Should akmal open tonight?

[Mercenary]

im undecided on this at present, initially i wanted akmal to open in every match simply because...

a) if we try something innovative (like Afidi as a bowler, Malik at 3, etc) then we should give it a fair chance
b) after his classy 100 vs Windies he certainly deserved a stint as an opener
c) for some1 who is struggling with his batting it will do no good to keep changing his position every few matches

...however i wanted him to open when he was part of the XI that contained Azhar and Hafeez. Now it seems both of them wont be playing and with Younis out Hameed is most likely to be in and we cant mess Hameed about either.

So perhaps we should drop akmal back down. Another soultion would be to play Asim (is he still in the squad?) and keep akmal as an opener.

How about htis XI...

Salman
Hameed/Akmal
Malik
Inzi
Youhana
akmal/asim
Razzaq
The Afridi
Rana
Rao
Khalil

...i would be happy with either of those XI's. Akmal is in both sides its just his batting position would change dpending on whether we played Hameed or Asim!

[Geordie Ahmed]

I would not open with him, i would play him in 6 and move Malik back to 3. i would stick with the openers from the last match, no point changing things too much, lets have a bit of continuity!

[Naveed]

I would open with him. At times he does look shaky but he has gotten far more runs recently than Yasir Hameed has.

Asim is not with the squad (and he shouldn't be because he would be a horrid ODI player) so I'd play Hameed at 6 and let him go for his shots.

[Mercenary]

Hameed would be interesting at 6 because he scores deceptively fast and without the wild swing of a new ball i think he wouldnt be caught fishing so often!!

[Naveed]

Yes it would help him relax and get back into some sort of form.

[Naveed]

Yes it would help him relax and get back into some sort of form.

[Rudi hater]

Yasir should come at number 3. He is an opener hence should bat somewhere to close to that number. No point playing with middle/lower order.

[Naveed]

Sometimes you need to think outside of the box.

[Rudi hater]

Naveed, if you look at our middle order or even lower order they have done well except the top half why temper with those position which are pretty much settled in a crucial game.

I think he should open. I DO NOT want to see Afridi up the order

[Waqar's inswinging yorker]

my 11

t umar
s butt
s malik
yoyo
inzi
a razzaq
k akmal
afridi
rana
rao
khalil

taufeeq bowls useful off spin - also is an excellent slip fielder

[Naveed]

Ghafoor, we have used a different #6 batsman in almost every match so far (Yoyo, Malik, Razzak, Hafeez) so I view it as far from settled.

In my opinion you need your most in form batsmen to open and I simply am not comfortable with Hameed up there. I hope that I am proven wrong though if he does open!

"taufeeq bowls useful off spin - also is an excellent slip fielder"

In that case I'd play him. We need our best slippers at Perth

[Amjid Javed]

hameed shud open with butt and malik shud come in @ 3 for this game. akmal shud bat down the order with afridi and razzaq.

[Waqar's inswinging yorker]

the guy was brilliant in slips - especially at first slip - his prime position - hameed is so awful at catching but his batting his good though - i would still pick taufeeq, compliments butt and can pace an innings

[suhaib]

yes hes 99999 times better then our other opener hameed so yes.

[Waqar's inswinging yorker]

suhaib - taufeeq should play - the guy deserves a go

[Khalil]

Suppose we bat second and the Windies have set a huge total then we should let him open and be the pinch hitter.

If we bat second and we are required to chase a low total than we should let our regular openers open

If we bat first than we should open with him

[Raz]

Hameed should open. Akmal at 8.

[the true passionist]

well firstly i think taufeeq should play and open with salman....
but most probably this wont happen...in this case Akmal is better than hameed as an opener especially on this pitch...because the windies will bowl a touch short of length..
and akmal is good at his cuts...he can even loft them over the infield...
so a quick strong 40 odd in the begining would help!

[KB]

The Butt and Hameed combination is the best available option for the long-term.

Akmal's technique would be suited more to playing an older ball.

[Hash]

Salman Butt
Yasir Hameed
Shoaib Malik
Inzamam ul Haq
Yousuf Youhana
Abdur Razzaq
Shahid Afridi
Kamran Akmal
Rana Naveed ul Hassan
Mohammed Khalil
Rao Iftikhar Anjum

12th man: Mohammed Hafeez


That is the team I would play tonight

[Sheikh_Ji]

If Hameed is in the playing 11....let him open the innings and keep Malik at 3....Akmal comes down the order

[zorawar]

It finally got into Inzi and Woolmers head to not play the 6th bowler !

The next thing they need to stop is making Akmal open and let him bat around Razzaq and Afridi lower in the order.

Akmal is not a long term solution to whatever opening problems we may have. Right now, we need to give Taufeeq and Hameed a chance and if they do not deliver...look for an option elsewhere.....

[Hash]

zorawar- i think it is more to do with the pitch. Perth is hard and bouncy.....good for fast bowlers and doesn't do much for spinners at all. The 6th bowler was Hafeez (spinner)

[zorawar]

The choice should be
(a) 4 pacers + Afridi
or
(b) 3 pacers + Afridi + Hafeez
depending on the pitch.

We should keep our specialist Keeper and play him in lower order.

We should have ONE out of Hameed/Taufeeq/Younus in every game to find Butt's partner at opening slot.

[Naveed]

Can someone explain to me why they think that Hameed is better able to open the batting over Akmal. I just don't see it.

[Lahoria]

Taufeeq doesn't belong in ODIs and should have never been picked in the first place. I completely agree with what Khalil said about Akmal opening if we are chasing a low total then I wouldn't open with him.

[Mercenary]

Despite getting out to that stupid shot, i thought akmal once again looked a lot more confident than Salman out there against the new ball.

He was a bit silly not to check where Gillespie was but the catch even surprised McGrath!!

I honestly think akmal can make a decent opener! He cant be any worse than the current lot, can he?

[Officer Barbrady]

I don't think it is fair to say Butt lacked confidence he got out second ball to a beauty by Lee. Nothing to do with confidence there.

Anyhow, I would prefer a regular opener at the top. Akmal has done fairly well but he is not technically the best at the moment and is likely to have some trouble against the better bowlers. Second, with the strength of our middle order we need a stable start at the top rather than a dasher like Akmal who can be used well in the middle order.

Top Order is still the big Pakistan Problem.
Salman is out of form, and having both Kamran and Hafeez is asking for trouble. If we got any sort of decent start from the top order, Pakistan would have won the game, but as it is we were 27-4.

[Mercenary]

we have too many dashers in the middle order.

As for Salman i said...

Despite getting out to that stupid shot, i thought akmal once again looked a lot more confident than Salman out there against the new ball.

...i wasnt just talking about today. Apart from one knock Salman has looked pretty ordinary in the VB series so far.

Between Salman and Akmal, Akmal has looked more settled in the opening position.

Thats not to say akmal is a better opener than Salman it just means akmal has played the new ball better than Salman in this VB series.

[sajjad]

Pakistan changes its openers more often than any other team in the world. Once every 2 matches. 27 times in last 54 matches.

We shud just keep these guys. Overtime they will prove themselves.