Abdul Razzaq, the best of the Paki allrounders has been held in the spotlight at Test match level again. This isnt the first time when he has been questioned about his place in the test side. He brings in a bit of medium pace, nothing special, and batting at No.6 or 7 as the situation requires.
However, the makeup of the Paki cricket side in recent times has made them go for 3 genuine bowlers since Razzaq is an automatic choice it seems. I think he is a bit overrated to be called the 4th bowler or first change. Thats how he is being played at the moment when it comes to bowling. He is more of a stop bowler who should play as a 5th option in test matches. There is no doubt that on moving wicket in England or Australia he would be the automatic choice as all rounder but now in the presense of Shoaib Malik, I think the Paki team is blessed. They could utilize them better by choosing between them according to the pitch or the situation rather than playing them both together and compromising on a genuine test batsman or wicket taking bowler. Thats where the team seems lacking the moment. Saying that if Malik could start opening the batting successfully then there is no issue, we could get the extra bowler we need.
Anyway, there is no doubt about Razzaq's talent and he is definitely an automatic choice in any one-day side of the world. In fact both Malik and Razzaq make it into any side of the world in ODIs but for test matches you need specialists.
The skeleton make up of the Paki test Team should be:
Two Genuine openers, The big 3, The allrounder, Keeper, 3 pacemen, 1 spinner. Very similiar to Australia it seems but we have the talent to fill those spots easily. You need attacking wicket taking bowlers to get 20 wickets in a test match, its an age old formula.
There needs to be better utilization of resources rather than players playing on reputation.
Formally published at SPORTINGO.com
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