Sri Lanka v Pakistan (in U.A.E) (2011)

Still no Abdel Razzaq. The guy deserves a shot, more than an ordinary cricketer. He has the rare distinction of a century and 5 wicket haul on both Test and ODI cricket. Only a few cricketers in the past decade or so I can think of have that on their resume - Kallis, Pollock, Mark Waugh, Flintoff come to mind, but not many others.

3 tests , back to back  , good to see and a real test for all the bowlers.

If there is one man who I think has gone from strength to strength and has been mighty impressive during the last one year, it is Wahab Riaz. I think he along with Gul, Cheema and Ajmal will be good enough to take 20 Sri Lankan wickets.

Sam my friend - you just absolutely love the Pakistan cricket team - don't you. I agree Pakistan has considerably improved of late but 2-0 is certainly not on. They could not even do it against the West Indies - this will be much tougher. IT could be a close drawn series. Sri Lanka is in rebuilding phase and Samaraweer'a absence will help Pakistan no doubt. 

Originally posted by zuhair_abbasi Sam my friend - you just absolutely love the Pakistan cricket team - don't you. I agree Pakistan has considerably improved of late but 2-0 is certainly not on. They could not even do it against the West Indies - this will be much tougher. IT could be a close drawn series. Sri Lanka is in rebuilding phase and Samaraweer'a absence will help Pakistan no doubt.  I would have preferred Tanvir Ahmed over Gul in the test format though. Watch out for Azhar Ali and Angelo Matthews.

I will rate both teams at par. I would disagree with Mikey here - Pakistan batting is not weak at all. Younus, Misbah and Azhar provide a sold middle order. Maalik has been in good touch of late and he has a particular liking for the Sri Lankans. Getting 20 wickets won't be as easy though.

Fair enough Zuhair, but nonetheless, Pakistan don't have Amir or Asif - their bowling is not as world class, and is somewhat inexperienced. Like I said, I think Ajmal might get torn apart by the Lankans. Pakistan's batting and bowling aren't bad, but nothing special. Whereas Sri Lanka's bowling is abysmal and inexperienced.

Pakistani fieldsmen have time and time again let down their bowlers. I suppose Ajmal needs to do what he did in the Windies and get everyone out LBW

I said it before Spin, I can't see Ajmal doing too much damage - not when the likes of Jaya, Dilshan and Sanga all faced up to Murali on a million occasions in the nets or in domestic cricket (or in the case of Sanga, kept wicket to him for many a match). It'll have to be the pacers who'll do the majority of the damage...

I think you people are underestimating Ajmal, he is a class act and certainly I'd expect better tracks this time round in the UAE, esp in Sharjah where we have seen result oriented tracks in the past.

And what a hat trick it was - he got Sachin, Azharudiin and Shastri - not a bad group of batsmen. And he got them all LBWs. He took a 7 for and it remained the world record for over a decade

Originally posted by sam_ahmed I think you people are underestimating Ajmal, he is a class act and certainly I'd expect better tracks this time round in the UAE, esp in Sharjah where we have seen result oriented tracks in the past.

I agree with Sam, Ajmal is now a alot better bowler than he was before and i expect him to trouble SL.

Flat wicket... sigh. SL could post 500+ and bat Pakistan out of the game.

empty stadium so far! Why not PCB opt  England as a neutral venue for Pakistan. It will bring good crowds as well as result oriented matches but i think they are afraid from English media

but such a low turn out  and boring games will harm test cricket more and secondly, home like crowd is more expected in England because at least 10 lac Pakistanis are living there and even English people love test cricket.  Yup, maybe home like conditions are not there but advantages are more as compared to UAE and English conditions will also improve the batting techniques of Pakistani players. Its my opinion though, maybe iam  wrong  

Edited by Amal - 24 November 2011 at 7:02pm