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u/Spirited-Command-839

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Babar's return to captaincy is a marriage of convenience
▲ 17 r/PakCricket

Babar's return to captaincy is a marriage of convenience

"Like a subsidised lodger who storms out of his rented room after a quarrel before realising he has nowhere else to go, the board has meekly turned right back around and asked Babar if they might co-habit once more."

The decline of our cricketing fortunes post-2023 has led to us perhaps viewing the days of Misbah, Sarfaraz and Babar in perhaps a better light from a nostalgic viewpoint. It serves as silent vindication for Babar. I suppose, now that he has the captaincy, he's got the best chance to show what Pakistani cricket were missing.

Cricinfo made another article on Shaheen's decline in test cricket, with him not being played in favorable conditions. Unless a miracle happens though I don't see us becoming a world beating side anytime soon. Guess I'll be happy if we can win a couple of the next 5 tests.

cricinfo.com
u/Spirited-Command-839 — 14 hours ago
▲ 5 r/PakCricket

PCB reworking Domestic cricket

The main changes will be to the amount departmental sides pay the PCB and the amount that domestic players are earning. Departmental sides are now gonna pay triple the money they paid last year to the PCB. A PCB official said "The fee is increased due to inflation and not to fill PCB's coffers" though I certainly doubt the validity of this claim. I'm happy that players will presumably earn more money but I dunno if this departmental system is gonna be profitable anymore for the departments, because PCB seems pretty focused to suck any money out of these corporations.

Lots of other things happening with PCB having chaos over selection for the next two series, with no clarity over Saud and Rizwan's fitness or what bowling attack they will send to West Indies and England.

cricinfo.com
u/Spirited-Command-839 — 8 days ago
▲ 41 r/PakCricket

PCB's new central contract policy

I am a skeptic. This looks suspiciously like a policy to remove any notion of 'A' category contracted players (multi-format players), despite every possibility of the Track AB players being able to play in T20s.

The other major headlines talked about in the press conference was the introduction of selection based on databases. Apparently 85% of selection will be handled through data while the rest 15% will be handled by selectors. Which sounds like the data will shortlist 30 or so players but the final decision-making will always be with the selectors.

Aqib was asked a pretty embarrassing question about the failures in his tenure and asked Naqvi why he's kept such a clown in the board who's obviously just buying time with these new schemes and empty promises, to which Aqib once again went on tangents about home bilateral successes.

u/Spirited-Command-839 — 21 days ago
▲ 51 r/PakCricket

Hasan Ali and Shaheen Afridi likely to be dropped for M Ali and Ubaid Shah for the Tests vs West Indies

With both Hasan Ali and Shaheen Afridi not being a part of the red ball camp in the NCA, it is quite obvious that they both will be replaced by 2 or 3 of the newer pacers in that camp, which include Saqib Khan, Mohammad Ali, Shahnawaz Dahani and Ubaid Shah. What do you all think about this and are Ali and Ubaid good replacements?

In some other news:
- Maaz Sadaqat has appendicitis which is why he couldn't play yesterday's National T20 Cup final (he was supposed to play for Abbotabad in place of Fakhar). His appendicitis surgery went well.
- The PCB asked Shan to step down from test captaincy but Shan said he wants to captain in the next two series. Apparently the PCB sees very few capable replacements. A decision will be taken soon enough.

u/Spirited-Command-839 — 28 days ago
▲ 4 r/PakCricket

49 players to take part in NCA Red ball and White ball camps

The PCB has announced red ball and white ball camps in the NCA. 22 players in the red ball camp taking place from 8 June till 10 July, and 27 players taking part in the white ball camp taking place from 15 June till 18 September.

22 red-ball camp players in alphabetical order:

Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Fazal, Abrar Ahmed, Ali Usman, Amad Butt, Azan Awais, Babar Azam, Imam ul Haq, Khurram Shehzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Muhammad Awais Zafar, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, Obaid Shah, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saqib Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shahzad Gul and Shan Masood

27 white-ball camp players in alphabetical order:

Abdul Samad, Abdul Subhan, Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Arafat Minhas, Faisal Akram, Fakhar Zaman, Farhan Yousaf, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Khawaja Muhammad Nafay, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Razaullah, Rohail Nazir, Saad Baig, Saad Masood, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Sameer Minhas, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shamyl Hussain, Sufyan Moqim and Usman Khan

Since the list is quite long, I'll mention some things I noticed:
- Hunain Shah isn't here but Ubaid Shah is in the red-ball camp.
- Noman Ali isn't here, which makes me think they'll pick one of Abrar or Ali Usman.
- No Afaq Afridi or Hasan Ali but we might see Shehzad Gul, Saqib Khan, Mohammad Ali, Dahani or Ubaid Shah getting picked.
- Razaullah is the weirdest pick for me since he has a grand total of 12 white ball matches with a batting average of 12 and a bowling average of 50.
- Shaheen is in the white ball camp not the red ball camp which indicates he isn't being considered for the WI test series.
- Awais Zafar is also here, so he might be the backup middle order batter and not Ghulam.

pcb.com.pk
u/Spirited-Command-839 — 29 days ago
▲ 126 r/PakCricket

Arafat Minhas is the Player of the Series vs Australia in his debut series

I'm not sure if this feat has been achieved by a Pakistani before (it must have been), but anyways, great job from him. He was spinning it well while being economical despite bowling some overs in the powerplay in each game, he showed some good technique in his batting although that is a work in progress, and he fielded well too. I wanted him in the team as far back as 2024 but he was forgotten because of the favorites of some selectors. Now that he's here I hope he stays for a while. Not just in ODIs but he should be in T20s and could be a test prospect in the future too.

u/Spirited-Command-839 — 1 month ago
▲ 10 r/PakCricket

Players included in NCA White Ball Camp

These players have a chance of being part of the ODI squad vs Australia.

In alphabetical order:
Amir Jamal
Abdul Samad
Abdul Subhan
Abrar Ahmed
Ahmed Daniyal
Akif Javed
Ali Raza
Arafat Minhas
Faisal Akram
Fakhar Zaman
Haider Ali
Hamza Nazar
Haris Rauf
Hunain Shah
Khawaja Nafay
Maaz Sadaqat
Mehran Mumtaz
Mohammad Faiq
Mohammad Hasnain
Salman Mirza
Naseem Shah
Saad Baig
Saad Masood
Sahibzada Farhan
Shadab Khan
Shamyl Hussain
Sufiyan Moqim
Usman Khan

Strange Inclusions:
Hamza Nazar and Khawaja Nafay

Guys missing out:
Haseebullah, Hussain Talat, Kamran Ghulam, Hassan Nawaz, Shahzaib Khan, Saim Ayub

pcb.com.pk
u/Spirited-Command-839 — 2 months ago
▲ 12 r/PakCricket

Test Middle Order Problem

These are the statistics for our middle order batters in the last 1.5 years. In this period we have lost 5 out of 7 games, with middle order collapses leading to most of these defeats.

We used to view the middle order as a strength some time ago, and on paper they still have a decent record, but recently the numbers show that they've made very little impact.

I don't wanna be a pessimist but with these performances I don't think we're winning test matches a whole lot.

u/Spirited-Command-839 — 2 months ago
▲ 31 r/PakCricket

1st Image: Team of the Tournament
2nd Image: Emerging Team of the Tournament

I'd make two changes to the Team of the Tournament.

Firstly, Arafat over Hassan (more runs and wickets in lesser games)

Secondly, Mohammad Ali over Gleeson (Unless there's a rule for every team having at most three players in TOTT, this is an obvious change).

u/Spirited-Command-839 — 2 months ago
▲ 49 r/PakCricket

He will be playing the President's Trophy Grade-II in May and June (this tournament is usually not played by top-class players because it doesn't count as first class).

He has also signed a contract with PTV where his brother Arafat also plays and the captain is 21 year old Shamyl Hussain.

PTV's head coach Muhammad Wasim says that he usually picks younger, more aggressive players in the side. He wants Shamyl and Sameer to open the batting in red-ball and play aggressively. Several of the younger players in his squad have strike rates in excess of 70 and 80 in 4-day cricket.

Sameer's father says that red-ball cricket is the backbone of any batter. He says that Sameer should play every season of FC cricket even if he has broken into the Pakistan team in the future.

u/Spirited-Command-839 — 2 months ago