Ernest, Mike, thank you for the tips and the sympathy about lost posts. :-)

I always use Ctrl-C regularly when writing long posts, so if I lose it, Ctrl-V can do the trick. And I agree, backspace sometimes brings it back to life.

In this one instance, the whole PC crashed - so I lost the clipboard memory too apparently after reboot. Regular saves in Notepad would have avoided this!

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A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes
Mark Twain

Bilal Asad is a good enough batsmen in my humble opinion to be selected in the team purely on the basis of his batting, remember that I have prefered him over Arafat because I know, and feel that Asad is a better, more reliable batting option. Asad is a batting all rounder, he will bowl 2nd change, but his primary job will be to score runs, just a bit in the mould of Jack Kallis really, I'm not comparing him with Jack Kallis obvioulsy, that would be a joke, but just saying that his role in the side would be a one similar to the one Kallis has for SA.

Sure, agree about your analysis on Asad, but do we need the bowling option he provides for the purposes of this team? I doubt that as we already have 3 specialist seamers, 1 attacking spinner and a decent off-break bowler in Hafeez.

Hence, I feel let's select no.6 purely on the basis of batting ability. If you feel Asad is still the man, I am happy to go with him. But is he really a better batsman and a better batting prospect than Saeed bin Nasir?

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A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes
Mark Twain

I think we shold have Bilal Asad on no 6. It will give a balance to the side but I will like to see yasir arafat opening the bowling with Waqar Ahmad . As u know that umar gull is injured and he is not likely to return back to cricket in near future that is why we should not select an injured player in our side . Secondly, if he return back from injury we should not select him in the side automaticall , we should wait for his performance in first class . If he would not have been injured he would be my obvious choice but here we face different type of circumstances. Therefore , keeping all these in mind we should choose yasir arafat on for gull as second bowler . it will also give a boast to batting as he is also a sound batsman .
here is proposed squad for u

1:-Salman Butt
2:-Muhammad Hafeez
3:-Bazid khan
4:-Hasan Raza
5:-Saeed bin Nasir
6:-Bilal Asad
7:-Yasir Arafat
8:-Zulqarnain Haider
9:-Rana Naveed ul hasan
10:-Mansoor Amjad
11:-Waqar Ahmad


This is a very balanced side

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h@butt

Get your point. I'd be becoming terribly unfair on Saeed bin Nasir (first class batting average of 43) if I say Asad's batting is better than his (first class batting average of about 38)...that's a bit like comparing apples with oranges...BUT STILL...90 overs is a significant number of overs, I'd like to think that if we ask 3 seamers plus the spinner to bowl all of those by them selves that would be asking too much (22.2 overs per bowler to be precise) even if Hafeez rolls over him harm for an over or two, these guys will get at least 18-20 overs each to bowl, and that too most probably in not more than a day's time. I'd think having Asad in your team would mean one of your strike bowlers balls fewer but more effective overs, by having Asad in the side we're ensuring that a)we'll have a guy with decent technique and proper shots batting for us lower down the order, and he'll make sure the tail doesn't fall apart b)& that the seamers don't get over exhausted by bowling too many overs.

I think that over all selecting a batting all rounder at six, who will primarily aim to impress with the bat and will consider any success of his bowling a bonus, we're looking at a much more balanced looking team.

Agree with u in case of Bilal Asad but what about yasir arafart in the place injured gull as second strike bowler

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h@butt

And what about Saeed bin Nasir in the team in the place of Asim Kamal

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h@butt

Sorry for the delay but here are the core players which Maranello, Zainub and Haseebbutt007 have chosen:

Maranello: Salman Butt and Umar Gul
Zainub: Salman Butt and Umar Gul
Haseebbutt007: 1:-Bazid Khan (one down); 2:-Hasan Raza(middle order)

Zainub's XI is:

Salman Butt
Mohammad Hafeez (captain)
Bazid Khan
Hasan Raza
Asim Kamal
Bilal Asad
Zulqarnain Haider
Rana Naved ul Hasan
Mansor Amjad
Waqar Ahmed
Umar Gul*

subject to fitness; stand by replacement Abdur Rauf

I hope this moves the selection process forward. I'll continue to monitor the progress and intervene only if necessary to move the process along further. But, hopefully, that won't be necessary.

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Administrator

In one word... No! We are not starting a tournament tomorrow, so we do not need everyone perfectly fit - at the moment, this is a theoretical exericise and we can always revise teams as the season progresses. We are selecting a team that is a showcase for Pakistan's up and coming talent, and really, Gul heads the list there.

No. Again, Kamal is a proven performer, but one who does not have an assured place in the Test team. So he goes into the A team. When he gets his 6 caps, sure, we can revise the team to exclude him. I agree, this feels too harsh on Saeed, but his time will definitely come - he is only 24 and when Inzamam and Youhana retire, we will look to blood some classy middle-order players - Saeed, Bazid and Hasan Raza head the list for being their replacements.


ZR - you have convinced me of Asad over a specialist batsman, but only just. I am still uncomfortable about not having a proper bat at no.6, especially since nos.7-11 are not brilliant with the bat, and there are a couple of relative mugs in there.

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A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes
Mark Twain

Zainub and I now have identical XIs.

The only disagreements with Haseeb Butt007 is around Asim Kamal and Umar Gul. However, both Zainub and I independently of each other put Gul as our must-have. Hence I am afraid he has to play - someone will have to make way for him in HaseebButt007's team.

__________________
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes
Mark Twain