 After losing their second successive Test match against the Australian side and
going down 0-2 in the series, Pakistan could be in for a few changes to
their playing eleven. There are two players who could be facing an axe and could
be gone from the team for a long time, based on their replacements' performances
in the side.
For one, Misbah-ul-Haq has been struggling with his batting form. He has not
got too many runs, but more importantly, he has looked like he has not been
in the best of touches either. He has struggled to get the ball off the square
and was not in the initial touring party in New Zealand before injuries forced
the selectors to get him into the playing eleven. In the last few innings, he
has had scores of 42, 56, 7, 0, 3, 27, 65, 21, 33, 0, 7, 65*, 0, 11, 0 which
gives him a total of 335 runs with an average of less than 24 runs per innings.
This may prompt the selectors to make suitable changes in the batting line-up,
with the chances of Shoaib Malik making it to the squad in his place.
Malik himself had not had a great run-up in Test matches, with talks of how
he had led an outburst against the former captain Younis Khan. However, with
no other batsman in the batting line-up as Fawad Alam has been sent back and
Younis Khan has not yet made his appearance in Australia thanks to the selectors.
The other player who could be facing the axe is the wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal. Akmal hasn't had a great time behind the stumps despite his reasonable
batting down the order. He dropped four catches in the second Test match at
Sydney and that was one of the reasons why the Aussies lost the game. He has
struggled to keep against Danish Kaneria as he had failed to read the
intricacies of the leg-spinner.
In his place, a new wicket-keeper, Sarfraz Ahmed will be taken into the side.
Sarfraz has been the under-study to Kamran Akmal for some time and has been
backed by many of the former Pakistani cricketers as well. Rashid Latif had
already advised the PCB to drop Kamran for some time, whereas former Pakistani
captain and now commentator, Ramiz Raja said, "This change is justified
even though some eyebrows will be raised by this sudden coup behind the stumps
in the middle of a series." He also added that the new wicket-keeper should
be given an extended run in the team.
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