Youngsters dropped

[gibbs_fan]

Hi all.

I am a South African and I enjoy watching Pakistan play. Since I only get to watch the national team play, I would like to know why young talents get dropped from the team and then never appear again. I enjoyed watching Imran Nazir play. He was an exciting player and I feel that he is better than some of the current Pakistan players. Another of my favourite players is Toufiq Umar. He performed well but was dropped. I cant see why the selectors do this as it surely hurts the layers self confidence. Does Imran Nazir and Toufiq Umar still play domestic cricket and how are they performing. Surely Pakistan could use either of them as an opener instead of making Shoaib Malik open.

[adamberry]

Hi gibbs_fan, welcome to WAT.

I'm not very clued up on Pakistan cricket myself so I can only speculate on possible reasons for the dropping of youngsters. However, I definately agree with you that Pakistan need an opener.

Imran Nazir looked quite good according to statisitics on Cricinfo, but the article that goes with it highlights his lack of technique and footwork. His poor performances in the Tests against Australia probably also worked against him, so that may be why he's not playing?

Taufeeq Umar (I assume that's who you meant?) has played 24 Tests for Pakistan, so has certainly been given an opportunity to prove himself. According to statisitics he looks pretty good too: an average of 40.73 does him no harm in my book. He did very well against Australia (top score 88) and South Africa (one of four Test tons: 135 his top score). He's also been included in Pakistan's provisional 21-man squad to tour England this year.

[Wanderer]

Wasim Bari (chairman of Pakistan's selection committee) said as recently as last week, that although Taufeeq is a "specialist opener", who looks good when not playing in tests, the pressure of test matches seems to affect him.

And that if he works on that aspect, he may be picked again for the test side. Confidence seems to be the deciding factor.