Well played, but some advice

If Afridi bats at the top and brings in Wahab Riaz as an opening bowler, we might have a chance against Sri Lanka.

For the first hour of our opening World Cup match against Kenya, Pakistani fans could be forgiven for suffering a depressing bout of déjà vu. As we limped through the first 10 overs and lost both our opening batsmen, the performance was reminiscent of our disastrous tournament-ending loss to Ireland in 2007. Thankfully, normal service was soon resumed and Pakistan dominated the rest of the match. Younus Khan, Misbahul Haq and the Akmal brothers scored half-centuries, taking their team to a total beyond 300. Skipper Shahid Afridi then ran through the Kenyan batting line-up, picking up five wickets while conceding only 16 runs. Yes, it was a comprehensive victory, but recall that the Kenyans scored only 69 in their first match against New Zealand.

Thanks to the vagaries of the tournament structure, Pakistan can afford to lose their next match against Sri Lanka on February 26. In fact, we now only have to beat minnows Canada and Zimbabwe to make it through to the quarter-finals. But Sri Lanka is one of the favourites for the World Cup and a win against them would be morale boosting and could help us face an easier opponent in the quarter-finals.

There are a couple of changes we might have to make to compete with the Sri Lankans, who are sure to be full of self-confidence, given that they are playing at home and their batsmen are in good form. The match against Kenya showed that Abdul Razzaq, in the twilight of his career, does not possess the speed to be an effective opening bowler. And by putting our two biggest hitters, Afridi and Razzaq, at numbers seven and eight in the batting line-up, we are denying ourselves the opportunity to get the most of their talents. If Afridi puts himself at the top of the order and brings in Wahab Riaz as an opening bowler, we might just have a chance against the mighty Sri Lankans.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2011.