Cricket update: “Tainted trio tough to replace,” says http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohsin-c77587 Khan
The Chairman of Pakistan’s selection committee Mohsin http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 has said that the upcoming assignment against the South Africans would be a really tough challenge for his team, especially if the tainted trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer
and Mohammad Asif don’t make it to the team that is set to take part in the series commencing later this month.
Pakistan is to play the Proteas in a two test, five ODIs and two T20 match series that would be staged at Dubai and Abu Dhabi all the way through to end of November.
The former opening batsman thinks that making a competitive team without the trio would be a big task.
"They are three of our key players, and will be in the squad if cleared to play," Mohsin said. "It will be really tough for us to find their replacement in case they are not available to play against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757.”
"We are waiting for the chairman [of the PCB, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128] to return from England," Mohsin said. "He is expected to return later this week after which we will sit down and finalise the team."
Pakistan is likely to suffer most in the pace bowling department in the absence of Asif and Aamer.
The two new ball bowlers have been the most prolific opening duo in the last six months in international cricket causing batsmen around the world real trouble with their ability of swinging and seaming the new cherry.
Aamer, who was a firm favourite to win the ICC emerging cricketer of the year award before running into the spot-fixing scandal, can also reverse swing the ball at a very high pace which makes him doubly dangerous on any sort of wicket.
Asif is an extremely penetrative new ball bowler and completed his 100 wicket haul in test cricket during the ill-fated series against England.
He also made the ball talk on the tours of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 besides yielding his magic in England.
The real dilemma for Mohsin and his co-selectors is the pace attack for the South African series.
In the absence of the two A’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 would be heavily relying on Umar Gul who has been in outstanding form with the white ball, yet has failed to replicate the same sort of penetration with the red ball in the longest format of the
game.
He has also remained injury-prone and missed out on the last two tests in England due to a hamstring injury.
He is likely to be accompanied by Wahab Riaz as the new ball operator, while the unfortunate Tanvir Ahmed who was on the sidelines throughout the six tests in England may finally get a much awaited test debut in UAE.
Besides the trio there are not many choices, the selectors might be compelled in bringing back Mohammad Sami who impressed in the Sydney test earlier in the year, yet found himself out of the team for the next test rather inexplicably.
The Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar is now reminiscent of the railway engines that are under the wings of Pakistani railways, which means he is old and running on extension.
It is simply impossible to contemplate him taking part in the test series especially in the heat of UAE.
With the absence of Salman Butt who captained the test team in England, Pakistan might struggle in the test format, as he is the only one to have scored a hundred for the Pakistanis in their last nine test matches.
He formed a decent partnership with Imran Farhat yet dropped himself down to number three after a horror run in the first two tests of the series; his likely replacement would be the Karachi opener Khurram Manzoor.
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