Cricinfo's All Time Pakistan XI : No current players in Pakistan all-time XI

[Sachinism]

Aite cricinfo now get to Pakistan Starting with the openers. Here are the ones listed by cricinfo Aamer Sohail Abrasive and aggressive, Sohail formed one half of Pakistan's last successful and stable opening pairs with Saeed Anwar. He was particularly strong off the back foot, though as a fluent double-hundred at Old Trafford in 1992 showed, he had the nous to expand his game. He also brings to the table useful spin, good catching hands and an attitude. Hanif Mohammad When renowned coach Alf Gover set eyes upon a young, yet-to-debut Hanif in 1951, he said he wouldn't change a thing about him (and advised others not to do so as well), so complete was he. The most technically sound opening batsman Pakistan have had, by some distance, Hanif also possessed a most critical quality: patience. Naturally an attacking batsman, Hanif chose stoic abstinence to further the cause of a Pakistan side full of merry strokemakers. Like Bradman's average, Hanif's 16-hour Bridgetown marathon of defiance will not be easily - if ever - bettered. Saeed Anwar A pair on debut doesn't promise much, but like Graham Gooch, Anwar forged a remarkable career from that adversity. The magic was in his wrists, and he had such timing and sense of placement that poor footwork hardly mattered. He was a very modern opener, in that he attacked no matter what the format and situation; and that he maintains the highest average of this august company says many things. Majid Khan Somehow it is fitting that one of Pakistan's best openers didn't even start life as one, or that he took to the role so late. Majid remains one of the country's most stylish opening batsmen. He loved to hook and the driving was, on its day, a thing of joy. He did it all looking as if he hardly cared. That he is one of the best slippers ever from Pakistan is a bonus. Mudassar Nazar A solid contrast to his regular partner, the flashier Mohsin Khan, Mudassar was a batsman of immense patience, though not as compact as Hanif or with as many strokes. He holds the record for the slowest Test hundred, and alongside his father, Nazar Mohammad, is one of only four Pakistanis to carry their bat through a completed innings. In the right conditions, a more than handy swing bowler. Sadiq Mohammad A right-hander at birth, he was told to switch by elder brothers Hanif and Wazir because they felt he had more of a chance of succeeding that way. Sadiq was immensely brave, like all the Mohammad brothers, once saving a Test against West Indies with a heroic unbeaten 98, made after bearing a fierce facial injury. Loved taking on faster bowlers and scored runs in what were for Pakistanis tough conditions. Pakistan's success in the 70s was based on his partnership with Majid. Mohsin Khan A stylist in the Majid mould, Mohsin could be bewitching to watch. As well as the Lord's double-hundred, he scored big runs on the bouncy surfaces of Australia, a bogey venue for most of his countrymen.

[Roshanrocks]

S Anvar n Hanif Mohammad wud be my choices :regular_smile:

[Asim]

I watched live only Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail but yes I guess Saeed Anwar and Hanif Muhammed are better choice...

[king2be98]

I've been reading most of these all time XIs and I have to say that just thinking about it, Australia's all time XI would batter everyone else's and West Indies all time XI would batter Australia too. You guys know how much I love Pakistan, but if we slotted down an all time XI, it would be full of players who choked against better opposition in big matches. I wqould say we only ever had 3/4 players able to match up to the giants of Australia and West Indies.

[zen]

My Pak all time X1 would be something like the one below: - Hanif - Anwar - Abbas - Miandad - Inzi - Imran - WK (Bari/Latif/Moin) - Akram - Saqlain - Waqar - Akthar If the batting needs to be strengthned, one can bring in a batsman (like MoYo) in place of Akthar

[Mamu]

^^ Abbas was no better than Vengsarkar Did u ever take a look at his Test Record. It seems like he was a player with a lot of potential who could never translate his potential into results. I would have M. Yousuf over Abbas.

[Ahmed]

^^ Abbas was no better than Vengsarkar Did u ever take a look at his Test Record. It seems like he was a player with a lot of potential who could never translate his potential into results. I would have M. Yousuf over Abbas.

I don't know if he was better than Vengsarkar or not, but Abbas definately played well against India.

[Mr. Wicket]

Will CI include Shakoor Rana, who contributed to more victories than almost any Paki player?

[Mamu]

I don't know if he was better than Vengsarkar or not' date=' but Abbas definately played well against India.[/quote'] Which is why I say when you put something down -- you put it in the right context. He was a Bully in Pakistan, which is where he got most of his runs and centuries. In fact he has ONLY 4 centuries outside of Pakistan and he has toured all countries at least Twice. He has a whopping average of 28 in India.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Mamu]

Speaking more about Abbas In 46 Tests outside of Pakistan he had only 4 centuries at an average of 36. In fact except against Eng his away average against other nations did not even touch 30 (if I am not wrong). He is famous in Pakistan for 2 reasons -- how he did well against the 2 enemies of pakis -- India and England and even against India ONLY in Pakistan. And as somebody has pointed out -- a lot of help from the umpires also factors in at least to some amount.

[Mamu]

more importantly will cricinfo restrict itself to players with clean records ... and leave out ball tamperers/biters' date=' pitch tamperers, chuckers, steriod junkies, charsis, match fixers ? (phew have I covered everything there ... [b']Iam sure I have missed something :hmmm: )

Yes you did Crowd Beaters. Jumping Like a Monkey (or putting it subtly -- animals) Players who have put their poles in the wrong holes getting afflicted with warts. Players who were involved in sham marriages.

[The Outsider]

Will CI include Shakoor Rana' date=' who contributed to more victories than almost any Paki player?[/quote'] Shakoor Rana is overrated. Mehboob Shah and Khizer Hayat were much better.

[Mr. Wicket]

Did Mehboob dominate his peers in giving bad umpiring decisions? I thought Shakoor did. :winky:

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[king2be98]

I always knew umpiring was biased in those days, Geoff Boycoot was on BCC Radio a while back and they asked about umpires, he said they are very fair today and unbiased in most parts of the world. He was then asked about Shakoor Rana and that incident and he said, the umpiring in Pakistan and India was very biased. He then said, at home he got away with a lot of stuff as well, so the umpiring in England wasn't entirely fair either. You know many Indian fans constantly talk about the biased umpiring in Pakistan, but I have seen some real shockers in India as well. The Harbhajan hat trick against Aus was outrageous, esp the Warne dismissal, that wreaked of cheating. I remember when Pakistan toured Indian in 2005 or was it 2006, the one where the tests were drawn and Pakistan won the ODIs 4-2. In the final game Yousuf was running to make his ground, it went to the 3rd umpire, everyone thought it was Not Out, but was given out. Sanjay Manjrekar and Arun Lala were on commentary, they said they were ashamed of this decision. It happens, it happens all over the world, maybe it happens in Pakistan more than other places, but please don';t think it doesn't happen in India.

[Mamu]

I always knew umpiring was biased in those days, Geoff Boycoot was on BCC Radio a while back and they asked about umpires, he said they are very fair today and unbiased in most parts of the world. He was then asked about Shakoor Rana and that incident and he said, the umpiring in Pakistan and India was very biased. He then said, at home he got away with a lot of stuff as well, so the umpiring in England wasn't entirely fair either. You know many Indian fans constantly talk about the biased umpiring in Pakistan, but I have seen some real shockers in India as well. The Harbhajan hat trick against Aus was outrageous, esp the Warne dismissal, that wreaked of cheating. I remember when Pakistan toured Indian in 2005 or was it 2006, the one where the tests were drawn and Pakistan won the ODIs 4-2. In the final game Yousuf was running to make his ground, it went to the 3rd umpire, everyone thought it was Not Out, but was given out. Sanjay Manjrekar and Arun Lala were on commentary, they said they were ashamed of this decision. It happens, it happens all over the world, maybe it happens in Pakistan more than other places, but please don';t think it doesn't happen in India.

I agree it happened all over the place. It happened more blatantly in Pakistan more than anywhere else The only other country is probably New Zealand and may be SriLanka If I have put the umpiring 1) Pakistan --- ---- Day Light ----- ---- 2) New Zealand 3) Sri Lanka 4) India 5) West Indies/Australia 6) England. BTW a clear proof of that -- shows up in all of the Paki Batsmen Averages which is a MINIMUM of 10 Between Home and Away. When you see Javed Miandad -- and his LBWs -- He was given out LBW --how many times at home? 2or 3 times? He was out 20% of the times LBW when he played outside. How do you explain this. Last but not the least. I have the tapes from the Kolkatta game -- what makes you think the Warne catch was cheating? The Umpire had given it out. The 3rd Umpire could not find any evidence against the OUT and had to stick to it. There is NOTHING in the whole video which shows it was NOT OUT.

[Lurker]

Hanif Mohammed and Saeed Anwar for me although Majid Khan at top would also be a good act. The thing to watch in Pakistan XI is if the fighters make the final XI. By this I mean folks like Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Moin Khan etc. They hardly have the statistical justification but if Pakistan was a team to watch in 70s, 80s and 90s it was for these lesser celebrated cast than the more talented cricketers who seemed like match winners. Asif Iqbal for one would fail to get into this XI but his top innings would probably match Miandad and shame Inzzy, Yohana and Zaheer.

[king2be98]

I agree it happened all over the place. It happened more blatantly in Pakistan more than anywhere else The only other country is probably New Zealand and may be SriLanka The Umpire had given it out. The 3rd Umpire could not find any evidence against the OUT and had to stick to it. There is NOTHING in the whole video which shows it was NOT OUT.

Two of the wickets were definate not outs, you can watch it a million times if you like, in fact let me get a link of the hat trick. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84usECoDzUI]YouTube- Harbhajan's Hattrick[/ame] Now the first wicket is out, clearly plumb in front. The second was not out, it pitched a long way outside leg stump, so bad decision 1. Bad decision 2 was when the third umpire gave Warne out, in real time he only viewed one angle which didn't show anything as the fielder was restricting the view. So the third umpire gave a decision without actually looking at the footage properly, one restricted angle is NOT enough to give anyone out. I've seen some shockers in my time and I've seen teams suffer because of bad umpiring, but here is a case of an Indian umpire succumbing to the pressure of the crowd volume at eden gardens.