After all the controversies this year, Pakistan cricket team is now on the tour of New Zealand, hoping that it can leave all the nightmares behind and use this tour as good preparation for the upcoming ICC World Cup. Apart from performing well on the tour,
Pakistan Cricket Board and the fans of Pakistan cricket all around the world would be hoping that this tour ends without any controversy, which may be of more importance than the on-field performance of the Pakistani team.
Pakistan is not stable without the suspended trio of Salman Butt, Muhammad Amir and Muhammad Asif, as a matter of fact almost half of Pakistan’s original team is not able to play international cricket as dark clouds are hanging over Shoaib Malik, Kamran
Akmal, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 recently but
it definitely displayed some good fighting performances and stretched both teams to the wire, which is a bright sign for Pakistan cricket.
Pakistan would definitely start as favorites in the series considering the sort of form New Zealand has shown recently against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750. However, the Kiwis are a different team altogether on home ground. Still Pakistan has a clear edge over the
New Zealanders in all aspects of the game.
This is Pakistan’s last chance to develop a combination that can give hope to the spectators back home for the world cup. Shahid Afridi has clearly said before leaving for the Kiwis land that he himself has to perform better and lead his young troops from
the front if Pakistan is to do well in future. Whereas, responsibilities lie on the shoulders of some of the senior players of the team like Shoaib Akhtar, Younis Khan and Abdul Razzaq to pick up their game and set an example for the others. In the back of
his mind, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 would be praying and hoping that Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik get the clearance from ICC and they can be a part of the ODI squad and later on the world cup.
Pakistan would most probably ask Umar Akmal to keep wickets in the limited overs format of the tour in the absence of his elder brother, Kamran. Whereas, Adnan Akmal who comes in between the two would take up the gloves in Test matches.
Pakistan’s major problem is fielding and it is something which requires an individual effort from every member of the team. Of late the senior players like Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq have been below average in this department. But http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 cannot afford
this laziness anymore if it has to move in the right direction.
In the absence of senior players, Muhammad Hafeez has taken up the opening role quite beautifully and he would be looking to continue in the same manner. He would be accompanying a new partner in shape of Ahmed Shehzad in the limited overs format. Shehzad
is an amazingly talented player and the selectors would be hoping that he can deliver the goods at the international level at this young age.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed and see what sort of a performance the Pakistani team comes up with on the tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 which has historically been a good hunting ground for the green-shirts.
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