10-man side

Having seen the performance of the side in the past year or two, I think I have come down to the best possible team for Pakistan in the current scenario.

Its a typical team - 7 batsman (keeper included) and 4 bowlers

The team is as follows -

1. Imran Farhat
2. Yasir Hameed
3. *
4. Md. Yousuf
5. Azhar Ali
6. Umar Akmal
7. Kamran Akmal
8. Md Aamer
9. Umar Gul
10. Saeed Ajmal
11. Md Asif

Bench (err) strength :-
at number 6- Umar Amin, Shoaib Malik

for 'keeper - Zulqurnain Haider

extra paceman - Wahab Riaz

extra spinner - Danish Kaneria

Special note on " * "
* refers to the Captain. Pakistan plays with 10 players, and a captain, who is usually cursed. So as of now, its Salman Butt, who has so intelligently sacrificed a lot for the team for several reasons...
1. he was/is the captain
2. he is hit by the captain's curse, and by default can't play well at the opener's slot.

So, he HAD to drop down in the line up, and allow Yasir Hameed to open. This man, who had no impact of the earlier losses in the series, as he wasn't part of it, played lavishly and gave Pakistan a good start. So, all praises to Butt.

Butt's captaincy has been good, and intelligent. He found exactly what was needed for Pakistan to win the match - allow Cook to score big. Cook and England had different fortunes all summer. And when Cook went about scoring, the whole English team was so stunned, that they failed to contribute. There were only two news in the English camp - Cook's sudden golden touch(wood) and Swann's inclusion to the list of nominees for the ICC player of the year award. Now they have the third - a loss! Great captaincy by Butt indeed. Whatever message he sent down to a combined 38 years of talent (Umar akmal - 20 yrs, Md Aamer 18 yrs), they understood it and scored the remaining 16 runs required for the victory. The two kids were out in the middle, like kids lost in a huge fair, not knowing what to do. Too many maidens came and went, and the pair failed to put on a score for more than 4 overs since the departure of Md Yousuf. So, it means, Butt does get good respect from his young team-mates too.

All the more, he seems to have liked the captaincy, and proved that he can play with it too, scoring 48 runs in this innings, more than all the runs he scored in the series put together.

So, my theory - put the person out of form as captain. that solves the issue.

10 men are all that are needed to win!