After T20I cricket, Mohammad Rizwan might be sidelined from ODIs now too, which will result in a new wicket-keeper batsman considered in ODIs, and the competition will be between Mohammad Ghazi Ghori (1 ODI cap), Usman Khan (2 ODI caps), Saad Baig (uncapped in ODIs).
Let's see who win don the gloves in the home ODI series against Australia in May-June.
Hello and welcome back to Guess the Player!
First of all, I am very sorry for not posting this segment for the last five days, at that time, Pakistan vs Bangladesh 2nd Test match was going on, and it was best to keep the attention of Pakistan fans towards it.
The answer to the last post of this series was Hafiz Saad Nasim, most of you got it right, the first three being, u/MoreCryptographer213, u/Ibh02 and u/Due-Finding4397. Congratulations to all of you guys who got it right. Even though I thought that this was going to be very difficult, we got only 3 guesses, and all of them were right.
Before we begin, here’s a quick refresher on the rules:
Welcome to Guess the Cricketer!
I’ll post clues about a cricket player, and your job is to figure out who it is.
Type your answer like this:
>!Babar Azam!<
It will appear like this:>!Babar Azam!<
“I think it’s >!Shaheen Afridi!< . ”
Alright, now it's time for some clues on today's cricketer!
As we once again lose a Test series to Bangladesh 2-0, the reactionary takes come out from Pakistan Cricket fans, and here I am with one. Honestly this result was always on the cards, because Pakistan had lack on proper planning, players flew to Bangladesh just after playing PSL, and they had no proper match practice in red-ball cricket, our pacers lacked the pace or the skill or the ability to take wickets (I am talking about Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali here), despite having better numbers than their Bangladeshi counterparts (mainly because of Abbas and Khurram). Our batsmen got the starts, but they failed to convert it into a big innings, and that problem has to be solved before we play the remaining 9 Test matches of this WTC cycle.
I have a few questions along with their answers, and a few proposals.
First question: Does Shan Masood deserve to lead this team to West Indies, on the statistic, that Shan Masood hasn’t won a single Test match outside Pakistan, his batting was good in the second innings at Sylhet, but as captain, he was very poor with captaincy, his field placements, his decisions to rotate his bowlers, his IQ at the time of taking review was very poor. He has won just 4 Test matches out of 16 in his captaincy, with a win percentage of 25%, and 75% loss percentage. Out of these 16 matches, 9 were played in Pakistan, and Pakistan won just 4 at home. Pakistan lost 5 Test matches at home. So in my opinion, Shan Masood, should be immediately removed from Test captaincy. I hope that Shan resigns from his post himself.
Second question (follow-up): If Shan Masood should be replaced, then who should be Test captain? We have four other seniors who regularly play in red-ball cricket, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Salman Ali Agha. Babar Azam looked very positive and good in the only Test match he played, I don’t want the board to burden him with the additional responsibility of captaincy, that too in red-ball cricket. Mohammad Rizwan, he too looked good with the bat in the 2^(nd) innings of the 2^(nd) Test, but don’t make him Test captain, he isn’t at his best in international cricket, therefore there is no need to give him the additional captaincy duties. Therefore, in my opinion, Salman Ali Agha is the only good option as Test captain. He is known as a street-smart captain in Pakistan’s domestic setup, he seems to be the only safe option right now.
Third question: Should we move on from Saud Shakeel now???
Saud Shakeel is the Pakistan Test team vice-captain, Saud Shakeel’s performance has become mediocre since he was made captain of Quetta Gladiators in last year’s PSL edition. Pakistan played only 4 Test matches after PSL 2025. And Saud has failed in every single of these games, he hasn’t been good in the first-class cricket he has played, and he is not a good player of pace, (he was reputed to be a very good spin player but he failed against spin too). Therefore, he should be dropped from the team for the upcoming West Indies Test tour, and Kamran Ghulam should be the direct replacement for Saud Shakeel.
Fourth question: What should be our pace attack for West Indies and England Test series??
My suggestion is to continue with Mohammad Abbas, Khurram Shahzad, but add a few names, Mohammad Ali, Mir Hamza, Musa Khan, Afaq Afridi, Saqib Khan, Akif Javed, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Faheem Ashraf and Aamer Jamal. Not every player needs to play, but obviously a red-ball camp will be held before the West Indies series, and therefore, names like those I have suggested should be included in the team, because they offer pace, swing, for pace greater than 140 kmph, we have Musa Khan, Wasim Jnr, Mohammad Ali and Akif Javed. For swinging the ball on green top wickets, we have Mohammad Abbas, Saqib Khan and Afaq Afridi. Mir Hamza and Khurram Shahzad are also specialist red-ball pacers and can prove important. In the all-round pace options, I have added Faheem Ashraf and Aamer Jamal, Aamer Jamal has got the pace and the fighting spirit, while Faheem Ashraf has the ability to bowl cutters and has a lot of variations, and provides support to the pace attack while adding value with the bat too. He bowled over 140 kmph a few times in last PSL, so he surely has got the pace to back his skills with.
Fifth question: What should be our spin attack in West Indies and England Test series??
My suggestion is to go with both Sajid Khan and Abrar Ahmed, and add Ali Usman as back-up left-arm spinner. In West Indies, sometimes two spinners might be played, and at England, the Test matches we are scheduled to play are in late August to September, which means that it will be the near-end to the English summer, the pitches of England will be dried by then, and easier to bat, and spin will surely have a bigger role to play.
Tentative schedule of West Indies and England Test series.
· July 18 – 21: 4-day Warm-up Match (Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba)
· July 25 – 29: 1st Test (Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain)
· Aug 2 – 6: 2nd Test (Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba)
· Aug 19 – 23: 1st Test (Headingley, Leeds)
· Aug 27 – 31: 2nd Test (Lord’s, London)
· Sept 9 – 13: 3rd Test (Edgbaston, Birmingham)
I have a few proposals to the Pakistan Cricket Board, and I want Pakistan Cricket fans, to back these ideas. First of all, we were supposed to play a white-ball home series with Zimbabwe in June-July, I humbly present my idea, that the board should request Zimbabwe Cricket to play a one-off Test or two Test matches at Pakistan (not part of WTC cycle), where the Duke’s ball will be used, Pakistan Cricket Board uses Duke’s ball in all premier first-class competitions, and the Duke’s ball will be used in West Indies and England Tests, besides this, if there are more than two Test matches, schedule one of them as Day/Night Test at Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi may offer natural bounce and assist pacers, as well as being batting friendly, while the other Test match can be played at Muzaffarabad (obviously if logistics allow it), because the conditions here may mirror to English conditions (cloud cover, pacer friendly pitches offering swing, and would be cooler than other venues in Pakistan).
It is good to see a practice 4-day match scheduled before the 2 Test matches with West Indies at Trinidad, I would request the PCB to arrange two 3-day games or a single 4-day game before the England Test series, there is an empty window of 12 days, and this can be easily arranged, if PCB contacts ECB and request them to arrange a practice match with any county side, and they will readily arrange one. This will help Pakistan Test side to get match practice at the stadium, before actually playing a WTC Test match.
I will now present a tentative pool of players, out of which the squad can be chosen (in my opinion).
Batsmen: Abdullah Fazal, Azan Awais, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Kamran Ghulam, Saad Baig (wk), Salman Ali Agha (C), Shan Masood (can act as players’ media manager if not in playing XI) Usman Khan (wk).
Fast Bowlers: Afaq Afridi, Akif Javed, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Mir Hamza, Musa Khan, Saqib Khan.
Spinners: Abrar Ahmed, Ali Usman, Sajid Khan.
All-Rounders: Aamer Jamal, Faheem Ashraf.
https://youtu.be/FrDlJJ1r8vM?si=pPJ5RdHU0oVUPqkP
Here is a link to the YouTube video that shows the on-field heated chat between Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan and Bangladesh wicket-keeper Litton Das. It was sledging by Bangladesh fielders, and Rizwan did well not to respond again.
Pakistan former captain Babar Azam, who top-scored for Pakistan, with 68 runs addressed media after the end of Day 2 of the 2nd Test match at Sylhet.
Link of the press conference: https://youtu.be/RpAzO1xja_o?si=7i_bkTCxGftaC1hK
He mentioned that he tried his level-best to play his natural game.
Believes that turning point was his and Agha's wicket, and these two dismissals shifted the momentum.
Admits that the partnerships built were small and insignificant, acknowledges the need of building bigger partnerships in Test cricket.
Wishes Nahid Rana best of luck, saying that he is improving day by day.
Admits that when one wicket falls of Pakistan team, after that back-to-back wickets fall, and Pakistan fail to recover after that.
Says that it felt that they were ahead in this game at one point, but when partnership was broken, collapse occurred.
Mentions that senior players discuss about how to overcome the mental barrier of team collapse when a set partnership is broken.
Pakistan medium pacer Mohammad Abbas completed 1000 wickets in professional cricket, with his 3 wicket haul in the first innings of the Sylhet Test against Bangladesh yesterday. He has now, 884 first-class wickets which includes 109 Test wickets, 84 List-A wickets (include one ODI wicket) and 32 T20 wickets.
The 36 year old bagged a five-wicket haul at Dhaka, after making his comeback in Pakistan team after sixteen months.
Hello and welcome back to Guess the Player!
The answer to the last post of this series was Junaid Khan, most of you got it right, the first three being, u/Zranish, u/Chuck_007, u/MoreCryptographer213. Congratulations to all of you guys who got it right.
Before we begin, here’s a quick refresher on the rules:
Welcome to Guess the Cricketer!
I’ll post clues about a cricket player, and your job is to figure out who it is.
Type your answer like this:
>!Babar Azam!<
It will appear like this:>! Babar Azam!<
“I think it’s >!Shaheen Afridi!< . ”
Alright, now it's time for some clues on today's cricketer!
I received a phone call from an unsaved number, the person who called had a clear accent and sounded professional, unfortunately our conversation was interrupted by low battery, which meant that I couldn't call him again. His knowledge about Pakistan Cricket mindset seemed to be very good.
Pakistan women's team captain Fatima Sana scored the fastest WT20I fifty against Zimbabwe off just 15 balls at National Stadium, in her home city of Karachi. She scored 8 fours and two sixes so far, to reach this score. She breaks the joint record of Sophie Devine, Phoebe Litchfield and Richa Ghosh, who had held this record on 18 balls.
Congratulations Fatima Sana!
A single four-day game, and four one day games will be played. It's pertinent to mention that this will be Pakistan's first bilateral series since 2024 U-19 World Cup, at South Africa, after that, Pakistan team only played the 2024 U-19 Asia Cup and 2025 U-19 Asia Cup both at UAE, the 2025-26 tri-series with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe at Zimbabwe, and the 2026 U-19 World Cup at Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Good to see Pakistan U-19 play a quality side like England U-19 at England.
Pakistan Red-Ball Head Coach Sarfaraz Ahmed addressed media ahead of Sylhet Test.
Link to the press conference: https://youtu.be/8DASGyIXcGE?si=WkgOGAUFMXWolBOI
On the question regarding Babar Azam, he said that Babar Azam will be available in the 2nd Test, believes that Babar has been in very good touch in the recent past.
He hopes that Pakistan side will bounce back in the 2nd Test match. Says that his boys aren't paying attention to social media pressure, and their focus is on the game.
Says that the playing XI has been decided, but doesn't know about the atmosphere and playing conditions tomorrow, so there can be changes in the team too, after looking at the conditions. Backs Mohammad Rizwan, and hopes that he returns back to good form in wicket-keeping and batting.
Hopes that senior players will show responsibility in difficult situations, applauds Azan Awais and Abdullah Fazal for playing good cricket in the first game. Still defends the decision to bowl first at Dhaka, but reiterates that they should have shown more discipline, as Test Cricket requires better discipline.
Hello and welcome back to Guess the Player!
The answer to the last post of this series was Umar Amin, and unfortunately, none of you guessed it right.
Before we begin, here’s a quick refresher on the rules:
Welcome to Guess the Cricketer!
I’ll post clues about a cricket player, and your job is to figure out who it is.
Type your answer like this:
>!Babar Azam!<
It will appear like this: >!Babar Azam!<
“I think it’s >!Shaheen Afridi!< . ”
Alright, now it's time for some clues on today's cricketer!
A statistical overview of Salman Ali Agha's international career.
When we talk about Salman Ali Agha, we say that he is the most reliable batsman for Pakistan in the two longer formats in the last two to three years. And his numbers are a testimony to this, he has scored 6 centuries and 20 half-centuries in the 2 longer formats, only Babar Azam comes close with 4 centuries in the two longer formats since the match, Salman Ali Agha scored his first international century, which came in the 2022 Boxing Day Karachi Test against New Zealand.
Test cricket stats of Salman Ali Agha
As an individual fan, when I opened the scorecard of Pakistan vs Sri Lanka Test series in 2022, I saw a name, Agha Salman (it was his international debut series), I didn't pay attention to that name, I thought, like...just another all-rounder in the team. When he first caught my attention properly, was when he scored a fifty against England in the first Test match, I didn't expect him to score a fifty, I actually had expectations from Saud Shakeel, who was making his Test debut, I had seen his good performances in domestic cricket, but he scored some 30 odd, correct me if I am wrong. In the Boxing Day Test match against New Zealand, the same year, where he scored his maiden Test century, Babar Azam was dismissed early on Day 2 for 160 odd runs, the previous day, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Babar Azam had a 150+ partnership, I had no hope for a big score, but then Salman Ali Agha stood tall, scored a century while standing with the tail to help Pakistan post a respectable total. This century helped Pakistan break their 4 match losing streak on home soil, with a respectable draw.
Fast forward to 2023 Sri Lanka tour, 2nd Test match at Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo, Abdullah Shafique scored a double century there, perhaps his best innings after his Galle Test match-winning hundred that came in the fourth innings while chasing 340+ runs. Salman Ali Agha came to the crease after Saud Shakeel was dismissed for 57, the stage was set for an Agha masterclass, and he scored an unbeaten 132 with a strike-rate of 85, playing according to the "Pakistan Way", introduced by Mickey Arthur and Grant Bradburn, where Pakistan batsmen envisioned to score runs at an average of 4-5 runs per over in Test cricket. Pakistan posted 576/5 and eventually won the Test match by 222 runs and an innings. Salman Ali Agha was named player of the series for scoring 221 runs from 3 innings, at an average of 221. I began to believe that he is the next big thing for Pakistan Cricket.
The Australian Test series didn't go very well, he scored 141 runs in 6 innings where he scored two fifties, but overall, not a big impact. Against Bangladesh in the 2024 Test series, he managed to get 120 runs in 4 innings, and by then, I didn't have very high expectations from him. He surprised me with an unbeaten hundred at Multan against England in October 2024, the first Test match, but I knew it was a flat track, so yes, no big achievement brother. /s
He didn't have a very good outing with the bat in South Africa where he scored 86 in 4 innings, and even bad outing against West Indies followed, where he scored just 40 runs in four innings, though the pitches were spin tracks, and were difficult to bat on. Against South Africa in the home Test series, he scored a total of 170 runs including 93, but when it was needed the most, in the third innings of the second Test match, he failed to score big to help Pakistan post a bigger target for South Africa to chase at Rawalpindi.
As the Bangladesh Test series is currently underway, it is a bit early to comment on his performances in this series.
ODI Cricket stats of Salman Ali Agha
Now coming to his ODI career, I don't remember his early ODI career clearly, until his unbeaten 82 in South Africa where he helped Pakistan win at Paarl. In the next two games he scored 33 and 48, where he batted as a finisher, on both instances at an SR of over 110. He scored 134 against South Africa in the tri-series game at Karachi, it was also a flat-wicket, but a 350+ target is still big, and it was a big achievement to chase it, especially after losing 3 wickets before reaching 100, and then forming a partnership of nearly 250 runs with Mohammad Rizwan, then ODI captain, who scored an unbeaten century. Champions Trophy 2025 wasn't good for Agha, though he scored 42 off 27 in the game against New Zealand at Karachi, chasing 300+ runs, but against India, where he scored just 19 when it mattered the most.
In New Zealand ODIs, he had a not-good series, where he scored 78 runs including a fifty. In West Indies, he had a bad series, where he scored just 62 runs in 3 ODIs, where he had to stand in the 2nd and 3rd ODIs, that Pakistan lost. He scored 136 runs in the home series against South Africa, that included a 70 off over 100 balls, perfect for survival mode, but couldn't help Pakistan score a bigger total at Faisalabad's batting track, resulting in Pakistan's loss. He had a good ODI series vs. Sri Lanka, where he scored 111 runs, that included a century off 87 balls, in 2 innings, he also captained Pakistan for the first time in ODIs, in the second ODI. In 2026, against Bangladesh on pacy tracks, he scored 175 runs, including a a fifty (unfair run out) and a century (though Pakistan lost that game, but he put on a very good effort coming to bat on number six in the chase).
A deeper breakdown of Salman Ali Agha's ODI stats.
In my opinion, Salman Ali Agha is a very good middle order batsman in ODIs, and is more suited to ODIs than Tests.
T20I Cricket stats of Salman Ali Agha.
I presented the stats of Salman Ali Agha in T20I cricket, but there is nothing really important to talk about here.
Now statistically, we can see that Salman Ali Agha has been clutch in ODIs, several times, is that the reason that Pakistan Cricket fans love him?? Or because he has the ability to stitch partnerships with tailenders?? For me, personally, I begin to love Agha Jee because of Furqan Bhatti. I remember that Furqan Bhatti said in May last year, that if Agha Jee wins the T20I World Cup 2026, he will hang a large portrait of Agha Jee in his studio. Then came the "21 wala match chahiye Agha Jee!" which became so popular among Pakistan Cricket fans, even though we faced a lot of trolling by Indian fans due to this. And after that Agha Jee performed well in ODI series, besides he is one of the very few Pakistani cricketers who has got good communication skills, something that we all appreciate, because in the recent past, we had captains who would be shy and were unable to express well, in front of media, like Sarfaraz Ahmed, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shan Masood (him also, as he doesn't know how the pitch in his own country will behave when asked about it, and whether bowling first is better or batting first), so he became Pakistan Cricket fans' latest darling.
Sylhet pitch looks much more greener than the Dhaka pitch, but this time, we (cricket fans & Pakistan cricket management) shouldn't be deceived by this grass. Management should choose the playing XI wisely. Hope that Pakistan wins this time and makes better decisions.
Hello and welcome back to Guess the Player!
First of all, very sorry for the long delay between this segment posted, because of my exams going on, so we are back after 4 days.
The answer to the latest post of this series was the one and only Imran Butt, and unfortunately, none of you guessed it right.
Before we begin, here’s a quick refresher on the rules:
Welcome to Guess the Cricketer!
I’ll post clues about a cricket player, and your job is to figure out who it is.
Type your answer like this:
>!Babar Azam!<
It will appear like this: >!Babar Azam!<
“I think it’s >!Shaheen Afridi !<. ”
Alright, now it's time for some clues on today's cricketer!
She scored a marvellous hundred off just 47 deliveries, helping Pakistan women pile up 237 runs in the first T20I at Karachi's National Stadium, she was well supported by 40 odd runs from both Aliya Riaz and Gul Feroza, skipper Fatima Sana also added a finishing touch with a quickfire cameo of 20 odd runs. This also Pakistan women's highest WT20I score.
Salman Ali Agha the ODI vice-captain should be stand-in captain for this series, no need to play Shaheen in the ODI series.
Best ODI squad (according to me): Salman Ali Agha (C), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Akif Javed, Arafat Minhas, Faheem Ashraf, Hassan Nawaz, Kamran Ghulam, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shamyl Hussain, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usman Khan (wk).
Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi, are all to be rested as Australia has already named a second-string squad, no need to play seniors, we should rest them ahead of a busy red-ball season, while we can give game time to youngsters and build bench strength.
Batting is very solid, I have added Maaz Sadaqat, Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan all as options for opening slot, UK78 will bat on number 3, while Kamran Ghulam will bat on 4. Skipper Agha Jee on 5, his preferred spot in ODIs, Abdul Samad/Arafat Minhas on 6, I will prefer the former as he already debuted in ODIs and had a good PSL. Faheem Ashraf on 7, as pace-bowling all-rounder, he will be the third pacer in the team, if wickets fall early, he can be promoted to six, so that he can build up the innings.
In pace bowling attack, I have kept Akif Javed and Wasim Jnr, I don't know whether Zaman Khan or Ahmad Daniyal have fully recovered so (for death-overs bowling options), keeping these two pace bowlers, along with Rana Jee. Abrar Ahmed and Sufiyan Muqeem in the spin attack, with Agha Jee bowling off-spin, if needed, otherwise both Abrar and Sufiyan are enough to take wickets and apply pressure in the middle overs.
This squad can easily win the ODI series 3-0 against Australia in home conditions.
Pakistan women's team is currently playing an ODI series against Zimbabwe at Karachi, they lead 2-0 in the series, in the third ODI against Zimbabwe, opener Gul Feroza scored a hundred, while chasing 223 runs. Interestingly her shirt number is also 56, and her hundred celebration style is also inspired by Babar Azam.
Honestly both openers, looked very good in their batting approach, it didn't look nice when management decided to rest regular opener Muneeba Ali in the first game, but both Gul Feroza and Sadaf Shamas have looked very impressive, having put on 150 run opening partnership in each game, both of them have scored over 250 runs in 3 innings. Gul Feroza scored 2 centuries and one half century, while Sadaf Shamas has scored two fifties and one century at the time of writing this.
Hello and welcome back to Guess the Player!
The answer to the latest post of this series is indeed Aizaz Cheema, none of you guessed it right, except for u/MoreCryptographer213
Before we begin, here’s a quick refresher on the rules:
Welcome to Guess the Cricketer!
I’ll post clues about a cricket player, and your job is to figure out who it is.
Type your answer like this:
>!Babar Azam!<
It will appear like this: >!Babar Azam!<
“I think it’s >!Shaheen Afridi!<. ”
Alright, now it's time for some clues on today's cricketer!
Right arm medium pace bowler Mohammad Abbas made his Test side return after 15 months.
Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/T6d_BBzNdak?si=Ze4-HVEJQm9jyi0g
He believes that Pakistan worked hard, but were unlucky that they had chances but didn't get wickets. He called the pitch a good cricketing pitch rather than a batting wicket. He said that although the grass was on top, but beneath the grass, the pitch was in fact quite dry. Credits Bangladesh for batting well.
He defended the decision of bowling first, saying that any team that would've won the toss here would have done the same. Mentioned that no-balls resulted from fatigue due to putting extra effort bowling spells in the hostile weather, terms the six no-balls from Nauman Ali as unexpected.
He backed the batting line-up to perform well and hopes that the bowling gets early breakthroughs next morning and restrict Bangladesh on total as low as possible.
