Pakistan team to Lanka – a blend of youth and experience….

Its cricket time once again for Sri Lankans as the Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka is just about to commence.It will be a tour of foremost importance for the Lankans as it is their first taste of blood for the year 2015 at home and the team will be fresh taking a two month break after a mediocre performance in the World cup down under.

Pakistan on the other hand have been in cricketing action during the past two months and are in a jubilant mood as Zimbabwe became the first cricket nation to tour them after the 2009 Lahore disaster.Pakistan have named their test squad with a fine blend of youth and experience with Captain Misbah Ul-Haq once again to shepherding the side.

Ajmal dropped, Fawad ignored

Saeed Ajmal

Fawad Alam

Younis Khan

The Pakistan team management have dropped spin wizard Saeed Ajmal from the test squad despite being a part of the test squad against Bangladesh. Ajmal with his remodeled action hasn’t extracted the prodigious turn nor zip which he used to torment batsmen over the years and he also failed to take a single wicket in the tour game before the start of the Bangladesh series.

Rookie leg spinner Yasir Shah has quietly stepped in as Pakistan’s number one spin option and he would be a force to reckon with for Lankan batsmen who struggle against leg spinners.Yasir will especially like to have bowl in Galle which is Sri Lanka’s spin friendliest pitch.Left arm spinner ZulfiqarBarbar will ably support him as the second spinner on tour.

Pakistan A captain Fawad Alam who recently had a tremendous tour against the Sri Lanka A side continues to be ignored from the Pakistan nationalteam.Alam,a reliable middle order batsman has always been a man for crisis situations and should be thoroughly disappointed for not being a part of the touring squad.The Pakistan selectors have definitely missed a trick by not including main in formAlam who scored heavily during the A tour and is very familiar with conditions.Alam would be hoping that he finds a well deserved place in the Limited overs squad.

Pakistan will be heavily reliant on veteran Younis Khan to come good during the series.Younis who has been the mainstay of Pakistan test batting has enjoyed playing against Sri Lanka and has a superb record against them.Vice Captain Azhar Ali has experienced a new lease in ODI cricket,piling up runs against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and would want to score big against the Lankans as well.Pakistan’s underrated skipper MisbahUlHaq is the other man the Lankans should be weary of.Misbah nicknamed “Tuktuk” proved his critics wrong by equaling the fastest 100 in a test match history against Australia and is a vital cog in the wheel.

Ahmed Shehzad, Shan Masood and EhsanAdil have been included in Pakistan’s 15-member squad for the Test series. Babar Azam, BilawalBhatti, Sami Aslam were also excluded, while Rahat Ali, SohaibMaqsood and Sohail Khan continued to be unavailable due to their respective injuries.Shehzad was dropped from both Test and ODI squads after the 2015 World Cup on disciplinary grounds. He was recalled for the Zimbabwe ODIs but remained on the bench throughout the three-match series. Shehzad is one of three openers – Mohammad Hafeez and Masood, being the other two – in the squad.

Pakistan squad: Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (vc), Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, AsadShafiq, HarisSohail, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, WahabRiaz, Junaid Khan, Imran Khan, EhsanAdil.

Superman Rhodes as fielding consultant

The SLC has taken positive step towards the development of the fielding aspect of the Sri Lankan team by recruiting fielding superstar Jonty Rhodes as a consultant for a fielding camp of 10 days.Rhodes renowned for his unreal fielding feats is probably the best man to uplift the Lankan fielding standards which have been declining at a steady pace in the recent past.Sri Lanka who have been one of the top fielding units in the past have been cramped with poor fitness levels thus have been guilty of plenty of misfielding and dropping catches.

We hope that after Rhodes departure the national coaches will be able to practice and perfect the techniques and fielding drills and we will see a much improved fielding side in the near future.