A year ago contemplating a Pakistan Twenty20 team without Razzaq would have been beyond reason © Getty Images

Over the years he has developed into a destructive batsman in one-day cricket, left leg planted out outside leg stump followed by a true swing of his blade. And it is this assault technique that has kept him on the international scene for the decline in his bowling--from pacer to trundler--has rendered him impotent in Tests.

Pakistan's cricket fans have mostly hoped that Razzaq would pull it around. Despite his failure at Middlesex, his spinach-induced illness, and his infuriating bowling you imagined that Razzaq would wake from his reverie. He might still but at this moment he seems further from redemption than he has ever been.

A year ago contemplating a Pakistan Twenty20 team without Razzaq would have been beyond reason. A few months ago he was being talked of as a possible captain or vice-captain. Now he is a liability, a donkey in the field and a work-horse with the ball.

Still, I find it hard to conclude that The Razzler's ballistic batting would not be an asset in the Wham Bam of a Twenty20 encounter. Surely his ecstatic batting will return even though his bowling is miserable and his fielding is joyless?

Razzaq has shown enough thrashing ability in his career to merit a trip to the Twenty20 World Cup. But if the rumours from the Pakistan camp are true then the ruin of the Razzler may prove to be a calamity for Pakistan's chances.

	'Yasir Hameed deserves an opportunity and might make an ideal number three' © Getty Images

It might have seemed unthinkable that Pakistan would be without any of their holy middle-order but it will happen in Multan. Injury, illness, and bereavement have conspired to rob Pakistan of Inzamam-ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, and Younis Khan. While those three should rest assured about their World Cup chances, the situation has started to hot up for anybody below them in the pecking order--and that means everybody.

The fourth one-dayer will be an expedition into virgin territory for Pakistan, which explains why Shoaib Akhtar is nowehere to be seen. Shorn of their Titans, Pakistan will showcase a new middle-order and a new captain.

On the captaincy front, Abdul Razzaq appears to be the next in line by dint of hierarchy and his momentary elevation to the vice-captaincy prior to the Champions Trophy. Some observers question Razzaq's place in the team but there should be no doubt about Razzaq's value as a giant-hitting middle-order batsman and a safe but unspectacular bowler in one-day cricket; it's in Test cricket that Razzaq's place is in serious danger. Yet there has been scant evidence of Razzaq's ability as a captain. The other obvious contender would be Shoaib Malik, and there was once talk of Afridi as a future captain.

The performance of Pakistan's middle-order will be the most fascinating aspect of the fourth one-dayer. Yasir Hameed deserves an opportunity and might make an ideal number three. The logic of Faisal Iqbal's selection is that he would play too. And I would slot in Afridi in place of Rao Iftikhar.

With their players on form Pakistan have mind-boggling options but when those same players misfire it can all look a desperate shambles. Any match without Inzamam, Yousuf, and Younis will be a real test for Pakistan's young team. Who will seize the opportunity to show some leadership?

	Mohammad Yousuf has replaced lazy elegance with lofty elegance © AFP

Yousuf dealt with this particular comparison expertly by stating his own reverance for cricket's greatest master blaster. I agree with Yousuf: there is no comparison.

The second comparison foisted upon Yousuf is the one Inzamam-ul Haq discussed in his newspaper column. Yousuf, said Inzy, is the best ever Pakistani batsman, better than Javed Miandad, and better than Inzy too. Can this be true?

For help I turned to Saad Shafqat, my friend and co-author of Javed's autobiography. Saad offered the following analysis:

"Is MoYo better than JM?

Well, it's always treacherous comparing batsmen from different eras, but I can think of three important comparisons between MY and JM in which JM comes out ahead.

First, JM has played some phenomenal innings - Sharjah 1986, Georgetown 1988, Colchester 1981 - that have cast a longer shadow and created more ripples than anything MY has done so far.

Second, at the top of his game JM was for a while considered first among equals within the elite batsmen of his day - Gavaskar, Crowe, Border, Gooch, Gower, and Richards. (Actually Richards was perhaps always a bit ahead of the pack but JM easily rubbed shoulders with the rest.) MY, in contrast, is still not considered in the same league as his elite contemporaries - Dravid, Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting, Kallis, and even Inzy. MY could still get there, but he has yet to prove himself against this group.

Third, JM brought a lot more to the side than his batting. He was and is a tactical genius and he knew better than anyone how to fight the good fight. His legacy for Pakistan is not just in the batting stats he has left behind but in fact he transformed an entire nation's psyche and made it believe in it's own possibilities.

Oh, and of course JM had mastered the basics like running between the wickets, an area in which MY is a trainwreck."

I agree. Javed was a true master who erased any doubts about his record against the best teams in that 1988 series and in the way he almost single-handedly held together Pakistan's batting in the 1992 World Cup. He also hit the world's most famous six. Viv Richards once said that if he ever had to choose anybody to bat for his life it would be Javed. There can be no higher compliment.

In cricket there are statistics and then there is influence. Influence in cricket, like influence everywhere else, is hard to measure. In my view, Javed influenced more games than any other Pakistan batsman. Yousuf has begun to be more and more influential but he is still well behind Javed and even Inzy.

This doesn't mean that Yousuf does not deserve the utmost respect. He has conducted himself with remarkable honour and modesty. And he is right to point to his innings at Lord's this year as his best. I was lucky enough to be at the home of cricket to see the innings, possibly the most perfect innings ever by a Pakistani batsman. For the brilliance of that double hundred alone he deserves to break the record.

But whether or not he surpasses Viv Richards, Yousuf is a winner today. As some of you have pointed out already, Yousuf's success is a triumph of humility in an age of hubris. Let's hope the Karachi crowd gives him an appropriate reception.

	Mohammad Yousuf needs 149 more runs to cross Viv Richards's record of 1710 runs in a calendar year © AFP

Before any of you point out that more Test cricket is played these days, Viv set his record in 19 innings, Yousuf is on 17. Whether or not Yousuf's transformation from a gifted wastrel into a grafting wonder is anything to do with his religious conversion is a moot point and something that it will never be possible to prove convincingly. But it is clear that Yousuf has become a phenomenon.

With Inzamam's dip in form in Test cricket, Yousuf has emerged as a serene and silky leader of Pakistan's middle order. His batting has acquired a surreal quality whereby his calm state of mind dominates proceedings. Yousuf's touch and timing is such that his bat caresses and kisses the ball to the boundary, a sharp contrast to the wonderful brutality of Viv Richards.

No doubt Yousuf's zen-like performance in 2006 has won him a seat at the high table of Pakistan cricket. For much of his career he was dismissed as a flat-track bully and a man who would shrink to the occasion. But the last two years have seen Yousuf firm up his resolve and thrive under pressure. Multan may have been as flat as a paratha but it was a pressure cooker situation. On a final day when Pakistan are prone to disaster, Yousuf summoned up his will and fought a mental battle to guide his team to safety. The technical battle has rarely been a problem for him.

Yet one doubt hangs over Yousuf, just as it does over his fellow troopers in Pakistan's middle order. To raise themselves to the level of true world masters, Yousuf, Inzamam, and Younis Khan must show their class on pitches that don't favour batsmen, on pitches that spit and bounce, and against balls that swing and seam. Such a test is fast approaching in South Africa. Let's hope the final judgment is a favourable one.

In the meantime, it is fair to celebrate Yousuf's achievements of 2006, a stunning performance by a batsman of such grace and poise that he seems unfit for this age of biff and bang. Of all the mishaps in the world, a spot of bother in the nervous 190s is a nice problem to make your own.

Shahid Afridi is as much of an enigma as he ever was. Only a special cricketer can set pulses racing in the way Afridi does. When he succeeds he is audacious. But when he fails he is abysmal. Last year he showed the riches that his aggression, if controlled a little, could deliver for Pakistan cricket. His success was also as a result of the backing he received from coach and captain.

Yet sometime around Pakistan's tour to Sri Lanka, the boom boom went out of Afridi. He prematurely retired from Test cricket and since his return has failed to make an impact. What has gone wrong?

The tour of England was an unhappy one for Afridi. Inzamam held him back too late in the order for him to influence the innings when he had previously been a middle order stick of dynamite. My view on Afridi is that he seems to be a player who does respond to responsibility and this affront to his achievements set him back. By the time the one-day series came around Afridi was off form and the pitches were perfectly unsuited to his brand of bravado.

For these reasons I don't believe this summer's failures are an adequate indication of Afridi's value to the team. In India and in the West Indies the pitches will be tailor made for Afridi to rediscover his boom boom. It's what the specatators want and I'm sure television producers won't complain either.

But Afridi does need to change one thing. I agree with him that going in too late in the order is a waste of his unique talent. He does, however, need to be mentally prepared to go in anywhere between number 1 and 7 depending on the state of the game. This is not an unreasonable scenario for a mature cricketer. Afridi's oft stated request to bat at number 6 has the ring of an unnecessary obsession--and Afridi is a man of instinct not obesession.

All Pakistan fans--and many from other countries--need their dose of Boom Boom. He has looked a distracted cricketer for many months. One blitz will turn that distraction into joy.

	Inzamam's absence in the Champions Trophy leaves a crater in the middle order © Getty Images

But it only served to remind us of the crater Inzy’s absence creates in the middle order, which was Pakistan’s strongest suit over a troubled summer. Indeed, Inzy appeared in the finest touch particularly in helping to save the Lord’s Test but also in the dismissive way he batted in the one-day series.

As with each adversity there is an opportunity. Who will seize it?

In terms of team selection, this has become the biggest question for Pakistan’s Champions Trophy campaign. The rest of the team almost picks itself and I expect the openers to fare much better on India’s helpful tracks.

A straight swap would bring in Faisal Iqbal, a young man whose talent many people doubt but who nonetheless has shown flashes of brilliance. Anybody who earns praise from Shane Warne must have something about him.

Another option might be to play Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, and Shoaib Malik in the top three. But that brings us to the possibility of Younis Khan dropping down the order, and that might be a move that is widely criticised especially if it fails.

Pakistan could of course play Shoaib Malik at 5, and that’s the option I’d go for. Always bearing in mind that Pakistan’s multitude of all-rounders offers great flexibility and Shahid Afridi batting in a Powerplay might win you the match in a few breathtaking overs.