So why didn't Mohammed Talha play in U19 WC???

I was just reading an article on cricinfo and eventually it lead me to a series called Afro-Asia Cup Under-19s Tournament, which was held in November 2005

http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/...OTHERS/AAC-U19/

Teams that played in that tournament:
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Zimbabwe

When I looked at the Pak team, one thing that struck me was that 'Mohammed Talha' played in that team...now that was only 3 months prior to the U 19 WC

Pakistan Squad in the series
*Sarfraz Ahmed (Captain)
Jamshaid Ahmed
Haseeb Amjad
Sharjeel Khan
Mohamed Fahim
Syed Imad Wasim
Anwar Ali Khan
Mohamed Usman Malik
Ali Asad
Mohammed Talha
Riaz Kail
Fahd Zaman
Mohamed Aamir
Ali Khan
Saadullah Ghouri


Right after the Afro-Asia Cup Under-19s series, there was a series between Pak U19 and WI U19 team in Pakistan, in January (merely few days before the WC was to start)

Guess what, Talha was NOT a member of the Pak team there

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/.../team/2964.html


Pakistan Squad in the series
Ali Khan
Nasir Jamshed
Mohammad Ibrahim
Mohammad Laeeq
Riaz Kail
Anwar Ali
Ali Asad
Sarfraz Ahmed
Imad Wasim
Jamshed Ahmed
Akhtar Ayub
Saadullah Ghauri
Rameez Raja



Come January and February, the WC starts, and he wasn't selected, despite the fact that he is supposedly one of the fastest younger bowlers on the circuit and is only 17 years old. Below is the squad from U19 WC

World Champions Pakistan Squad
Ali Asad
Ali Khan
Imad Wasim
Jamshed Ahmed
Mohammad Faheem
*+Sarfraz Ahmed
Usman Malik
Riaz Kail
Nasir Jamshed
Rameez Raja
Mohammad Ibrahim
Anwar Ali
Akhtar Ayub
Mohammad Laeeq


Now this leaves us with some unanswered questions:

Was it a case of Talha being injured?

Are the other 3 U19 bowlers better than Talha?

Couldn't they have still included him in a 15 man squad?

BTW, if he was deemed overage, then why was he played in that Afro-Asia series???

What do you guys think

Well the U-19 Pak pacers were simpley awesome. So even if he was fast, Talha, he would still need to be something special to break in.

Hence the question that I asked "Are the other 3 U19 bowlers better than Talha?"

I just wanna know if someone has any inside info BUT no 'Sauce Info Network' news please

Ask Suhaib Bradman.

even 3 was better, he could have been selected as a 4th seamer in the squad. May be he is not that good as of yet?
I was surprised too and i asked that question earlier in U-19 thread and never got anybody response

Monsee: can you also post talha performance in AFRO-CUP

Yeah I noticed this too.

Talha is only 16/17 and if you look at the scorecard of the Afro-Asia cup he got slaughtered!!

He really took a pasting during that tourney and its clear that whilst he has pace, he doesnt have the control and skill of the Anwar Ali, Jamshed Ahmed or Akhtar Ayub.

Talha will get a chance in the next u19 world cup.

Also Talha's top speed is around 86 mph which is impressive at his age but both Jamshed and Ayub's average speed was the same as Talha's fastest and Anwar Ali was about the same speed.

So whilst Talha at the age of 16/17 has the pace of an 18/19 year old Pakistani pacer or a senior Indian seamer, he isnt so fast head to head.

He will get faster as he gets older. By the time the next u19 WC arrives, talha should be touching 90mph like Akhtar Ayub if not faster!!

Yeah with about 10mph added on

That's exactly right, his performance in regional U19 was not as good as Jamshed, Anwar or Akhtar. In fact there were some other pacers like Raheel Younis(Lahore, Jamshed's bowling partner), Haseeb Amjad(Rawalpindi), Mohammad Imran(Sialkot) etc who performed better than Talha in different U19 tournaments.

Looking at the figures from the afro-asia tournament why wasn't Haseeb Amjad chosen?