Shahid Afridi And Misbah Should Exchange Places In Pakistan Batting Line Up

Afridi and Misbah can exchange their current batting places to make more efficient use of the batting resources. Asad Shafiq and Yunis are perfect choices for #3 and #4. The strike rate could take a beating if Misbah follows Yunis and the batting becomes monotonous. If Shahid Afridi bats at #5 he can give impetus to the innings from other end. So far Pakistan is playing all the steady batsmen like Shafiq, Yunis, and Misbah in a sequence followed by all the aggressors like Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, and Abdul Razzak one after other.

Pakistan can strike a good balance by playing Shahid Afridid at #5 and Misbah at #7. Having all the aggressors and big hitters down the order will not be productive either.

Experts are claiming that the Pakistan does not have a strong batting line up, but I think against the bowling attack that is left in the rest of World Cup 2011, Pakistan has the best batting line up. 

If Shoib Akhtar has to be given a chance he must be strictly told not to bowl on legs, short balls and full tosses.

India Should Play Three Fast Bowlers And Drop Harbhajan Against Pakistan

India dropped non-performing member Yusuf Pathan against Australia and found it beneficial. India must drop the other non-performing member of the Indian team. Harbhajan has done nothing of significance in this World Cup and in fact that has been true for the last four to five years. Harbhajan Singh must be replaced with a third seamer. Sreesanth must play instead of Harbhajan.

Harbhajan has been particularly ineffective against Pakistan. Pakistan batsmen are adept at playing spin. Harbhajan Singh is unlikely to cause any trouble for Pakistan batsmen. It would be ridiculous to persist with Harbhajan and play him further in the World Cup. Bishen Singh Bedi or Maninder Singh at this time would be more effective than Harbhahajan Singh has been for a long time.

Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf/Nehra should be playing against Pakistan. Ashwin will play as the specialist spinner and India has multiple part-time spinners who are as much capable as specialist spinners. 

Sachin Tendulkar Is The Special Person That Yuvraj Said He Is Playing For In World Cup 2011

Speculations are rife after Yuvraj Singh said that he wants to win this World Cup or something like that for a 'Special Person.' The Special Person is Sachin Tendulkar. The whole nation wants the World Cup for Sachin Tendulkar. By stating he wants to win the World Cup for a special person, Yuvraj Singh is reflecting the mood of majority of the Indian cricket fans. Once again cricket experts are not spot on. Everyone is making their guess, but none of them has mentioned Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin Tendulkar despite all the records could not win a World Cup for the team. A fact realized by everyone including Yuvraj Singh.  Everyone of them also realize that this is going to be the last World Cup, including Yuvraj Singh and the other teammates. Yuvraj realizes the greater importance in winning this World Cup because Sachin Tendulkar will not be there around for the next World Cup. Yuvraj Singh will be still around in the next World Cup and win it if he does not do it this time, but Sachin will not be there in the next World Cup. Yuvraj Singh, other teammates, and whole lot of Indian cricket fans wants this World Cup for Sachin Tendulkar who does not have a single trophy despite having featured in most number of World Cups along with Miandad.

Senseless Shaun Tait Wins Quarterfinal For India By Doing A Shoib Akhtar

Kudos to Yuvraj Singh for holding his strong nerves and kudos to Zaheer Khan for another brilliant and timely performance with the ball and keeping India in the match. Yuvraj Singh once again proved that he is greatest Indian one day batsman of all time and one of the greatest match winner of all time. Kudos to the Indian team for edging Australia out of the World Cup 2011.

Shaun Tait's performance won the quarterfinal for India more than the brilliant individual performances by Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gambhir, and Ashwin. A billion of cricket crazy Indian fans must be grateful to Shaun Tait for bowling the way he bowled. Australia has the game in their pocket after winning the toss and then doing the needful in posting 260 runs on the board. An ever aggressive Sehwag was subdued and the frowns were developing on Sehwag's forehead faster than his strike rate. India was under so much pressure that Gambhir created two opportunities for running himself out, and did succeed in the second attempt. Cool-like-cucumber Dhoni lost his nerves and returned back to pavilion in no time. All these demonstrated that Indian team had lost half the battle midway through the match. The one way for India to win this match was for Australia to lose it.

The only thing Australia were required to do was to contain the runs. Bret Lee was reasonably good, but Shaun Tait was not. Shaun Tait did not have the sense of occasion. He did not know what was required of him. Speed was not the primary requirement. The requirement was to stop the runs. Shane Watson instead of Shaun Tait would have done the job, and Smith should have played instead of Shaun Tait.

When you have someone like Sehwag frowing and apprehensive, the only way for Australia to lose the game was to self destruct. Shaun Tait did that precisely. It was reminder of India Vs Pakistan quarterfinal of 2003 World Cup. Shoib Akhtar bowled short, wide, and fast in that game feeding Sachin and Sehwag with ample opportunities to hit the ball for sixes and fours and providing momentum to the Indian innings. Shoib Akhtar though produces some brilliant performances when he avoids those short balls and full tosses, but I have rarely seen Shaun Tait performing well.

What was funny was the fact that Shaun Tait was showing his anger on the Indian batsmen. First, he is feeding them with the short stuff and getting hit for boundaries, then he is abusing them with that F word for hitting him for boundaries. Had he bowled a proper line and length, he would not have required to show his frustration on the Indian batsmen.

But more than Shaun Tait, I feel pity on the Australian management who plays him in the Australian team. If those Shaun Tait overs had been bowled by Shane Watson and other part-time spinners, Australia would have won the game. This game also demonstrated Ricky Ponting as a great batsman and ordinary captain.

The bottom-line is that Australia did not deserve to win this World Cup. They already have four, which is one more than what should be a justifiable tally for them. They had a bit of luck in 1987 when Pakistan and West Indies were better teams and England was a bit unlucky, and luck played a bigger role in their title triumph in 1999. A fifth World Cup for Australia would have reflected poorly on the overall strength of other teams and and balance between different teams.

Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan were brilliant. I had picked Yuvraj Singh as the player to watch out for India before the World Cup. I predicted Yuvraj will be the man for India if India goes all the way. I also picked Zaheer Khan and Sehwag to determine the Indian fortunes at the World Cup. I also predicted that Yusuf Pathan would fail. I am very happy that my picks have performed brilliantly and I did better than the cricket experts here.

The defeat for Australia also meant that cricket-crazy fans all over the World in general and subcontinent in particular will be treated to an India Vs Pakistan Semi-Final. At the same time, I am slightly disappointed that India and Pakistan are not playing in the Final. I hope and wish, whichever team wins the game between India Vs Pakistan Semi-Final goes on to win the World Cup.

Younis And Misbah Should Be Separated By Umar Akmal And Shahid Afridi

Pakistan has found a perfect balance to their team after the loss against New Zealand and eventually defeated Australia quite convincingly. The did strike the balance between aggression and stability by dropping Ahmad Shahzad and retaining Asad Shafique for the Australia game. Pakistan is the most versatile team in this tournament and the only thing they needed to do is to use their resources judiciously.

There is still one issue that the Pakistan team management needs to address. The needed to rethink the batting position of Yunis and Misbah. Yunis and Misbah coming to bat after each other would not work in most of the situations, especially while chasing the target. If both of them are at the wickets together, they will find it difficult to rotate the strike, and would give up their wickets as they have done in the game against New Zealand and Australia. The role of Yunis and Misbah would be stay at the wicket rather than up the ante. So there has to be one of them at the wicket with some aggressive bat, while the other one is waiting in the dressing room to take charge if there is further batting  collapse.

Yunis Khan should be followed by Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal. While Yunis Khan play the game at his own pace scoring on easy balls, the batsmen like Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal can take a few risk. That would also mean that Pakistan have a proper batsman in Misbah-Ul-Haq down the order, and there is Abdul Razzak who can score briskly at the other end if needed.

The bottom-line is that Yunis and Misbah should be separated by Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal. Misbah can be quite handy down the order as he can bat according to the situation.

1. Kamran Akmal
2. Mohammad Hafeez
3. Asad Shafique
4. Yunis Khan
5. Shahid Afridi/Umar Akmal
6. Shahid Afridi/Umar Akmal
7. Misbah
8. Abdul Razzak
9. Umar  Gul
10. Rehman/Wahab Riaz/Shoib Akhtar given that he does not bowl short balls and full tosses
11. Saeed Ajmal

Shoib Akhtar can be given a chance if he gives the assurance that he will not bowl full tosses and short stuff. Whenever he has bowled short and full tosses, he has been hit for a lot of runs. If Shoib Akhtar can bowl straight on the wickets and hit unplayable spots, he could provide Pakistan extra edge in Semi-Final and Final and help Pakistan in their mission to win the World Cup.