Pakistan A vs Australia A Thread

[Zainub]

Please use this thread to discuss the Australian A team tour to Pakistan coming September. The teams are scheduled tol play two four-day matches in Rawalpindi and three 50-over matches against Pakistan A in Lahore. Full schedule as follows:

Schedule:
11 Sept – 14 Sept four-day match v Pakistan A Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi
17 Sept – 20 Sept four-day match v Pakistan A KRL Ground, Rawalpindi
23 Sept 50-over match v Pakistan A Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
25 Sept 50-over match v Pakistan A Bagh-e-Jinnah Cricket Ground, Lahore
27 Sept 50-over match v Pakistan A Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore

Cricket Australia have already announced the squad, which is a strong 14 member contingent led by New South Walesh wicket keeper batsman Brad Haddin and includes four players currently in the Australian Ashes squad, Brad Hodge, Brad Haddin, Shaun Tait, and Stuart Clark. An additional four reserve players have been named should any of these players be required to play in the fifth Test at The Oval starting on 8 September. The full squad is as follows:

Brad Haddin (c) 27 New South Wales
Michael Hussey (vc) 30 Western Australia
Nathan Bracken 27 New South Wales
Stuart Clark 29 New South Wales
Daniel Cullen 21 South Australia
Brad Hodge 30 Victoria
James Hopes 26 Queensland
Phil Jaques 26 New South Wales
Michael Lewis 31 Victoria
Marcus North 26 Western Australia
Shaun Tait 22 South Australia
Dominic Thornely 26 New South Wales
Shane Watson 24 Queensland
Cameron White 21 Victoria

Reserves
Chris Hartley 23 Queensland
Chris Rogers 27 Western Australia
Mitchell Johnson 23 Queensland
Damien Wright 30 Tasmania

Coach Tim Nielsen
Manager Trevor Robertson
Physiotherapist Alex Kontouri

Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association recently conducted a pre-tour inspection and are satisfied with the security measures in place. In addition a full time security officer will travel with the team.

Meanwhile the national selectors in Pakistan have decided to conduct a trial match between fringe and up-and-coming players to come up with a en equally strong squad. Test rejects Hasan Raza and Misbahul Haq will lead the PCB Greens and Whites teams, respectively, in the three-day match to be held at the Qadhafi Stadium from Sept 2 to 4.

The national selection committee headed by Wasim Bari announced both the teams yesterday. He also announced that a conditioning camp for the players of the two teams will be held at the National Cricket Academy here from Aug 29 to Sept 1, before holding the match. The two squads are as follows:

PCB GREENS: Yasir Hameed, Salman Butt, Bazid Khan, Shoaib Malik, Asim Kamal, Hasan Raza (captain), Zulqarnain Haider (wicket-keeper), Imran Tahir, Mohammad Asif, Shahid Nazir, Mohammad Khalil, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Ashar Zaidi.

Coach-cum-manager: Rashid Khan.

PCB WHITES: Imran Farhat, Taufiq Umar, Faisal Athar, Misbahul Haq (captain), Faisal Iqbal, Naumanullah, Mansoor Amjad, Aminur Rehman (wicket-keeper), Arshad Khan, Riaz Afridi, Najaf Shah, Yasir Ali, Mohammad Irshad, Shahid Yousuf.

Coach-cum-manager: Mansoor Rana.

This should be a very interesting series and an important one too. People doing well in this might invariably find themselves in the reckoning for place in the England bound test or one-day squad. I look forward in anticipation.

[Maranello]

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.

[Zainub]

I hope we don't pick Yasir Hameed. I hate to jump up to my preformed notions of people but I have convinced my self that Yasir is a full track bully with extremely dodgy technique outside his off stump and no matter what you will do he will always struggle to be consistent. This is rather sad because he is an incredibly nice person off the field, and you’d like to see those kind of players being part of international sport.

I am for once also hopeful that Raza, Hasan that is, gets his due. He's been overlooked for a long time, perhaps justifiably because you can only have 11 players in a team at a time, but he's made so many runs last season, and even in the ongoing academy tour against the visiting South African academy side in which too he was captain, you just have to feel for him as an individual. He's done everything anyone could possible ask him to do.

[King Aragorn]

Woolmer and the selectors have liaised well to select a very good squad. It will be a challenging task for Pakistan A but the players stand to gain a lot from this experience.

Umar Gul was probably selected so that he could be given some match practice because, I believe, he hasn't played any substantial amount of cricket since his return from injury. That will make sure that he's match fit when England arrive.

Shoaib Malik is another good choice as Malik isn't a test regular and his performance as an opener in WI was nothing brilliant, which is quite understandable, and it's a good chance for him to put up a good show against top quality bowling. If any big and unexpected slip up does materialise from Kamal, then Malik will be ready to take his place.

Asim Kamal too has, at times, struggled against movement off the seam and even though he is a test regular, I won't mind seeing him in the final Pakistan A squad. A hard working and attentive player as he is, he'll surely learn a lot.

Hasan Raza will have another chance to impress the selectors and especially, Woolmer. But...

Originally Posted by Bob Woolmer

I like what I have seen of Hassan Raza, whether he gets a chance will depend on the form of those in the team.

[King Aragorn]

According to The News, Woolmer has given quite a rousing talk to the available Pakistani players about the importance of mental strength, fitness and fielding just before the three day trial match. Of late, Woolmer has been doing quite a lot of work to prepare for the English tour and has also been assessing the strength of upcoming Pakistani players.

As to the selection of the final squad for the tour, it seems that Pakistan will play at least three warm up matches in October to prepare for the English tour. Hence, Umar Gul will surely be able to get fully match fit even if he doesn't play now.

It might be a good idea to give Shabbir Ahmad a game though because even though his action has been changed to meet the ICC rules, Woolmer feels that he might just naturally revert to his original (and flawed) action in a pressure situation.

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by King Aragorn

According to The News, Woolmer has given quite a rousing talk to the available Pakistani players about the importance of mental strength, fitness and fielding just before the three day trial match. Of late, Woolmer has been doing quite a lot of work to prepare for the English tour and has also been assessing the strength of upcoming Pakistani players.

I'm delighted to hear that. I'm unsatisfied with our performances in all those 3 spheres, i.e. fielding, fitness and mental strength and hopefully the words of wisdom will be heared carefully by the players, and acted upon in future.

As to the selection of the final squad for the tour, it seems that Pakistan will play at least three warm up matches in October to prepare for the English tour. Hence, Umar Gul will surely be able to get fully match fit even if he doesn't play now.

Briiliant. Can't look forward enough to get to know more on Umar Gul's progress, he'd be a great asset to us for the England series if he can get him bowling as well as he was last time India came here. We should play more then 3 warm up matches if we get the chance, it's always good to play a few matches ahead of a big season like we have...some of our players, especially those who will not play in the the Super Series, or who missed the Afro Asian Cup or those who have not played county cricket might well found them selves a bit rusty. I hope though even then that they've been doing some mild training off season as well.

It might be a good idea to give Shabbir Ahmad a game though because even though his action has been changed to meet the ICC rules, Woolmer feels that he might just naturally revert to his original (and flawed) action in a pressure situation.

Totally agree with that as well. Bob's a smart man . I hope Shabbir's action is clear this time (last time it was blatantly illegal) because I don't know how many more remodelling he'd be able to survive, he's already had at least three in his stop-start-stop-start career so far. He could be an important bowler for us if he can sort all this out for once, someone his height can always be a dangerous bowler. Especially on the slow tracks here.

[Paoli]

Looking forward to this. Australia haven't been to Pakistan in 7 years now and this may give us a reckoning of how we can play there.

The Aus A squad looks good but I'd love to see Mitch Johnson drafted in to the squad. Hasn't done a heap of a lot in domestic cricket, but bowls with quite a lot of pace and is capable of bowling ripping yorkers to clean up the top order.

Good Aus A squad on the whole though. It is the second best team in Australia you'd have to say.

[The Phantom Ram]

Paoli, I don't know the player but what do you think of having a 30 year old reserve to the A-team (Damien Wright)? You would think if he hasn't made it by 30 he probably never will?

The team on the whole looks a bit older than I would expect a A team to look.

[Zainub]

PCB Greens triumph in trial match

http://dawn.com/2005/09/05/spt13.htm

[Maranello]

Yes, well done Misbah, Faisal Iqbal, Salman Butt and Hasan Raza on the batting front, and Irshad and Umar Gul on the bowling side. A more detailed scorecard can be accessed here.