From bigstarcricket.com Mushtaq Mohammed I will be hoping, like all passionate Pakistan fans, that we can win the World Cup in the West Indies. But I have to say there are a few selections that worry me. The selection of Imran Nazir as one of the openers is wrong, Kamran Akmal shouldn’t be there if form means anything, and how the selectors can include three seamers who are all injured at the moment is a massive risk. If we start with the case of Imran Nazir, there is no doubt that he is a talented stroke player but batting him at the top of the order is a gamble because he lacks discipline and his shot selection is poor. I would have Shoaib Malik opening and any one of Mohammed Hafeez or Salman Butt, who has been treated unfairly. He scored a couple of good centuries and has not figured much since. The way Kamran Akmal has been tried opening has proved to be a mistake. He is ok coming in at number seven but no higher. But you could justifiably argue why he is in the team at all. I would like to ask my old team-mate Wasim Bari, who is now the chairman of selectors, that if he kept and batted as poorly as Akmal has done on the last three tours, would he expect to still be in the team? I am pretty sure the answer would be ‘no’. Maybe he will come good, as he has been in the past, but he has certainly had enough chances. Kamran Akmal has been riding his luck for the last two or three tours. If Wasim Bari would have kept for me like Kamran Akmal has for Inzamam, I would have dropped him a long time ago. Regarding the fast bowlers, I can understand the selectors taking a chance because Mohammad Asif has been their best bowler, while Umar Gul is much improved and Shoaib Akhtar can be a match winner so I can understand them taking a calculated risk on him for his match-winning potential. But I just think picking three injury doubts as your first choice seam attack is too much. That surprised me. If Shoaib does make the World Cup after his recent troubles with his knee, I’ve got my doubts about him lasting the tournament. His captain cannot rely on him. As I have said, he can be a match winner but he needs to come down to earth and start to put his priorities right. His first job is to get fit and to be honest with himself and be fair to the rest of the team. He needs to take more responsibility and be more grown up because he has been quite controversial for quite some time and now he has to focus on his game and try to win the World Cup for Pakistan. Danish Kaneria was a positive choice and I have no problem with Danish in there. He’s a poor fielder and a non-batsman but he is also a wicket-taking bowler, he’s fully committed to Pakistan cricket, gives the captain all he has and you can’t ask any more. The lack of a good one-day spinner gives him a chance to establish himself in one-day cricket. Looking at the bigger picture, apart from Australia, I can see Sri Lanka doing well. We all know about Murali and Vaas, while Kumar Sangakkara is a class act. Sri Lanka are also the best fielding side amongst the South Asian teams. They are much more agile and alert. They are my outside tip apart from the obvious one of Australia. Former Pakistan captain and coach Mushtaq Mohammed played 57 Test matches and played in the 1975 World Cup Post your comments on this article to fans@bigstarcricket.com and see them published.
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