By SS
May 8 2003

The formiddable talents of Sri Lanka and New Zealand are the next test for the Pakistani young guns. The Sri Lankans will be out for revenge after the Sharjah loss and the Kiwis are always a competitive and professional outfit. The heat is turned up in more than one way for the new look Pakistan team led by Rashid Latif, when from Saturday they compete in a triangular tournament against a strong looking New Zealand outfit and a home team that has it’s most potent pace bowler back from injury.

In my opinion the relatively inexperienced Pakistani line up start this tournament as third favourites, with Sri Lanka on home soil the team to beat. The New Zealanders although missing Chris Cairns, still have the majority of players who participated in the World Cup for them, and are becoming quite an experienced squad.

The Sri Lankans are now being led by Marvan Attapatu in the one day version of the game, although Jayasuriya is still a vital team member. The slow low pitches will be ideal for the Sri Lankans who tend to pack their team with slow bowlers, although Chaminda Vaas will be a pivotal figure in their bowling attack. The back up seamers have been a continuing problem for the Lankans and the craftier teams tend to cash in when the less experienced and erratic seamers are in operation. The Lankan batting remains extremely powerful with early wickets a necessity for their opponents.

The Kiwis who have just played a two test series in Sri Lanka will be acclimatized and raring to go. In Shane Bond they have a genuine quick bowler who is capable of blowing away any top order in the world. The rest of their bowling is made up of all rounders like Styris, Adams and Oram and it will be interesting to see just how effective they will be in unhelpful conditions. Skipper Stephen Fleming is an excellent batsman and leads from the front. He has been in superb form of late and the Kiwi batting will revolve around their skipper. Daniel Vettori if fit, could also prove to be a key man in Sri Lanka, providing control and variation to an attack that has a sameness about it.

The Pakistani team fresh from their morale boosting victory in Sharjah will be hoping to continue the form they showed in the Emirates. 4 changes were made to the squad and places for Yasir Hameed, Faisal Athar and Shabbir Ahmed have been found. Yasir has been touted as a potential international player, but Faisal Athar, very much like Muhammed Hafeez has been plucked from virtual obscurity. The return of Shabbir will be interesting. His stop start career has not really taken off and this will be an important phase in his career. With Wasim and Waqar out of the picture and Zahid not in favour, Shabbir could find himself as part of the pace quartet of the future, which includes Sami, Gul and Akhtar.

Shoaib Akhtar is once again recalled and again his performance on and off the field will be viewed with great interest by cricket fans all over the world. Its high time he started performing consistently at the standard that he is capable of. Aamir Sohail and Javed Miandad are not the most patient of people and like Shabbir, this could be a crucial time in Shoaibs career. If he does not perform in Sri Lanka then the Pindi express may be derailed for good.

The Pakistani batting looks quite solid for Sri Lankan conditions with Taufeeq and Hafeez as the openers, Faisal at 3 and then YY and YK as the solid middle order run getters. Abdul Razzaq should provide some middle order big hitting and Shoaib Malik may be a useful component in this team.

The learning curve gets a bit steeper for the young guns, and a difficult and awkward test awaits them. If they can show the same level of spirit and commitment they showed in Sharjah then they may surprise a few people. Overall though, we should be patient and realise that we are in a transitional state and I would be very surprised if Pakistan won this tournament with this group of players.