Hi Bob

Tough job you have! But hopefully an outside point of view can help make your decisions easier.( dont mean to sound arrogant)

I understand - different pitches and conditions , different game plans but I see nothing wrong with keeping it almost similar with subtle changes on occasions. its the only way you going to mold a batsmen into a particular position.

Batting Track -Batting first

1.Imran Nazir 2. Shoaib Malik 3. Inzi 4. Yunus 5. Yusuf 6. Hafeez 7. kamran 8. Afridi/azhar 9.Kaneria 10.Gul 11.Sami /Roa
I know inzi in 3 is risky but most cases when openers fail the stability comes to late or too low down the order. let Inzi do it earlier on. Pls do not let Naved bowl on a batting track.

Batting second

Same side But let Inzi go down to 5.

Pls never let afridi play a pinch hitter roll , in fact if you need to play a pinch hitter roll then start hitting out from the word go with your openers and leave Afridi for the end as an insurance.

Bowling Track - Batting first

1. Imran Nazeer 2. Yunus Khan 3. Shoaib Malik 4.Yusuf 5. Inzi 6.Hafeez 7. Kamran 8.Afridi 9.Kaneira 10. Gul 11.Rana /Roa

Imran plays pinch hitter and yunus plays long innings.If imran is out early shoaib comes and plays a steadying innings. Rana must bowl only 3 overs early and balance later on.Bring in Kaneira to replace him early on.Once again leave Afridi for as late as possible.

Batting second

1.Imran 2.Shoaib 3.Inzi 4.yunus 5.Yusuf 6.Hafeez 7.Kamran 8.Afridi/Azhar 9.Kaneira 10.gul 11.Rana/Roa

Imran Pinch hits and shoaib steady. Once imran is out Inzi takes over and steadies.One of the trio Inzi / Yunus /Yusuf must hit out or attack bowlers. In this case Afridi can be brought in before one of them to break the bowlers L&L.
Bowling in this case is where paks problems lie.Let Gul open with Rana. Once again rana must have a short spell and he should be used that way all the time.It seems that he tires quickly and loses his l&l.3 overs at a time maximum for him.It will disrupt the oppositions game plan.Bring in Kanera to replace him early on.Try also to use Hafeez as much as possible early on.Afridi shud be brought in in the middle to use up as many overs especially when the runs have dried up.

Thats it! Hopefully you can be successful with this limited squad and by the way if you want to get anything from a paki , you got to play mind games with them. They can be 'dikkop' if you are too pushy.

Thanx
SMS +27834089813 during a match. I wud luv to have your mobile no.

like many people i think pakistan's weak links are the bowling and fielding, Rana naveed ul hasan has been consistently been expensive so i would prefer to see Mohammed Sami play instead.
By the way i think you have done brilliantly considering all of the controversy surrounding the team, hopefully you will guide the pakistan team to world cup glory even without akhtar and asif.

Hi Bob
I know you must be under immense pressure due to dismal performace by the Pakistani team in the recent past. But you have been through this before. Pakistan team selection is a problem, I do not understand why there was no backup batsman taken in the final 15. You have lots of bowling options but if two main batsmen fail then there is no rescue. All others are unreliable. Although options are limited, you need to get Sami and Azhar into the team. Rana is out of form and should not have been there in the first place.

Hi bob tough time but don’t lose hart. Every thing will be alright. Please replace Ran with Azar Mahmood I wonder that why Rana Navid has given so much chance despite his bad performance. This is not experiment time every match has it importance, so be careful about that. Azar Mahmood should play every match he is a man who can bridge a gap of Abdul Razaq.

Good lock