you are saying that he has not been given a proper chance. You must be sleeping all these years when he was playing. He is certainly a spent force, perhaps he was never a force and he was given just too many chances.
I agree, Sami may not be the best but he certainly is better than the lot we have right now…
Sami has good pace but I think he needs to work a bit on his length on different surfaces. From what I have observed of him, I feel that he gets too full even on good batting surfaces where people just drive him through the line and gain becoz of his speed (proved several times by Sehwag). If he becomes a little more intelligent with his length variations on different surfaces (Akram could have been a great help there) then he would surely have been a potent force in the Pak team.
Sami may be bowling well but he hs the dubious record of the WOrst International Test averages for a bolwer with 25 plus Test matches! Its Over 50! And FARHAT over NAZIR is a big injustice. International commentators have commented on NAzir’s ability and that he should walk in most Twenty twenty sides- except Pakistan. They never allow him more than a couple of games. Hasan Raza is of the same age as Faisal Iqbal and a lot more classier and has far better First class average yet Iqbal keeps coming back!!