PK vs WI - Tough one to Call

The series which could have easily been labeled as a preparation for the World Cup for Pakistan is much more now of TOUGH CALL. With the exclusion of the SPEARHEADs of the Paki Bowling attack and the Performance of Windies at the Champions Trophy I think we are better off playing safe on the preview if not giving Windies a bit of an edge here.

The Windies are a different team when it comes to Test Matches, I think they are also a confidence team and they are no where short on confidence at the moment. The players dont change much from both formats hence the current confidence carries to the Test matches as well. The likes of Gayle, Chanderpaul and Lara, being lefties, should easily handle the only proven threat of the Paki Leggie Kaneria at this moment. Their only concern could be their bowling and lack of wicket takers but I would look forward to seeing the growth of Jerome Taylor and consistency of Fidel Edwards.

For the Pakis they need at least one of their backup pace bowlers to come up big otherwise there could be long days in the field for them. Umar Gul will lead the attack with two unturned stones. I am expecting calls for Samiullah Niazi & Shahid Nazir to accompany Umar and Kaneria. Pakistan's strength is their batting and all the big guns need to fire.

Its an age old fact that Bowlers win you test matches and I dont think Pakistan has the bowling this series to take those 20 wickets unless of course one of the dark horses come to life. Its going to be a long series for Pakistan, I think but hopefully a learning one for everyone.

As for batting, we shouldnt expect much changes from the One Day lineup from Windies other than players playing their own positions now. Pakis however should play the recalled Hameed instead of Imran Farhat with Hafeez. Being a die-hard Pakistani fan I ll just post my preferred lineup for Pakistan which is:

Openers: M. Hafeez & Yasir Hameed
Middle Order: Younis Khan, Inzimam, M.Yousuf,
Lower Middle Order: K. Akmal, A. Razzaq
Lower Order: Shahid Nazir, Umar Gul, Samiullah Niazi, Kaneria

NOTE: Shoaib Malik goes missing it seems but he might replace Razzaq to give another spin option rather than replacing a genuine pacer in Nazir/Niazi which usually is what we are inclined to. He should not replace Yasir Hameed. We need to establish a genuine opening pair and Hameed should play.

The attitude of the selection team should be THINK WORLD CUP. We need openers and fast bowlers. The attitude of the players has to be PLAY TO YOUR BEST.

Series Starts SATURDAY, 11th November.