Philosophy and Criteria for Selection of Pakistani Team for Asia Cup and World Cup..!

Players selected for a national team are beyond the ordinary, or should be beyond the ordinary.

If there is no change in the attitude of the players, however; if there is no change in the selection process; if there is no change in the personality and quality of coaches to get the players to listen to them and to try and follow their instructions; and if there is no change in the quality of players coming out of the domestic competitions, the result will be the same – probably even worse.

In the modern day game of cricket the captain, coach and the chief selector are the three main pillars, absolutely responsible for the performance of the team.

Now, we are also seeing the evolution of the fourth pillar i.e., the mentor of the team, generally called as the Team Director.

These four pillars must not select the team before they have chalked out the strategy of the matches to be played with their players.

All planning must have a clear objective and should be obviously based on the playing conditions to be faced by the team.

After the strategy the selection process should be based on the following principles:

– Select horses for courses.

– Be ruthless in team selection with emotions getting no place in the realm of the national prestige.

– Remove any iota of likes/dislikes and strictly adhere to the merit policy, not entertaining any undeserving recommendations, from any level.

– No physically unfit player should be selected at any cost.

– No player should be selected if he is not fitting in the mould of the earlier formulated strategy.

The following players may be considered for the Pakistani Squad.

1. Muhammad Hafeez (Captain and opening batsman).

2. Awais Zia (Most hard hitting left handed swashbuckling opening batsman in the country, who can take the attack to the opposition and turn the tables in the first 6 power play overs).

3. Baber Azam (He is an all rounder and excellent fielder who can also confidently open the innings, if required).

4. Sharjeal Khan (He has the advantage of being a hard hitting left handed batsman, who can also open the innings).

5. Umar Akmal (Vice Captain. He must not be sent below one down. Also the standby wicket keeper).

6. Sarfraz Ahmad (Wicket keeper. He must not bat below two down).

7. Imad Wasim (One of the best all rounder in the country, who is an excellent fielder, as well).

8. Anwar Ali (All rounder and an excellent world class fielder. He can also be used as an opening batsman as per requirement of the situation).

9. Zulfiquar Baber (Best turner of the ball. Left arm spinner).

10. Muhammad Nawaz (An extremely promising 22 years All rounder, basically a left handed orthodox spinner and LH batsman).

11. Zafar Gohar (21 years young very agile in the field, slow left arm orthodox and reasonably reliable left handed batsman).

12. Shahid Afridi (He deserves inclusion in the team on the basis of his spin bowling and his excellent track record against the Indian team).

13. Muhammad Amir (Highly talented LH pacer. An asset for any team in the world).

14. Junaid Khan (Left arm pacer, who has recently rediscovered his magic. Extremely talented player).

15. Bilawal Bhatti (Right arm pacer who can bat reasonably; well fit for the T20 format. Moreover T20 game is not Wahab Riaz’s cup of tea and BB is more fitter than Umar Gul, as well. Further, BB is preferred over Muhammad Irfan, due to Irfan’s poor fielding abilities and below Muhallah level teams batting abilities).

We should not be afraid to repose trust in the young generation players named above; and also not be shy of changing the captain at this late hour, because even Australia has today, changed its T20 leadership for the T20 World Cup, by replacing Smith with Finch.

Best of luck for the Pakistani cricketers.