| Interesting that Pakistan Green and Whites have many players who should, by rights, be Test regulars, eg Asim Kamal, Shoaib Malik and even Umar Gul. I guess these guys are in this match to add some 'quality', and would probably not be in the final Pakistan A squad. Otherwise, Bari seems to have done a good job; the two G&W squads do include all the fringe and up and coming players (eg Bazid, Irshad, Mansoor Amjad), as well as a few recent Test discards, eg Hasan Raza, Yasir Hameed, Taufiq Umar, Imran Farhat, Faisal Iqbal and Misbah.
Should be a good contest as the Australians also seem to have gone in for a very strong squad; as you point out, 4 of the 14 are actually in the first team Ashes squad. It is interesting though that of the 14 Australians, only three are below 25, namely Tait, Cameron White and Daniel Cullen. Shouldn't read too much into this I guess, except that there are a large number of very experienced and high quality Aussie first-class cricketers who did not get to have decent Test careers due to the Aussie selectors' conservative approach (and of course the undoubted quality of the first team squad). In another era, or with better planning by the selectors, guys like Hussey and Hodge might have been Test regulars by now.
__________________ A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes Mark Twain |