My ideal eleven would be Saeed Anwar, Taufiq Umar, Saleem Elahi, Inzamam Ul Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan/Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis/Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Akthar.
The trouble with Waqar Younis is that he has not bowled his 10 overs yet in the tournament, and if a specialist bowler can't bowl out his quota, then there is a question mark against his name.
The skipper hasn't led from the front, thus far.
Typically, Shoaib bowls four overs at the start, then Waqar comes on in the ninth over, he bowls six overs and then brings Shoaib back after he has bowled six overs. Waqar never bowls after that, mainly because he is scared of bowling at the death. So he tends to use Shahid Afridi a lot.
I think Shahid Afridi should never be allowed to play for Pakistan.
You give a bat to a kid and bowl to him -- the natural instinct is for him to hit the ball very hard. That is okay for children, but when you are playing for your country, then what you need is a good defence, and to work the ball around, take singles.
Afridi plays like a kid, trying to hit every ball out of te park. That might work once in a while, but not often enough to be worthwhile.
If you really want to have a kid in your team, then why not pick up any kid from the streets of Pakistan and play him? Afridi, for me, is a waste of time.
Everytime Afridi is picked, a batsman has to be sacrificed. He must understand that when you play in a team, you actually play for each other. When he knows that Inzamam is struggling, how can he continue to play such rash strokes at the top of the order?
Azhar Mahmood would have been a better choice -- he bowls well and is a top class batsman who can even open if necessary. I wonder why Pakistan doesn't do that.
(Aamir Sohail, former captain of Pakistan, was speaking to Faisal Shariff)
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