Comment: Hafeez’s absence likely to lend balance to eleven

Muhammad Hafeez is the latest edition to the ever-expanding Pakistan list of injured and unavailable players but if the team management put their thinking cap on, this can surely be the proverbial blessing in disguise.

Hafeez’s departure means that back-up opener Sarfraz Ahmed is now set to be slotted in at the top of the order with Ahmed Shehzad.

Sarfraz notched his ODI best of 65 in only his second match as an opener against Australia last October and was the only silver lining in a batting line-up that surrendered all three ODIs to the visitors.

By pushing Sarfraz to the top of the order, Pakistan would now have a spot vacant for a fifth regular bowler and hopefully the think tank is thinking on similar lines.



The greenshirts suffered due to the absence of a fifth regular bowler in no uncertain terms in their final ODI before the World Cup — a 119 run hammering against the Black Caps at Napier.

The 12 overs shared between Haris Sohail, Younus Khan and Shehzad went for 93 runs and certainly Pakistan can’t afford such a luxury in the most demanding tournament on wickets that are producing heaps of runs.

India, Pakistan’s first opponents in the group stage received a royal hammering at the Adelaide Oval as hosts Australia amassed 371 in a warm-up match on Sunday despite captain MS Dhoni using the entire bowling strength at his disposal.

Misbahul Haq needs five regular bowlers on an Adelaide track that has recently acquired the reputation of being a batting paradise.

With Sarfraz opening, Pakistan can bolster their batting prowess by the induction of hard-hitting Sohaib Maqsood. Misbah and co chose to bench one of their potential match-winning batsmen in pursuit of ‘balance’ in the playing eleven.

But if the management opts to stick with Younus for the opening World Cup salvo, Sohaib would contest the number six batting spot with Umar Akmal. Pakistan desperately need some bold decision-making and the induction of both Sohaib and Umar in the line-up improves their chances of posting or chasing down a 300-plus score against India.

Younus can be fielded against South Africa and the West Indies, two teams with potent fast bowling attacks. Against India, though, Pakistan must enter the fray all guns blazing and impose themselves on bowlers who are short on confidence after the mauling they received in the tri-series and the opening warm-up tie.

Hafeez has been replaced in the World Cup squad by Nasir Jamshed but the indications are that the burly left-hander may not feature in the game against India.

Nasir has a psychological edge over the arch-rivals through the three consecutive hundreds he scored in 2012-13, but even without him Pakistan possess the armoury to come up trumps and break the 23-year-old Indian stranglehold of victories in World Cup games.

BATTING LINE-UP:

Suggested eleven against India

Ahmed Shehzad

Sarfraz Ahmed

Sohaib Maqsood

Misbahul Haq

Haris Sohail

Umar Akmal

Shahid Afridi

Wahab Riaz

Yasir Shah

Sohail Khan

Muhammad Irfan 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th,  2015.

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