Patron's XI side to play England on Oct 31 .

[The Analyst]

Greetings To all fellow PP'rs and the Mods . Im a newcomer to PP and an analyst by profession. This site is my lunch hour nirvana everyday. So keep up with the good work folks. You guys make my day everyday. Special greetings to MIG's & Noddy Bro ( Eid Mubarak)

The tour kicks off in few days and focus is on the first decent outing for the english boys in Rawalpindi where we should expect to see a near test strength squad take on the Patron's XI . the team for Patrons XI was announced a few days back and is as follows: [ source : PCB media dept ]

Ashar Zaidi
Yasir Hameed
Bazid Khan
Misbah-ul-Haq (captain)
Asim Kamal
Faisal Iqbal
Imran Tahir
Yasir Arafat
Zulqarnain Haider (wicketkeeper)
Mohammad Irshad
Arshad Khan
Mohammad Asif
Najaf Shah
Shehzad Malik
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Hmmm... rather interesting i think! ... Logic would suggest that the PCB selection chaps would not expose any of the PAK test sqaud in such a game . Therefore , the team above would comprise reserve PAK XI players who would probably not feature in the 1st Test .

So , no Asim Kamal for the 1st test or Bazid Khan or Yasir 'Angler' Hameed ( thankfully) then !!! Does this mean that Malik opens with Butt and that Razzaq comes in No 7 ?? ...or would the combination be that Afridi sits it out and Hasan Raza comes in his place with Mushy taking the No 7 to balance the squad out ...

Analysis of past matches in Multan show that the track would be low and slow with spinners going for a few runs except for where the spinner also happens to bounce the ball a bit ..[so Kaneria to bag a few come 12th Nov ].

Pakistan have never won the toss at Multan and if it happens again then do we have the attack to flush out the two left handers early . To me its vital that we bag Trescothick early . He is most frustrating to bowl at . His feet may not move but he is one hell of a shrewd player, a thinker and Vaughan's right hand tactician. He will aim to score a boundary an over at least. Fletcher's notes would probably list him down as doing the most damage on Day 1 if Eng win toss and go to bat. For my money Gul is the man to get him.

Would love to read fellow PP'ers comments on the Patron XI team and test squad bearing in mind that its Multan we play first and Rawalpindi . I personally lament deeply that we are not playing at Pindi . The wicket there at Pindi stadium is a seamer's heaven. Some would say that we would play in the hands of the English pacers . So what ? my answer to them is Who's got the best Pacers..them or us? Even with a seaming wicket, home advantage would have kicked in together with england under pressure to adjust to conditions early on . The result would have gone our way . We would be One up and that my fellow PP'ers would have been a script to kill for. I would even wager that Bob Woolmer is slightly disappointed that we dont play in Rawalpindi first up . Boy he would love a performance similar to day 1 of the A test with Aus last month .

Thank you all

[The Analyst]

bearing in mind that its Multan we play first and Rawalpindi

sorry folks i meant NOT Rawalpindi