South Africa Test Squad Against Pakistan

Today, Pakistan cricket team flies for Johannesburg from Lahore. Pakistan test team captain Misbah-ul-haq is confident of performing well for a challenging series against number one side starting next month. According to him the role of spinners will be important in this tour. He also belief that players need to show extra effort in the field to make competition health.

Mean while South Africa announced their squad for three test matches against Pakistan which will be played in Johannesburg, Capetown and Centurion respectively. Philander is back after recovering his hamstring injury and is the part of test squad. He is doing a decent job in bowling depart and has made his mark quickly in international Cricket.

South Africa Test Squad Against Pakistan:

Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Rory Kleinveldt,Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Robin Peterson, Alviro Petersen, Vernon Philander, Jacques Rudolph.
 

 
 

Top 20 Professional T-20 players

When it comes to professional T-20 players, it is not about entertaining people or get big sum of cash from leagues. It is also about commitment, hard work and devotion. Actually it is all that makes you a good professional T-20 player. More than that the players enlisted here are also on the criterion of playing for different leagues (at least more than one). That is an extra addition with being a professional T-20 player.Perhaps, it is only to highlight T-20 performers who play worldwide. Here are top 20 Twenty-20 professional players.    

                    20         Jacob Oram(NZ)

                    19    Shane Warne (Aus)         

                                                  18    Matt Prior(Eng) 

                    17    Shahid Afridi(Pak) 

                    16    Brett Lee(Aus)

                    15    Shakib Al Hasan (Ban)

                    14    Dwayne Smith(WI)

                    13    Herschelle Gibbs(SA)

                    12    Saeed Ajmal (Pak)

                    11    Yasir Arafat(Pak)

                    10    Adam Gilchrist(Aus)

                    09    Sunil Narine (WI)

                    08    Brendon Mccullum(NZ)

                    07    Kieron Pollard(WI)

                    06   Tilkaratne Dilshan(SRI)

                    05   Jacques Kallis(SA)

                    04   AB De Villiers(SA)

                    03   Azhar Mahmmod(Pak)

                    02   Lasith Malinga (Sri)

                    01   Chris Gayle(WI) 

    This list will vary from time to time as many extra ordinary specialist players are entering in to different leagues. Let us see who will be next in Top 20 professional T-20 Players list in this blog.  

    

Khan, Kumar and Kulasekara Unplayable From New Ball

Bowling requires a great physical effort and it needs a lot of fitness. But it is not enough to pick wickets. It is also not necessary that a bowler should have some devilish looks to under pressed the batsman . Khan, Kumar and Kulasekra don't look so horrible at all.

Khan, Kumar and Kulasekra

However they are the ones who have been well aware of their strengths i.e bowling sharp in-swingers to right hand batsman. Also they can bowl the other one pretty well. Perhaps, they are not as fast as those who bowl with them from the other end- Irfan, Malinga and Sharma. But they make sure that the batsman may find himself helpless against them. They have really make the life of batsman completely horrible when they come out to face them. Whether, it is Nasir Jamshed who scored two centuries against India recently, was forced to avoid playing B. Kumar as he picked him on the first ball in a T-20 match. Also he is more known in Indian team of picking Tendulkar on duck in domestic match.Also, Indian team whose well known top order collapsed by brilliant bowling of Junaid Khan. And today, N. Kulasekara who pick up fifer against Australian and restrict them on 74. Thanks to Aussie tail as they resist a bit to score more than 70 which is their previous lowest total in an ODI.

The three of them become pretty difficult to read from the new ball. As they bowl in and out with out changing anything in their action which may assist the batsman to play them. N. Kulasekra is not any new entry in Srilankan line-up like the other two, he has been bowling splendid well since couple of years for Srilankans. His disciplinary bowling is an extra advantage which you may not found in the other two. And that is because he is an experienced campaigner. But that is for sure they both will learn quickly as the time passes.

Also on the other hand you can't forget there partners which look deadly from their stances. Malinga's hair and slingy action, Sharma's hair (it may some times give him problem more than others) and his good height. lastly but the latest, extra ordinary height and bowls consistently with 140+ kph bowler- Muhammad Irfan. They definitely support them from the other end. Perhaps, sometime more than that. But in Test Cricket format we will find that Khan, Kumar and Kulasekra (he is doing that) supporting others from their discipline which is the key of bowling in test cricket.

Australia Anxious About Ashes

Australia loses the services of Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey from International cricket freshly, pulling Australia to back once again. The most important task for Australia is not to face a white wash in Ashes this year in England. Australia have never being anxious about T-20 world cup as if they did they might be the world champions at least once in the format but they never did it. Neither they worry about the ranking in ICC. Also it looks like they lost the focus in ODI's too. They have got an inexperienced team against a well known team of Asia who has been showing a promising performance in the last three years in all the major tournaments of ICC. Also, Micheal Clarke injury can be resulted as a lost of the series against Srilanka in ODI's. David Hussey is regarding to be the successor of Mike Hussey in the Australian team has lot to do in the absence of Micheal Clarke in the start of the series and need to prove a-lot this year.

South Africa and England are looking promising to be the giants of Test cricket for the long term and are fighting hard to maintain it. Aussie is on the third at the present. They will be playing four test matches against India in India before they go for the Ashes. This time they will be playing in Asian conditions and the only well known player is Micheal Clarke who can play well against Indian spinners on Asian track.

Mike Hussey- A shot played by few Non Asians in Asian Pitches

 If let us suppose Pakistan prove to show a better performance against South Africa and India may won the series against Australia so it may causes Australia to move to fourth or fifth in ICC test ranking which they definitely concern before going for Ashes. More over it may causes England to move top at the table. In 2011 world cup these two teams had pulled Australia out of the tournament, first Pakistan and then India in the group and quarter finals of the tournament respectively. But that is not as easy as it looks like, South Africa looking invincible against New Zealand and on the other hand Indian cricket team has lost a Test Match series and One day series against England and Pakistan respectively in the period of two months. Also Srilanka being white washed by Australia which gives them a good momentum to do better against an Asian team in the end of the next month.
It will be a serious contest among the top five teams later on this year in the test format. And the result of matches will concern each other a-lot. Australia although may not be looking greatly to go on the top of the chart but still they will be trying to show some good performance in the Ashes which is there serious concern.

Pakistan Test Squad Against South Africa

After beating their rivals on the ground, Its time now for Pakistan team to beat the number one test team in the world. South Africa is currently playing second test match against New-Zealand and will play against Pakistan in next month.
Pakistan Cricket board has announced the squad which will be leading by Misbah-ul-haq. Under his captaincy Pakistan had never lose a single test match.

Surprise Packages:

Akmal Brothers are axed:

This is some what a surprising to see after a long time not a single Akmal brother is included in the test squad. Adnan Akmal who has been a consistent keeper for Pakistan test team is not include. Sarfaraz Ahmed is chosen as a wicket keeper. Umar Akmal inclusion is not surprising in the test squad as he is not showing some great performances from his bat.

The Giant is selected for the test:

7'1" tall Muhammad Irfan who has shown a marvelous performance against India is selected in the test squad. Perhaps not pick so many wickets but was unplayable with the new ball. After the first ODI against India there was questions regarding his fitness in the depth over of the play. May be he was selected as he bowls extraordinary well with the new ball but his fitness could be the issue. He has to be chosen wisely for the team 11 in any of the test. And if selected he should take care of his fitness. More over after that there will be ODI's and T-20 matches. So his fitness will be the key. Other than that conditions of South Africa's pitches will support him greatly.

Nasir Jamshed's Inclusion:

Well he is a surprise in the sense that in the presence of Taufeeq Umar and Hafeez he is included. But his inclusion was actually because of his performance against India in ODI's. His performance was extra ordinary against India scoring two consecutive hundred. Probably the best batsman to face against South Africa from Pakistan at present considering his performance against India. He is also being compared with Saeed Anwar, very few times it happens when a Pakistani Batsman is being compared. But that all was against a bowling line up which is struggling greatly. He has to take care against bowlers like Philander, Steyn and Morkel. Also Kallis can create some problems with old ball. So all in all he will be facing against the best bowling attack in the world. Also if he is inducted may be we will see Hafeez playing down the order. And the biggest Problem for Pakistan in the test series will be their batting not the bowling. So he may be there to fix it.  

Pakistan team in this tour going with four fast bowlers and two spinners. And as the condition suggest they will be playing with 3+1 bowlers rather than 2+2 which they pursue in Dubai conditions. And they have got very proficient bowlers to attack South African batting line up. Also Muhammad Hafeez will be a great support to the bowling line-up. 

Pakistan team playing first test match after almost half a year. Besides, not playing since six months they are at spot 4 in ICC ranking of test. Still they need to play out of the skin to play and beat the best test cricket team in the world. 

Pakistan Test Squad Against South Africa:

Misbah-ul Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Nasir Jamshed, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Faisal Iqbal, Taufiq Umar, Mohammad Irfan, Sarfraz Ahmed(WK), Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Ehsan Adil, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Haris Sohail.