Zahid fears England tour would be painful period in history of Pakistan cricket
June 28th, 2010 - 5:51 pm ICT by ANIIslamabad, June 28 (ANI): Former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammed Zahid is not expecting any miracles from the Shahid Afridi led team during the upcoming Test and one-day series in England, and said he doubts if the team would be able to win even a single Test match out of the six it has to play against Australia and the hosts England.
Zahid expects Pakistan to fail miserably during the tour.
“I’ll watch the cricket with interest, but I fear it will be a painful period in the history of Pakistan cricket,” Zahid, who played who played 16 one-day internationals for Pakistan before shifting to England, wrote in his blog on PakPassion.net.
“I think Pakistan fans need to start praying now in the hope that they and the team are not totally embarassed during the three month tour of England, because it’s going to be a long and painful summer ahead,” he said.
The former speedster said that the players who have been picked by the selectors are not talented enough to survive in England’s challenging conditions.
Zahid said that Pakistan would badly miss the experience of former captains Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf in England.
“Of the men missing, I would love to have seen Yousuf and Younis’ names in the squad. I can’t understand why the situation with Younis could not have been resolved and why those involved in this could not have sat around a table and made sure that one of the country’s finest test batsman was rightly included,” he said.
Zahid also questioned the selection of some of the players in the Test squad, adding that the current batting line was the weakest that Pakistan had in recent times.
“I think this is Pakistan’s weakest suit. Azhar Ali is leg spinner turned batsman. It wasn’t that long ago when I was facing him and he was batting at number nine. He’s worked hard to improve his batting, but I wonder if he has the ability to make it at international cricket,” he said.
“Yasir Hameed had a great start to his international career but he never quite fulfilled that early promise. Imran Farhat is yet another average player who has been given chance after chance without any sort of consistency or improvement,” Zaheed added.
Zaheed, who has been playing country cricket in England for a long time now, pointed out that Umar Akmal could be the star for Pakistan during the exhaustive tour.
“I think Umar could be the star for Pakistan on the tour of England, but given the squad that has been chosen I feel that there is far too much pressure on Umar Akmal to score the bulk of the runs,” he said. (ANI)
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Tags: ali, day internationals, england tour, fears, hameed, history of pakistan, hosts, international cricket, islamabad, miracles, mohammed yousuf, number nine, painful period, pakistan cricket, selectors, shahid, speedster, spinner, test batsman, test squad