Pakistan coach Waqar Younis wants changes in team for West Indies tour
Pakistan’s cricket team coach Waqar Younis says the tour of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 is the perfect opportunity to make some changes in the national team. However, he warned against making too many changes, which could halt the progress of the side.
The Men-in-Green will clash against the Caribbean Kings on their home soil from Thursday, 21st April. The series will feature one Twenty20, five One Day Internationals (ODIs) and two Test matches.
Waqar stated, “Young players should be given the chance to tour West Indies because it will be an ideal opportunity to gauge their talent and prospect in the game as a part of rebuilding of team for future needs.”
The former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 captain praised the efforts of his team in the ICC World Cup 2011, saying," Before the start of the event, no one was expecting that we can progress to the semi-finals but team exhibited some good performances to draw the attention and then reached the semi-finals.”
According to Waqar, the team was in a very good position to win the game against arch-rivals http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, but the pressure proved to be too much for the players. He claimed that 261 wasn’t a huge target, especially on the Mohali pitch which was good for batting.
However, the Pakistan coach stated that he wasn’t concerned about what happened in the past and was concentrating on the future.
Although Waqar didn’t name any player who should be dropped from the team ahead of the West Indian tour, there are some who are most likely to be ignored by the selectors.
The first name that comes to mind is that of wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who failed to live up to expectations in the World Cup. The veteran keeper has had technical problems in the past and hasn’t improved on them. He has let the team down on many occasions, dropping a number of catches at crucial stages of games.
However, one thing that had always worked in favour of Kamran was his ability to open the innings for his team. This has saved the troubled keeper many times, as Pakistan have struggled to find a good opening batsman since the departure of Saeed Anwar and Amir Sohail.
Other than the troubled keeper, there are a few aging players in the team as well like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 and Younis Khan, who could be sidelined for the limited-over format. Although both players have a lot of experience, they are more suited to Test cricket with their steady nature of play.
It will be important for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to consider some young talent and not look back at players like Imran Farhat or Mohammad Yousuf. The board should focus on the future and plan for the next World Cup, which will be held in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 in 2015.
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