Pakistan squad for Asia cup 2012, Dave Whatmore new coach.Tag
Asia cup 2012
Dave Whatmore is a proven coach at international level, specially among asian teams, helping Bangladesh and Sri Lanka reach a peak and his contributions changed KKR's fortunes in IPL 2011. Now, after almost a year of rethinking, Pakistan have officially appointed Whatmore as their head coach and his first assignment is Asia cup for which selectors have announced an allround 15 member squad..Misbah-ul-Haq's defensive captainship worked well against England's aggression in test series in UAE but same went against him in following ODI and T20 series. now, with all top asian teams gathering at one place and knowing each others play, Misbah's leadership will define green team's performance. Misbah's bat too hasn't yielded enough runs but he seems settled in the job for the time being. Mohammad Hafeez was in superb form starting last year but he didn't make most of it and now his luck had run out quite a bit. For his effective spin bowling, he remains the first choice opener in the team but Imran Farhat has been removed to bring in Nasir Jamshed who last represented Pakistan in August 2009. Will Hafeez and Jamshed end opening musical chairs? Younis Khan, with Misbah, will give solidarity to middle order with Umar Akmal who's been relaxed off keeping gloves. Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali are two test certainties given chance in limited overs format and so far they haven't done too bad. With Shoaib Mallik dropped, and hence delima gone, each of these players will feel secure for the tournament and should be on top of their game. Hammad Azam is a young hard hitting middle order right handed batsman emerging from under-19 cricket and will be given chances to finish innings. Shahid Afridi has recently started to put some value behind his wicket and he's been bowling superbly, making himself the shephered of this Pakistani team for asia cup. Afridi has played all other three teams several times and conditions will be the way he likes'em. Sarfraz Ahmed returns to the fold after Adnan Akmal's bat didn't find runs against England. Ahmed is a secure wicket keeper but his batting again isn't as impressive. Selectors have made it clear this will be Sarfraz' last chance. Umar Gul lead the pace attack which has been retricted to only two other options in Aizaz Cheema and Wahab Riaz. Pakistan have a well balanced and in-form spin attack in Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman to go with Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez but all other competing teams play slow bowling very well and hence an addition seamer may have been useful. Ahmed Shehzad, Rahat Ali, Bilawal Bhatti and Afaq Rahim are named as reserves.
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