Loud Thinking

Out of Box Suggestions for Team Selection for Mother of All Matches..!

Rationale

1. Since the Adelaide oval is a small ground, even a score of 350+ will not be a safe score.

2. Good fielding will be the difference between victory and defeat.

3. Bowling penetration will ultimately decide the outcome of the match. Hence, Pakistan must repeat must play with 5 frontline bowlers.

4. Harris Sohail comes in into the team as a batting all rounder; and as a sixth bowler leaving no place for Sarfraz in the playing eleven.

5. Umer Akmal should also play as a wicket keeper.

6. Younis Khan has been coming very early (on many occasions) as a one down. Now he should be asked to open the innings with Ahmad Shahzad, which is necessary, because of the very weak fielding abilities of Nasir Jamshed. Keeping in view that at the most, only 4 players are allowed during the non-power play overs, our team can not enter into the field, even with a SINGLE weak fielder.

7. As such, the batting order of the 6 regular batsmen is proposed as following:

– Ahmad Shahzad
– Younis Khan
– Shoaib Maqsood
– Misbah ul Haq
– Harris Sohail
– Umer Akmal

8. The following 5 bowlers may be played against India.

– Muhammad Irfan
– Rahat Ali
– Ehsan Adil
– Shahid Afridi
– Yasir Shah

9. Wahab Riaz and Sohail Khan have been omitted, due to the reason that Rahat Ali and Ehsan Adil are better choices available amongst the available resources.

10. The reasons for exclusion of Nasir Jamshed and Sarfraz Ahmad have already been explained above.

11. The suggested final line up is given as below:

– Ahmad Shahzad
– Younis Khan
– Shoaib Maqsood
– Misbah ul Haq
– Harris Sohail
– Umer Akmal
– Shahid Afridi
– Rahat Ali
– Yasir Shah
– Ehsan Adil
– Muhammad Irfan

Left outs

– Nasir Jamshed
– Sarfraz Ahmad
– Wahab Riaz
– Sohail Khan

Second Option:

– If Younis Khan is to be dropped for his past batting failures then:

a). Sarfraz Ahmad can be included as a 6th batsman and he can open the innings with Ahmad Shahzad, if we are batting first.

b). Misbah, Harris Sohail or Shahid Afridi may open the innings, in case India bats first, because wicket keeper needs some rest, after strenuous ODI keeping stint.